Blogger: Mary Keeley
Location: Books & Such Midwest Office, IL
Blogs require content–fresh content–that captures readers and gives them a reason to come back. One thing to consider when creating a blog is if your brand has the ability to cultivate ongoing quality content to write about on your blog. In her article “Outstanding Brand Blogs You Should Check Out,” posted on iMediaConnection.com, Sarah Kotlova reported what she found when she looked at four companies with successful brand blogs. Here are the main points:
- Blogs don’t have to consist of paragraphs of text or cumbersome, innovative thoughts. A blog can simply be about highlighting a brand’s personality and inviting a community into discussions about what its members (followers) enjoy. I’m guessing this is how most of us approach our blogs. I’d love to hear how you specifically apply this idea to your blog.
- Blogs can maximize social media. They can promote your brand message while empowering fans to share their thoughts about your brand. In addition to the standard share buttons, two of the blogs Kotlova reported on “added their own ‘LUV it’ buttons, so fans can spread the love without logging into other profiles.” One of these blogs even allows fans to upload photos to its blog. Now that’s really interactive. What do you think of these ideas?
- Similar to the findings about websites that I told you about on Monday, successful blogs are user-friendly, making it easy (and therefore quick, as in the seven-second rule) to find information. A blog Kotlova cited provided many ways followers could connect with it.
- One company has a separate blog for every facet of its business. How might we apply this to our author world? For instance, if you write to a broad audience or age group, it might be advantageous for you to split into more than one blog. You would have to first consider the additional time and effort needed for planning and implementation, but there could be worthwhile community-building benefit in doing this.
- Providing shortcuts (tabs, buttons, etc.) to help users navigate your blog encourages them to come back to your blog.
- There is nothing worse than an abandoned blog.
I’m looking forward to you sharing your reactions to these points and personal experiences. How does your blog reflect your brand? Where do you find fresh content? How do you encourage interacting with readers?
Tanya Cunningham
Because I write for young children, my blog target audience
is anyone who cares for or loves small children, parents,
grandparents, caregivers, and so on. All these people have
something in common, a love for children, an appreciation
for how a young mind processes information, and the funny
things children do. At times, I write generally about my
writing process, but try to focus on quirky or funny things
my children do that inspires the creative and things God is
teaching me on my journey (that apply to almost anyone’s
individual journey). This keeps my content relevant to my
audience. I usually get a fairly good response, but thinking
about it, I could probably ask questions of my audience
to encourage even more dialogue. Thanks for the great
post! 🙂
Melissa K Norris
I belong to a group blog, which works well for me, as each of us post once a week. We all help drive visitors and post links on our social media, so we get more traffic than going it alone.
When I’m not sure about a post, for instance, I blog once a month on a mommy blog, I ask my FB fans and twitter people. What’s the hardest thing about being mom?
Then I base my post off of their answers. Beings my group blog is a faith based blog, I often share things I’m struggling with and what God is teaching me. I figure if I’m having trouble with something, chances are others are too. It’s amazing at the wonderful help readers have given me and vice versa.
I’m amazed at folks who have multiple blogs.I think it is important to clearly define the blog and having one for each topic is wise.
Nikole Hahn
I blog everyday and keep with my brand of living the transparent Christian life (2 Cor. 12:1-10). I use guest posts along that theme and do book reviews to add a little color and interest. I love the idea of allowing followers to load photos, but is that a site you pay to have?
Larry Carney
I’m just about finished with the site for mine, but as for what keeps me reading the blogs I follow, I’d say it’s based upon not only the content of the blog, but the community around it.
It’s always fun to get a sampling of the thoughts and ideas of people from around the country, or world, on a topic.
Cheryl Malandrinos
I love blogging and maintain several. I wanted to create some type of online presence for myself before my books came out, so I started The Book Connection, which eventually led to The Children’s and Teen’s Book Connection. I’ve also started a blog and writer’s forum titled The Professional Writer’s Connection. I feel safe in that brand right now and it seems to work.
With the newly designed website, I think my current book blog for Little Shepherd works great in clarifying my brand. Time always seems to be an issue, as having so many blogs doesn’t always allow me to keep them all updated consistently. I’m in the process of reviewing all that I do to see if I need to make changes.
I like the interactive aspects of blogs, but sometimes they slow down loading, so I try not to add too much.
Thanks for the great topics this week and for all the wonderful discussions.
Peter DeHaan
I’ve gotten a bit carried away with blogging, as I have five of them: a writer’s blog (Byline), two platform building blogs (The Bible Blog and Spiritually Speaking), my work blog (From the Publisher’s Desk), and my personal blog (Musings).
The first three have a regular posting schedule, either weekly or biweekly. The latter two do not have a schedule.
I had to turn off the comments option of the blogs, due to an inordinate amount of spam, but hope to resolve that soon. Then I will be able to again allow comments, which I think is invaluable.
Janet Ann Collins
I have two blogs, one about kids, books, and words and the other about Special Needs. Both appear on Facebook and I get more comments there than on the actual blogs. I was having problems with spam a while ago, but someone told me how to add captcha to the comments and I haven’t had that problem since.
Sarah Forgrave
Great insights, Mary!
As far as the branding question, I do a feature on my blog called “Amish Dish”, where I put a little fun fact or personal experience from growing up around the Amish. The key is that I keep it really short and try to tie it into a fun question to get to know my blog readers better. I’ve had others send me their own tidbits to include, so it makes it more interactive, too.
Hopefully when I’m published, my future readers will find it to be a fun forum to learn and interact. And in the meantime, I figure it gives me a unique way to build my platform. 🙂
Mary Keeley
Fabulous interaction. This is a demonstration of community at its best! Thanks to all you for your great tips and sharing of experiences. We’ve all benefited.
Nicole, yes, I’m sure that is a paid site.
Confession time: At first, I resisted the whole social media thing, viewing it as a big time-robber. Anyone else feel that way back when? Not anymore. And just imagine the future possibilities.
Janet Ann Collins
Oooh, yeah! I was scared to death of social media a few years ago and when I got into it felt like I learned as much in three months as I had in a whole semester of college. But now I don’t know how I got along without it.
Cheryl Malandrinos
I still think social media can be a time stealer. We have to be careful that we don’t spend so much time promoting that there’s no time to write. That’s part of why I’ve been reassessing some of what I do and how thin I’ve spread myself. It’s all about time management and realigning myself with my goals.
Each quarter I take a look at my goals to see what I’ve accomplished and what, if any, changes need to be made. I find weekly to-do lists very helpful to keeping me on track.