DOs and DON’Ts of Business Blogs

DO use a great title for every post — one that draws attention.DO time your posts for maximum impact. Tuesday morning is a good time because it carries visitor numbers into Wednesday and perhaps into the rest of the week. In contrast, a Thursday post might bump up readership on Friday but is unlikely to carry through the weekend, when Web usage drops.DO direct your readership to other worthwhile blogs and Websites. As Sharon Drew Morgen says, “It’s a payment forward. Tweet, or make sure someone Twitters about your blog once a week.” DO link your media sources. Seth Godin makes cross-pollination easy by ending each post with links to his email and Facebook and Twitter pages. “Exploit all the channels,” says Dave Brock. “If you just have one – a Website, for example – you’re losing a lot of eyeballs.” DO keep your image consistent. “Develop a strategy,” says Brock, “with guidelines for what you want to represent and whose voice will do that representing.” DON’T let blogging suck up all your time. Morgen writes her posts for the next week on Sunday night and sets them up so that the blog runs on automatic. Brock, who follows a similar strategy, warns, “This sort of media is fun but seductive, and you can’t let it go on 24/7. For example, I tweet precisely three times a day.” DON’T trick the reader. “Blogs need to have real content and not exist for the sole purpose of directing readers toward sales,” says Godin. “People will catch on fast if you’re using the blog to manipulate them.” DON’T quit. “People often drop out after a month or two,” says Brock. “But the only way you build readership is to have a consistent presence over time.”DON’T make it more complicated than it has to be. “This is easy stuff,” Godin says. “The best blogs keep it simple and conversational.”