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What should your company’s blog be about?
If you’re a small business, you probably have considered whether to start your own blog. And, if you’re like many people I know, you have probably hemmed and hawed (technical term) about what sorts of things you might write about on that blog. You may have wondered if you should write about the industry your business is in, the mission and philosophy of your company, or details about how your company helps people do whatever it is you help them with. These are the natural questions that arise when considering writing your own blog.
One thing you shouldn’t do is write too much about yourself, says Joel Spolsky, the long-time blogger who recently tackled this problem in an article in Inc. magazine. He says that most corporate blogs fail because the company makes the blog too much about themselves:
These days, it seems like just about every start-up founder has a blog, and 99 percent of these bloggers are doing it wrong. The problem? They make the blog about themselves, filling it with posts announcing new hires, touting new products, and sharing pictures from the company picnic. That’s lovely, darling — I’m sure your mom cares. Too bad nobody else does. Most company blogs have almost no readers, no traffic, and no impact on sales. Over time, the updates become few and far between (especially if responsibility for the blog is shared among several staff members), and the whole thing ceases to become an important source of leads or traffic.
(Spolsky also offers some reasons why not to blog…worth reading)
But let’s imagine for a moment you’ve taken the plunge and decided to blog. What should your company’s blog be about? Here are several options:
- Write about your Culture: This is what the folks who write the Zappos blog do. They blog about what’s going on at the company, giving insight into what it’s like to work there. It’s a great way to humanize your company in a world of faceless corporations.
- Write about your Work: The Adaptive Path blog is a good example of writing about the work you’re doing. It’s a great way to learn tips & techniques but also see how AP does work, in case you’re considering hiring them.
- Write about your Interests: My friend Liz Danzico writes one of the best blogs going: Bobulate, an amazing curation of interesting posts on design, architecture, and writing. Her blog serves as a nice segue into the information architecture and UX work she does for clients.
- Write about your customer’s problems: This is what this blog post is about…taking on a common marketing problem that small businesses have…figuring out what their blog should be about. (kinda meta, I know)
- Write on a Specific Subject: Over at Daring Fireball John Gruber writes about all things Apple. His singular focus has turned him into one of the few actual authorities on one of the most speculative subjects on the planet.
There is no one right way to blog. But Spolsky says there is a formula that he finally figured out after 10 years of successful blogging. It came in the form of advice from the wonderful writer and blogger Kathy Sierra (who is one of our super favorites here at Performable):
So, what’s the formula for a blog that actually generates leads, sales, and business success? I didn’t even understand it myself until last year at the Business of Software conference, when one of the speakers, a well-known game developer and author named Kathy Sierra, blew me away with an incredibly simple idea that explains why my blog successfully promoted my company while so many other blogging founders foundered.
To really work, Sierra observed, an entrepreneur’s blog has to be about something bigger than his or her company and his or her product. This sounds simple, but it isn’t. It takes real discipline to not talk about yourself and your company. Blogging as a medium seems so personal, and often it is. But when you’re using a blog to promote a business, that blog can’t be about you, Sierra said. It has to be about your readers, who will, it’s hoped, become your customers. It has to be about making them awesome.
I love that: your blog should be about making your customers awesome.
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