I am regularly asked by those I coach and mentor, “What do I write for my blog?”
Let’s discuss first three very quick reasons on WHY you should be blogging:
- Building your brand through intellectual property creation. Get your value and your smarts out to where people will read your work and find you an object of interest.
- Position yourself as a thought leader. Experts write about their expertise. You should, too.
- Builds credibility. You are more likely to be hired for projects, coaching, speaking, and a myriad of other things if you are a consistent blogger. Why? Because people now know your value and your ideas.
Here are five techniques for blogging success:
- Be consistent. Blog 2-3 times per week at a minimum. Write them all at one time and schedule them to post later if you have to. If someone goes to your blog and the last post is 6 months old, they will think you’re out of business, just as if they saw an empty storefront.
- Utilize social media. Link your blogs to automatically post to Linked In, Twitter, Facebook, Google +, etc. You want to maximize your reach.
- Be real. Use personal stories and make a metaphor out of them. You don’t have to be perfect, but you need to be interesting. Readers like personal stories.
- Be contrarian. Don’t be afraid to rock the boat. In fact, if you don’t rock the boat, you will be swept away in the wave of white noise.
- Include images. People are more likely to check it out with an interesting image. We are more and more a visual people, so do what you must to attract attention.
BONUS: Get really strong with language, vocabulary, and writing style. You do this by reading a variety of genres, consistently learning new words, and being creative in your language.
Blogging is a great and free way to spread your value proposition. It’s not as ominous a task as you might think. It also is well worth your while if marketing is an important part of your career. You might as well jump in and get good at it!
© 2014 Dan Weedin. All Rights Reserved
