10 Commandments of Business Blogging

passion*

Whatever you do, you need passion!

What exactly is business blogging? To me it applies to any blogging motivated by the advancement of any business or marketing goals.

It may even apply to blogging for a cause like many green bloggers do: blogging that reaches beyond personal interest.

Business blogging does not have to be blogging about business as some people apparently assume.

Business blogging might be done by an individual who is a freelancer like I am (a freelance SEO consultant in Germany) but also part of a larger business or a company.

Also you have to differentiate: business blogging is not necessarily corporate or problogging but might be one of the two or both.

 

Search industry examples

In the search industry bloggers Brian Dean and Rand Fishkin are probably the best examples of business blogging I refer to.

It’s business blogging that is neither really private nor really corporate. There are many agency blogs but Brian is just one person while Moz is not an agency anymore. They serve the webmaster community by now.

Business blogging gets practiced very successfully not only in the search industry.

There seems to persist a large amount of uncertainty about the nature of it though. We even witnessed some spectacular failures of business blogs.

To establish a few guidelines for proper business blog behavior there arises a need for a set of “social values” especially in connection and to deal with social media.

These guidelines are indeed fairly simple and self-evident once written down.

Take a look at the 10 commandments of business blogging and also make sure to read my introduction called the 10 simplest ways to boost your social media credibility right from the start:

1. Use your real name
In case you want people to take you seriously you have to use your real name for your blog. It doesn’t have to be in the domain name.

It must be clear who blogs and what the person is about.

For team blogs create an about page that show images of the bloggers involved. Let everybody explain what they stand for.

2. Disclose what company you are working for and what exactly you do there
Do not blog under false pretenses. Disclose from the start

  • who you are
  • who you work for
  • who pays you
  • why you blog
  • what your exact responsibilities are

It’s a big difference whether you’re from the PR department or you’re the CEO.

3. Blog yourself
Do not use ghostwriting services under your name. In case you have not enough time do not blog.

Blog for yourself in your own name not for your company, people will cite you and not the company.

Above all be yourself, not solely a CEO, entrepreneur, engineer or consultant.

Make people feel that you’re a real human being. Shoot pictures of your cat or dog. Do not cover your family though, that might be even dangerous.

Protect your privacy but don’t be just a generic business person.

4. Do not sell, inform
Do not attempt to sell your products via your blog posts. Inform people. Make your readers aware of your products but mainly inform.

Educate your audience about the issues of your trade or industry, not solely your own business.

You may explain how your products and services solve problems. Do not advertise, help people instead.

5. Do not “blog” press releases, tell stories
Well, this is kind of evident although many people will do it anyway. Press releases are for the press, blogs are your interface to social media.

You might even employ social media press releases but keep your blog clean. It doesn’t make sense to regurgitate or even simply publish press releases on your blog.

6. Engage your audience
Blogs are defined by the conversations of real people. It’s about dialogue. Again, when you do not have the time to reply to comments, do not blog.

In case you just start a monologue your business blog will fail. Blogs are not top down or about broadcasting like TV. You need to communicate on eye level with your audience.

7. Use casual language not corporate doublespeak
Everybody hates corporate doublespeak. Many people do not even understand the meaning of it.

Drop the acronyms only insiders know and the overblown marketese.

Use casual language, but do not swear or ridicule yourself too much. Wearing oversize sombreros like I do on my avatar is OK though.

8. Do not demean others, especially competitors, but deal with criticism
Positivity and honesty are key for a successful blog, even more for a business blog. People are wary of being lied to by corporate or business entities.

Do not tell people how bad your competitors are show how well you perform instead.

Also deal honestly with issues, especially criticism regarding your work and company. Do not feed the troll though.

Respond when it’s not slander. For the latter call your lawyers, but do not call your lawyers in cases of decent criticism!

9. Do not make your employees vote you up
Well, ever wondered why Apple stories are popular on social media? A huge corporation with thousands of employees can create buzz with ease.

When you submit and your teams votes up something on a niche community like Growth Hackers that’s a problem though.

Voting up your company’s blog is vote fraud on social media. In case you have more than 5 – 10 employees you should forbid it altogether.

10. Do not hide facts when you describe something
Telling only half the truth is like lying on blogs and social media. People will tell you anyways.

Try to anticipate what others think and take a proactive stance.

Show them your unique selling proposition like saying “we’re the first to introduce these features”.


Now will following these 10 commandments make you a great business blogger? No, they most probably won’t on their own, but without them your business blog will fail.

To stretch my commandment metaphor: It’s not enough to play by the rules, you need faith. With blogging it’s more about the enthusiasm or the passion.


Disclaimer: While I’m a Christian myself I do not want to hurt anyone’s religious feelings.

The metaphor of the commandments is not meant to disrespect the real ten commandments. In contrast, it’s to highlight that there is

the need for ethics in every discipline even such a worldly one like blogging for business purposes.

To my Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, agnostic and other readers: this is also not a way to disrespect any other religion or philosophy as inferior. It’s just a way of explaining things.

Last updated: May 11th, 2018.

 

* (CC BY 2.0) Creative Commons image by Mangaka Maiden Photography

 

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