Many of our clients suffer from a new phobia. Blogophobia – the fear of writing a blog.
Whether they are worried about offending people, their lack of journalistic writing style or that they simply are stuck and don’t know what to write about – when it comes to taking the time to write a blog post, they manage to find 100 things that they would rather do.
You don’t have to sound like a pro. Blogging is not your job, it’s how you tell people about what you do, therefore no one expects you to create a blog that is akin to those found on magazine sites.
It does not have to be very long, in-fact shorter blogs, or those that are mainly visual are the easiest to read. After the first paragraph many readers will have lost interest, so unless you are a natural and enjoy writing, keep it brief.
It does not have to sound very corporate with big words. Not everyone coming to your blog will understand or know your industries terminology, so don’t think that you have to fill it full of jargon. Keep it simple and use it to help people understand what you do or what you are interested in.
Many of our clients post on Facebook and Twitter, but they are afraid to blog. Blogging is really just an extended post that gives a bit more information, images and links. It does not have to be any more complicated than that.
Decide what you are going to write about. Have you got an event coming up? Do you have a new product to shout about or a special offer? Could you give your clients some advice or give them an insight into your industry? Or do you want to share some news that you think would be relevant to your customers/clients.
Give yourself about half and hour to an hour to create your post.
Don’t worry about a title first, just start writing, as 9 times out of 10 you will change the title after you have finished the article.
Consider your opening line as this will appear within social media links such as Facebook/Google+ so the catchier the better. Again, leave it to the end before you put this in if you are struggling with it.
Give your readers a “call to action”. Do you want them to contact you/book the event/comment/give their opinion? Remember to ask them to do this and make it easy for them to find it.
Use images to break up all the words.
Once you have published it, don’t expect people to find it. If you have Twitter/Facebook/Linked-in or Google+ etc, grab the URL link of your post and create a social media post out of it. This will drive traffic to your website.
Once you have created one post and have got the hang of it, why not instantly create another, but schedule it to appear at a later date?
If you are still stuck, why not ask for help? There are lots of bloggers out there that will quickly pull together a blog post on your behalf. They will charge you a fee, but you can relax knowing that the work is being done and by someone that loves doing it.
If you have any blog writing tips, we would love to hear them.