With so much focus on updated web content for SEO there’s never been a better time to get into blogging – but what should you blog about?

Perhaps it’s easier to start with what you shouldn’t blog about.

Blogging as a form of writing is refreshingly casual and unrestricted. However, we regularly see bloggers fall into one of two familiar traps, both of which ultimately result in dwindling reader levels, a drop-off in interest and generally miss the point of what the whole process should be about.

Writing about irrelevant topics

While you might think it’s quirky and interesting to flit about around a wide variety of topics, you’re risking being unpredictable for your readers. The most successful blogs in the world – the ones that have millions of regular readers – stick to a clear formula of writing about certain topics. People visit these blogs or subscribe to their RSS feeds for a reason, the reason being that they know what they’re getting from them.

Writing about themselves too much

A company blog naturally has to talk about the business to some extent, but let’s face it, unless you’re a company with real devotees like Apple or Google then the chances are that there’s a limit to how much ‘you time’ even the most dedicated readers will accept. The worst examples of this are endlessly self-congratulatory and dull. Take a step back and think about it… are you writing for yourself, or are you writing for your readers?

So, with these two dreaded blog faux pas in mind, let’s look at what you should be writing about on your corporate blog.

Industry comment

Points of view on industry hot topics are a popular type of blog, and the nature of the resource makes it a constantly supplied subject. Check out what’s happening in your sector, form an opinion and get it on your blog. Regularly offering views on a focused area creates a familiarity that readers will respond to.

Your offerings

While it’s bad form to endlessly bleat on about yourself in post after post, there is certainly a place for measured discussion of your company products and services. After all, your blog exists to draw attention and promote youself. Used sparingly, sales-orientated blogs can be powerfully persuasive. Again, think about it… if a company solely blogs about how good they think they are, every day, it will lose impact and simply become background noise after a while. Compare this to a company that mentions its offerings only occasionally – these blogs will be fresher, more credible to the reader and ultimately more effective.

Last but absolutely not least, what could be called the ‘golden rule‘ of corporate blogging – give something to your readers. Whether its usable advice, interesting information or simply an entertaining way to spend a few minutes, it’s essential that the reader gets something out of visiting your blog. When they do, they’ll come back.

A compelling blog rests upon strong ideas, conveyed in a flowing style that has the ability to connect to its reader.

The writer behind the words provides a focus that steers the reader towards a specific state of mind by establishing a tone and set of images.  A writer’s job is to make the time spent reading an article worthwhile, with a view to enhancing the moments after by making a lasting impression. The reader’s surroundings should fade away as they delve into a world constructed of text. Writing however should not necessarily be about the writer disclosing personal details whilst boring the reader in the process, much like a conversation dominated by a speaker whose main subject revolves around them. A single writer should adopt an array of perspectives for the purpose of different subject maters and audiences.

Copywriting sites and courses geared towards the development of writing aim to add layers to a skill set through the deployment of new approaches and techniques, demonstrating the ever present learning curve when it comes to the production of skilful copy. It seems that there is always room for improvement, in which it doesn’t pay to stand still.

A useful piece of advice is that writing leads to better writing. A writer should write every day, regardless of mood or energy levels, as the writing process inevitably uncovers an interesting angle in which to take a subject, even if only one sparkling idea emerges from a mountain of discarded copy.

Creativity is in constant motion. The creative process of a copywriter does not stop at the end of a working day, although the typing may. Experiences continuously feed creativity and no matter how small or insignificant an event or sighting, they can be adapted and incorporated into descriptions. Either consciously or subconsciously an archive of retrievable data can be formed; a writer can effectively file away a range of information until a memory complete with imagery, sound or feeling corresponds to a subject. A passion and respect for words becomes central to creating an effective piece, as well as a sense of empathy and imagination which can also power the content and connect writer to reader.

Blogs can be the backbone of any website, acting as a supporting structure that provides steady traffic as well as flexibility in terms of its vision and style. A blogger should have the ability to communicate a message in a variety of ways, ploughing time and effort into ordering words with a sense of direction.

