Very few people, especially public relations practitioners, will own up to this, but many fear writing. Here are some tips.
There is a wonderful book about this in which author Milli Thornton writes:
“Every writer has a personal tale about the hardships or writing. And we all know that writing is a lonely business. Martin Myers made this kind of alienation adorably quotable when he said: ‘First you’re an unknown, then you write one book and you move up to obscurity.’”
And then:
“Outside the sun is shining and the robins are happily pulling up worms. Inside your snug little home, you’re staring into the abyss. The terror of facing that empty page is only surpassed by the numbness of your decomposing mind.”
The message to you as a blogger, if it applies to you, is you are not alone. Rest assured, blogging can be a lot of fun once you develop a rhythm (BTW – it’s also a really good way of organising your thoughts on an issue). And, eventually, it attracts others to your way of thinking (staff) or business (the public and other stakeholders). So enjoy.
Below are some Dos & Don’ts that we watch for in the early stages of blogging: lessons about the actual writing. For now, forget the other aspects of blogging, like search engine optimisation, tags, key words, etc.
We’ve kept the following list short to keep it simple; however, if you go on the internet you will find hundreds of experts, many offering very good advice. These are simply the principles we apply and we’ve seen others apply.
1. Keep it simple:
- Write a short blog with just one thought and a pre-agreed key phrase. Don’t get caught writing the chapter of a book; or exploring side issues. If you want to develop a theme or thought, as you would in a chapter, break it up into a series of blogs. 300 – 600 words is a good length for a blog.
2. Structure: repetition = penetration = impact:
- Say it once in the title – snappy
- Say it again in the first paragraph
- Say it again in a little more detail in the body of the story
- Say it again (differently of course) in the conclusion
3. Be consistent with your publishing time:
- We all know TV programs start at a certain time, every week, month-in, month-out. Newspapers, same thing. You, same thing; welcome to publishing.
4. Know your audience
- Write what they want to hear, which is different from what you want to talk about.
5. Plagiarism:
- Just don’t do it. We learnt that in school; out here in cyberspace it can be illegal.
- Credit others. Better still, hyperlink to their work and praise them. At the very least it’s good for your Google ranking.
6. Stay ahead of your schedule:
- Don’t write one blog at a time. Develop a system where you have many part-written blogs saved somewhere, so that you are simply fine tuning each time. I save mine in Outlook/Drafts.
7. Don’t self-promote:
- Don’t clog your blog. People get that you are self-promoting, so just provide good quality info.
- Anyway, it’s not about you; it’s about the audience.
8. Respond to Comments:
- Ask for feedback. Comments from your audience may not happen straight away, but if your blog is interesting it will happen. Blogging is a conversation. People comment because they disagree, agree, want to share a view point. And when they do, at least say ‘Thanks’.
So don’t worry – just do it. After a short period, you will develop a rhythm. Once you have developed that rhythm we can move on to the next step, Optimising your Blog.
