Making IT work… successful blogging
Blogging is a well-established tool for adding content to a website. The full name is ‘web log’, which has become shortened to ‘blog’.
Most websites are built using Content Management Systems (CMS), enabling business owners to update content quickly and easily. Well that’s the theory, but given business owners have a day job, many don’t get around to updating their websites as frequently as they would like to.
One solution is to add a blog to your website. There are a number of blog software modules available to you.
Target audience
As with all marketing activities, knowing who you are writing for is important. If you write content with no-one specific in mind, then no-one in particular will pay attention. I think this is a really useful mantra to consider before writing any words for use in marketing material.
Social Media Policy
A great starting point is a succinct social media policy. Our one page social media policy is intended “to help staff make appropriate decisions about the use of social media, which includes social networking websites, blogs, wikis, podcasts, forums, message boards, or comments on web-articles, such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn”
We clearly state that “subject areas such as jokes, politics, religion, sovereignty, royalty and celebrity should be avoided”. None of these are relevant to our business, and articles about these could alienate our customers and put-off prospects.
Instead we encourage fact-based articles about IT, technology, business, or objectively written personal views about the latest version of Microsoft Windows, Apple iPhones or other tech devices.
Blog it
The role of our blog is to demonstrate our expertise and trustworthiness. We write a blog article at least once per week. New starters, students on work-experience, or engaging the services of a new supplier are all great opportunities to write a blog article.
So talk to your web designer, ask them to add a blog facility to your website and to show you how to use it, and get blogging!
