Blogging in an age of COVID19

While social distancing is keeping us apart physically from our customers, a blog is a tool that can help you to get closer to your people with a conversational insight into your business. Many people want to blog, but are often held back from putting fingers to keyboards. They worry that they have nothing to say, or that they aren’t good enough writers. Of course all of those are just human fears of rejection, so let's put them aside, and get ready to unleash your blog on the world. There are a few things to consider when setting up your blog.

Will it be hosted on your website? If you are using Squarespace, Weebly or Wix, they all have the capacity to host a blog, you or your web designer just have to set up the page. Too easy! But what if you don’t have a website? No problem, you can use an online blogging platform like Medium or even LinkedIn Articles. Now that’s sorted, here are my top five tips for consistency and content to help you get started.

1. Set up a topic schedule: You can make a simple list in Word, use an Excel spread sheet, or even schedule out topics in your blogging software to give you added incentive to post. For topics, think about what your customers ask you the most about your product or service. What hidden features can you reveal about your product or service? What are some of your best customer service stories? What trends are happening in your industry? Who can you highlight that is using your product or service well? How is it made/delivered? What global events can you link to your business (hint hint we’re in a pandemic!?) These are good triggers to start thinking about the story you want to tell about your brand. Keep this list active and handy, add to it whenever an idea pops up.
2. Ask your clients: Use the power of social media to reach out and ask your existing audience what they want to know about you, your business, your products, your staff – this way the conversation is already interactive, and you can also let them know you have a blog, and direct them to it. If you have industry people you collaborate with, or even admire, invite them to guest post for you, which will give you content, and share their profile with a new audience. Perfect way to grow your business, your community and your SEO.
3. Find your voice: If you are not used to blogging or writing for an audience, one of the reasons you are hesitating might be that you are not sure what your voice is. Blogging is informal and conversational, imagine you are having a chat with a client or customer, and use that kind of tone. Keep it natural and authentic, and let it grow and flow as you get more experienced. You aren’t after perfection here, just regular communication – and while we are on that…
4. Keep it coming: Part of the reason to set a topic schedule is not just to get a list of potential topics, it’s also to lock in a regular day and time to post. Create an offering for your following, but you have to keep it coming. Start with something you can commit to – one post a week is a good aspiration, but if that freaks you out, try once a fortnight – that’s only 26 posts a year! Keep it between 300 and 500 words, and make sure you have a great image to give it some visual impact. You can use a photo sharing service like www.unsplash.com to find some perfect images to offset your words, and its free!
5. Share: Once you have your post written, spellchecked and posted, share it on your networks, let people know it is there, enable the comments on your website or blog host and respond to people when they go to the effort of letting you know their thoughts. Before you know it, you will be blogging like a pro and sharing your brand and voice with the world.