As a business owner and manager there are many competing things to do - create and drive strategy, build new products, sell, deliver the work, recruit and manage staff, finances, legal...you know the story, its the stuff - all those things you cram into a week.

So for my 5am moment today I reflected on the additional stuff which we encourage people to take on - blogging. One of the common question sets we get is around blogging - what should I be doing, what should and should'nt I be writing about and how to I find time to write a blog.

Whilst we have spent time writing here about best practice with blogging, you need to be aware of the blogging crimes...and how we try to get around them.

Crime 1 - You dont blog for a while 

Guilty as charged. Too much stuff going on and blogging becomes one thing on a very long list. Result - no blog for 3 week. The problem with this is in my view each time I visit a website, I expect a different experience (if you want me to go back to that website that is) - to me a different experience is fresh rotating content. So a blog which doesnt get updated stands a good chance of not developing any ongoing readers or engagement.

How we do as a business get around this? Simple really - you have 3 bloggers (Jon, Ed and myself) and soon to be Kirsty and Mark also - you share the load - readers can then find out the story and opinions told in different voices. Secondly, you make it something that for us is a weekly action - a requirement for at least 2 blogs per week - we agree who for the week and make it happen. What we also do for some of our clients is set up ghosted blogs - we find journalists - they speak to a client for 5 minutes - get a quick digest on views and write the blog using the clients words - its sent for approval and published.

Finally, it can actually be quite cathartic and addictive - its a good outlet for thoughts and feelings - set the world to rights by sharing your thoughts.

Crime 2 - Dull blogs

Probably guilty on a personal note, but fortunately Ed and Jon are far more witty and erudite, so collectively we get by. What's the point of a blog? To me, its about engaging people in a subject on which you are passionate. If your blog is dull and lacks engaging content which people dont want to come back to read, believe me they wont. 

Whilst sharing the responsibility is one thing, for me it is about writing with passion about what you believe in - whats going on and your honest thoughts and feelings on it. 

I am sure there are other crimes that strike a chord but for me these are the main ones - plus the ways that we as small business managers deal work to maintain our blog presence.

So what else has been going on at Trovus - well Mark passed his driving test yesterday (congrats mark), we continue to be shown amazing opportunities to work with a range of incredibly impressive organisations (more to come) and we are looking forward to our first Trovus xmas party on Monday which Kirsty has been organisng for us (photos to follow).  All is well on the good ship Trovus and we sail on at good speed.

Comments

There are currently 2 comments about this blog.

DJ, 10 days ago

Chaps I am only disappointed I got no invite to your party! ;o) On the topic of blogging best practice, there have been a number of books published on the topic. One that I read is Rebecca Blood's WebLog Handbook: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Weblog-Handbook-Practical-Creating-Maintaining/dp/073820756X/ Based on that I can add a few more crimes: - posting an argument that is not fully considered, or posting while angry about a topic. There's a difference between passionate and angry! - not adding links. Big crime this. Not only do links add a context of your post within the wider web (there are usually people out there who are more erudite than you on certain issues), they also make search engines v happy - making your site more visible too! - editing your post after the fact (because with hindsight you got it wrong) and not acknowledging it to your readers. Tut tut, come on just own up! Have a good Christmas Cheers DJ

Edward Charvet, 17 days ago

No no no - YOU are far me witty and erudite than...Jon.

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