A Business Blog is Still Personal

If your business blog is bland or full of corporate speak then it will fail.

Blogs are ultimately conversations - conversations you’re having with everyone that’s invested in your business: customers, vendors, employees and potential customers.

Have you ever put someone to sleep at a dinner party conversation? What about a corporate presentation? Let’s hope not!

A successful business blog must infuse some amount of personality into it; some amount of personal brand and equity. Shel Israel puts it beautifully in his post, Braiding Humanity into your Business Blog. Braiding humanity…that’s a perfect way of putting it.

You shouldn’t be afraid of injecting your personality and the personality of your company into your business blog. In fact you should consciously make an effort to do so.

Now, there’s always a balancing act. The people you’re having a conversation with are most likely not interested in what you had for supper last night or the score of your kid’s soccer game. Take personality too far and you might end up with a personal journal, which is not going to be effective as a business blog.

1. Gauge your audience. What do they want to hear about?
2. Develop your voice and style. This takes time. It might be rough at the beginning but you’ll find your way.
3. Learn how to become a better writer. There are plenty of online resources, including one of my favorites - copyblogger - to help you with your writing.
4. Gather feedback. Ask people what they think of your blog over time. Don’t be shy to engage your audience to help out. Ask me - I’ll be happy to tell you what I think too.

Business blogging isn’t about preparing a slick brochure or selling people with ultra-smoothly crafted sales letters. It’s about engaging your audience, turning them into a community and keeping them coming back for more.

Tags: business blogs, corporate blogs, business blogging, corporate blogging, weblogs, marketing, copywriting, how to write a blog