Blogging Best Practices

Blogging today has changed so much from the online journal it first began as. Today, almost every major company and organization has a blog. Depending on the company or organization, each blog is used differently, whether it's for product or service information/updates/announcements, customer service, informational (info in the same field or expertise), or simply to connect with the customers.

Regardless of the blog's use, there are a few simple best practices that blogs should follow. Of course this differs slightly from blog to blog and on the type of business, it is for the most part all relevant.

• Engage with the audience from the beginning. Readers most often pay close attention to the title and the first couple of paragraphs of the blog and then decide on whether or not they want to continue reading the rest of the post. This means the title and the first couple of paragraphs is your chance to make sure the reader continues reading the entire entry. Using humorous, whimsical, and playful titles are safe bets and they'll catch the reader's attention.
• Be casual. Many readers don't generally enjoy or respond to a formal or authoritative tone. They want to know and feel as if they're talking to a human being and not a robot reading off a script. So it's important to write in a casual, natural, almost conversational tone to keep the readers interest, attention, and engagement.
• Inviting to the conversation. Not all posts have to answer every single question. Sometimes it's good to have some questions unanswered. If the first few paragraphs of a post is to invite the reader into the door, the ending paragraphs should invite the reader into the discussion and allow them to engage.
• It's okay to promote. Usually a blog isn't the place to promote your business or service, but every once in a while it's okay to throw it out there. It's even more okay to throw other businesses and services out there! Whether you're promoting your own stuff or others' stuff, the basis of promotion is to get you noticed. Guest bloggers and link sharing are great ways to increase some awareness. By going after popular blogs and asking for a guest post, their post will link to their blog and back to your site, getting extra traffic from their readers and visitors.

Resources: Blogging Best Practices http://www.echoditto.com/insights/blogging-best-practices

How to Blog (Even if you can't write) http://socialmediatoday.com/hishaman/1545026/how-to-blog
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