What makes a great blog?

It’s tempting to use your business blog as a dumping ground for all your press releases in the belief that - hey, presto, there we have it: a blog, easy-peasy. Unfortunately, that isn’t really what blogging is about. Press releases are one-way communications from you to the press and they tend to be marked by a particular tone that reads well enough by the time it gets into the papers or magazines or other media - but that smacks of insincerity and PR spin when encountered on a blog. At best, you won’t get many readers or return visitors to your site. At worst, you’ll get ridiculed out of the blogosphere by other bloggers.

To create a great blog you need authenticity and passion.

Authenticity is about being real, taking off that corporate mask and sitting down for a good discussion with your visitors. Don’t think of them as your “audience” or your “readers” - those words again suggest a one-way communication from you to them. Think of them as your visitors, or your community, or network - it’s not about you and them anymore; it’s about “us”. It’s about plain old you - no games, no false sincerity - just you, making a connection with others.

Passion is about what excites you, what makes you tick. Blog about those things. If you write about something you’re not particularly interested in just because you think you ought to write about it ” ‘cos, well, you know, it’s related to the business so I guess I should write about it”. Ho hum, you’re going to be so bored - and if you’re not interested in it, why should your visitors be either?

If you’re interested in football, why not mention it in your business blog? Especially if you can use a great play or a particular match as an example in something you’re talking about in the business context. Your interest in football and your passion for your business make you who you are. Share that part of you in your blog. That’s authenticity and passion all in one.

I’m fascinated by tecchy things and gadgets and new developments in web and communications technology. I used to feel that maybe it was a bit weird for a girl and an English grad to have this geeky side and my literary friends would often laugh about it. I also used to think: what do I know about electronics and the nitty-gritty of megabytes to be able to have an opinion about tech stuff?

But then I realised that what excites me about tecchy things and blogging is how such things can help us improve communication. Not just in the technological sense of getting a less crackly phone line or faster page loading speeds, but also in how they influence the way we as humans communicate - in the old-fashioned sense of the word. And I’m fascinated by how technology is affecting our lives - and changing the way we live and interact with each other. My interest in tech is also my interest in human relationships and story.

Here’s an example. One of my cousins (let’s call him Mark*) is a mathematical whizz but a mono-syllabic strong silent kind of a guy - until his baby was born. Now, Mark has started a blog for the baby where he writes with great fluency and wit about the day to day life of his baby boy and about being a dad. Wow - if it weren’t for blog technology we would never have seen that side of Mark.

That’s what excites me: technology AND people.

What’s your passion? What’s your story? These are the things you need to be sharing on your business blog.

On ZenGuide, I’ll be sharing with you great blogs - and especially great business blogs - in my Blogs to Explore section. And if you’d like to tell us about a great blog - business or otherwise - that you like, please do add a comment here or email me via the “Contact Us” tab at the top of this page.

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*Name changed for privacy reasons.

Photo: thanks to hesston.edu