Are you writing a blog for your business? With over 42,000,000 blogs reported back in 2012 with an average of 25 billion pages viewed per month hard to imagine that most established businesses aren’t writing content for a blog.
It’s fascinating to me that people blog for all sorts of reasons and topics. Some blog as a marketing strategy to build relevant content about their business and brand and some blog for a cause they care about and some blog for a passion – do you know how many food blogs are out there?? (Psst, let me share a secret, I’d love to start a food blog for fun because I love to talk about all things food related! …well, maybe when I retire).
From a business perspective blogging is the easiest way to tell your story, let others know what’s important to you, your brand and more importantly to educate your audience with relevant content they come to YOU to learn about.
This week I attended a one day conference called Social Media Rockstars where I had the opportunity to listen to a handful of the best speakers in the business. One of the rock star presenters was Lee Odden, CEO of Top Rank Marketing, a major digital marketing agency in Minnesota. Lee shared with us the top 7 lessons he has learned relative to blogging that are worth sharing here.
Lee’s 7 Lessons
1. Stand for something specific! Focus attracts attention and builds your authority and credibility.
2. Know your customer. Learn to listen and be empathetic as that drives relevance. Know what kinds of offers get them to take action.
3. Connect online to offline and back.
4. Great content isn’t great until it’s discovered, consumed and shared. Tip: use photos you took vs stock photos as they are more personal. –>> example: 
5. Everyone has finite topic ideas, look beyond yourself for content writers.
6. Interact and create value.
– Interview thought leaders
– Mention peers, co-workers, customers
– Make lists and recognize talent
– Crowd source content with your community
– Cross post discussions
– Highlight comments
– Call out contributors on social channels
7. Evolve & optimize. Capitalize on opportunities to grow continuously.
Check out the amazing Top Rank Blog and learn from example of how one of the top marketing blogs in the country publishes relevant content.
Do you have a favorite blog? let me know below. – JoAnne
JoAnne thank you for this great article and for sharing Lee’s view point. I try to do all 7 things that he is talking about. I really do try to add value for my reader. I do reach out and try to connect with others to share content and cross market our brands. I am always looking for ways to grow as well. Thanks for sharing. Michele
Michele, thanks for your comment and glad you found value in the tips. I want to say kudos to you for obviously knowing your audience and delivering value. So important or we have no audience at all.
Great job on summarizing Lee’s presentation!
Beth, thank you. did you find one of the lessons most valuable to your business?
Glad you liked the presentation JoAnne, nice to see you again 🙂
Thank you Lee, always appreciate your expertise!