Should you blog?

Without even knowing what industry you are in, where you work or what you do, the answer is a definite yes. Here’s the bottom line – if you use it for professional purposes it will keep you sharp as you develop valid content. You will also be easier to find when people are looking and, if you are even half way good, any prospective client or customer will be half way sold on going with you. After all, if you are on the web providing your opinion then you must be smart… right? I would also argue, for those PR people out there, if you aren’t blogging, how can you talk to your client about the value of social media if you aren’t using it firsthand.

For those of you doing it for personal reasons, more power to you!

Some tips (and there are tons out there):

• Use your blog or a blog format for your site. More and more I see people do this. It allows for easy updates and any page can be quickly modified to offer two-way symmetrical communication.
• In my humble and sometimes accurate opinion, websites no longer need to be fancy, they need to provide  valuable content – people are looking for information, not entertainment when they visit your site. If they want entertainment they will visit a host of other locations for that.
• This year, 70 Exabyte’s of information will be created (think library of congress times 518,000 or a stack of books 350 feet tall for every person) and only .01% won’t be available online. Make sure you aren’t adding to the static.
• Have a purpose for your blog – don’t be (too) self serving, people will see through it. Blog for your customers, make sure you are providing them with good information and a reason to come back. If you are
  simply promoting yourself/business then I would argue it would be easier to do it on your website.
• Information, ideas and suggestions are cheap – offer them for free on your blog. If you are willing to offer your educated opinion at a public function then do so on your site. Then let people share your information with others – promoting you with it.
• Blogging is a tactic. Make sure it supports a strategy which supports an objective which supports. I keep preaching this – amazing how many won’t do what is proven effective time and time again.
• Be consistent – lack of consistency is a deal breaker for many readers.
• Be transparent. Make sure people know who is writing and give them a way to contact you.
• Be ethical. Nothing more needs to be said on that topic.
• Once you have been blogging for a bit (a week or three) read Chris Brogan’s post – “50 ways to take your blog to the next level“.  When you are done reading, poke around his site for a while, he has great information and is one of the few blogs I read daily.
• Check out other blogs at www.alltop.com. Search your industry, then search another industry. See what is being said. For those in PR who want to branch out, look for an industry that seems to be under served and target your sites there.

Finally, who to use – I started with typepad and just switched to wordpress yesterday (as well as blog name, focus, etc.). See the difference at www.okprprof.com vs. billhandy.com (this site). I am still working on it but with much more ease.