So you have a desire to blog, but don’t know where to begin? For starters, you need to sit down and note the reasons why you want to blog. If your focus is to predominantly sell, think again. Sales pitch won’t go far, but building influence will.
Blogs for the most part are public, and usually consist of a stream of commentary, thoughts, and ideas. By sharing news, knowledge and information, you will attract an automatic follower audience. People seek to learn and gain knowledge through published content that is fresh, intriguing and worth the time to engage. As an audience connects, contributes and collaborates through your blog, you will soon have a trustworthy community foundation.
Now that you have your reasons outlined and adjusted your focus, choosing a host is the next step. With the number of platforms available, you can create a blog for free and start posting within minutes. Here’s a few to choose from: blogger; wordpress; or typepad. Each host provides tools and resources to help get you started and launch your first post.
Above we talked about your focus and reasons for starting the blog, and another element to add to your blogging strategy is goals. This will help you keep your blog active and mainstream. For instance, your goal is to build a longstanding customer base. To do this, two objectives come to mind 1) create awareness of your brand; and 2) share information about your service lines. In order to successfully attain your goal, an active blog presence will need to be incorporated into your schedule on a daily basis.
There maybe times when your brain is clogged and can’t think of a word to piece together a sentence but don’t give up and abandon your blog. The copyblogger offers some great tips and writing resources that will guide you to creating your published content.
To sum it up, the key to blogging is having a clear vision of what you intend to publish, what goal do you want to reach and how much time do you have to invest in this communication medium. Blogging is one of the most effective ways to communicate online and opens up another door for prospects to enter into your world. Implement a blog today and discover what traditional media can bring through the door!