A blogger also needs to sustain a quality that will dependably attract an audience, just as film writers and directors create a solid reputation through a catalogue of quality releases that ensure popularity. A blogger will also use a skill set that makes someone want to buy rather than simply telling them to. Considering the volume of blogs and articles on the web, a subject is rarely unique; however the ways in which a blogger presents and interlaces fresh material will provide the edge that separates it from the rest. Essentially a good blog needs to provoke thought, making an impact before and after the final full stop.

The corporate blog is a growing phenomenon that maintains a personal connection between the user and the company, acting as a form of correspondence, just as regular letters update friends with recent and interesting news.

A whole range of businesses dedicate a section of their site to a daily or weekly blog. An infinite number of topics exist, each having their own set of subjects that constantly diverge and feed the vast depth of information available on the web. Online posts can include specialised markets, such as wedding, garden and car blogs, as well as sobering topics, brought to attention through military and political sites. A blog about blogging is testament to this limitless medium.

The origin of the term blog is extracted from the words web log; its unique name brings a sense of contemporary cool. The term blogger therefore evokes kudos, as an individual actively airs their opinions and thoughts to an audience, balancing sentence structures to create imagery or even humour that presents itself in an inviting format of a diary or log. The idea of following the development of thoughts is both innately appealing and inspiring. Twitter is an example of a micro blogging service which is available to anyone, including businesses and celebrities. Followers are exposed to ‘trending topics’ which show how quickly information filtrates across the web. Taking the idea of word-of-mouth in a local context and reapplying it to a global network.

Knowing that information can be accessed by anyone is an incentive to promote a topic. Blog layouts can include an assortment of mediums, most commonly seen as a combination of text and images that represent a virtual scrapbook of sorts and provide an insight into a company’s impassioned perspective. Blogs are a way of representing a company’s congeniality that gives a company a relatable facet, in which to appeal to the user, rather than an impenetrable and uniformed veneer of convention. Blogging also acts as a form of site maintenance, as attention is concentrated into the blog page’s renewed content, which gives the impression that the company cares and wants to impress, as opposed to leaving it untouched and in a derelict condition. Blogs also act as an advert for your business, as the addition of links means that your visibility across the web is increased

At Green Media we provide blog writing services themed around a website’s products and services, which are charged by new content, generated by writers eager to explore the avenues that each project presents. Blogs can enhance SEO rankings, as keywords adorn the blog, which is crucial to getting Google’s attention which will respond by rewarding you with high rankings. Blog posts can also be timed, so that information can appear in conjunction with the launch of a new product or as a set of ordered information, so that the flow of content can be manipulated. It takes time to blog and even more time to craft a blog that provokes thought. By bringing in professionals who have the skill and motivation to produce quality; a website’s profile is instantly raised and made more memorable. Every second a new blog appears online; don’t be left behind. Dive into the fast current, motored by blogs that keep you ahead of competition.                               

Many companies have a hard time understanding how best to use social media to promote their business online. It’s not that the principles of Facebook, Twitter and the others are difficult to grasp – they’re not – but, the real business potential can be a lot harder to fathom out. Since social media marketing works differently between businesses depending on what their aims are, there are no guarantees that what works for one will work for another.

That’s the beauty of social media, it’s flexible enough to accommodate an incredibly varied range of marketing approaches and still deliver success. It’s not a strict medium.

An uncomfortable fact of today’s commercial world is that people no longer trust messages from companies, on the whole. This makes marketing an increasingly precision process where even the most meticulously crafted promotions risk failure.

What people do trust is word-of-mouth recommendations, and this has always been the case. These recommendations come from fellow customers (or potential customers) and they come with an inherent credibility that companies can rarely match in their own communications. Social media is the biggest opportunity for word-of-mouth recommendations, well, ever. It has a worldwide span, it’s instantly accessible to anyone from anywhere, it’s permanently available, it’s accumulative and it all leads back to your door.

Word-of-mouth has grown from local to global, and it’s going on right now in tweets, Facebook posts, blogs and forums. Failure, refusal or just a straight-forward inability to get into social media for business marketing is tantamount to ignoring the latest incarnation of the most effective form of advertising of all-time. Is that something your business can afford to do?