Is The "U" Missing From Your Company's Blog ?

Not the letter "U" but "You"  the noun, the individual.  A lot of company blogs are boring.  There written by the marketing guy that's been writing press releases for 30 years and now has to transition to the" go to" guy for their blogs.  When I read company blogs I feel as though I'm reading a User's Manual; and you all know how we feel about User Manuals.   

The companies  in the know have changed the way they are perceived by adding a persona to their brands through their blogs.  I saw a great approach to blogging or more so customer relations on vimeo.com.  They have included digital video of employees working on new releases and have made it very personal -allowing visitors to feel like they are part of the development process.  

Plus: Stats from Blake Whitman on Vimeo.

Companies, especially design companies should really take a closer look at how their customers are viewing them , most times the only vision of a company is their presence on the internet which in large is their blog persona.  Don't just choose someone you think is smart or cool to blog for you.  Make sure that individual can relate to your demographic and can talk their lingo. One way to know is to research other blogs and forums in your industry for insight.  This way you can mimic the discussions and invite the conversation about your product and services to your  doorstep- your company's blog. 

What are some things you've done to put a face on your blog?

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1. Create Cheeky Blog Titles

Blog titles are just as important as the blog content itself "at Hubspot, we probably spend close to half our time thinking about a cheeky blog title and half our time actually writing the article." Says Brian Halligan of Hubspot, an internet marketing company after reading my post on "How to write a Blog Title That Shows Up On DIGGs Front Page".

2. Write Great Content That Invites Discussion

Sometimes I find myself lecturing to my readers, which is not my intention, but when it does happen it tends to close the door for an open discussion about the topic of interest. Try writing with a relative instead of an absolute point of view.

3. Create Keyword Rich Content.

Keyword rich content could be tricky sometimes because keyword rich content is only for search engine purposes. It might become a little annoying for your readers if you repeat a keyword over and over in your content. I find writing your content with your readers interest first and then go back and replace or add your keywords only where appropriate works very well.

4. Make Sure Their Content Is Complete With Referral Links

Links to other relevant resources is very important. As much as I would like to think that I have the best content on the web - I don't. I read amazing articles by other bloggers all the time that addresses a point of view that does wonders as a great reference for my readers. Linking to those kinds of articles helps to complete the readers experience.

5. Create Internal Links To Other Articles & Tips Within Their Blog

Linking to other parts of your blog (internal linking) helps you with your PageRank and helps to build page authority. It's a big misconception that internal links doesn't matter.... they do.

6. Leaves Constructive Comments On Fellow Bloggers Articles

Leaving constructive comments sparks a conversation on fellow bloggers articles help to promote the discussion. The more interesting your comments the more visitors will want to know who you are. Most blogs have a reply URL that will provide a link to your website.

7. Track Readership Subscriptions Closely To Find Out How To Improve And Grow Their Subscriptions

Your readership is the most important asset a blogger has. If your readership is at a standstill, you should work on finding out why your traffic is not increasing, if your articles are engaging enough and how to improve your subscriptions.

8. Track Web Traffic And Analyze When Are The Best Times to Post Articles For Maximum Impact

This is something that I'm working on myself, most bloggers have an international following; you should find out where most of your readership is coming from and post your blogs usually in the mornings of that demographic. For your email subscribers, this will give them a chance first thing in the morning to read your new post. And besides most people take the first few hour in the morning to get the scoop of what's new and exciting for the day.

9. Reply To Comments Made On Their Own Articles.

When someone makes a comment on your articles, its good practice to reply to their comments; this helps to promote the discussion and engage other readers.

10. Continues to Research Articles And Topics That Will Engage Their Subscribers.

your goal as a blogger is to continue to build a level of trust with your readers, giving them new and exciting things to read and learn so than they will want to come back to your website.

11. Post Their Articles On Popular Social Bookmark Sites Like Digg And Designfloat.com

This is a great way to get new visitors to your site. If your articles are interesting enough, readers will vote to put your articles on the front page of these sites which increases your exposure and send lots of new visitors to your blog or website.

12. Surf the Internet; Sometimes Randomly

I've found lots of cool sites and gadgets on the internet that I've use as the subject of my blog posts and have written fairly successful articles around them, one such article is "How Much is Your Website Or Blog Really Worth? Your Numbers May Surprise You."

13. Add Their Blog to Selected Design And Blog Directories

Placing your blogs in directories can also help drive readers to your blog. Be careful and check out the directories to make sure they are not spammy and are respected; some directories you can try are of course the Yahoo directory, technorati, dexigner, and and blog catalog.

14. Write With Their Readers In Mind

Write with the intentions of truly providing your readers with quality stuff. No one wants to spend time reading articles with little substance.

15. Get Involve With Social Media Sites

Get on Twitter, StumbleUpon and Facebook - These sites can be a great resource and will help improve your readership if you take the time to learn the culture and become a part of it. My post on "Twitter is the Most Coolest and Stupidest Thing Ever" may give you some insight.

I've learned that blogging is both an art and a science; if you learn and do it correctly it can be very rewarding.

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We all wonder how they do it. Articles with 2500 DIGGs and counting. Well in my research I found out a few things that I'll share with you. Even though it's not rocket science it does take a bit of ingenuity to get on the coveted front page of DIGG. Just on a side note - did you know that an article with 2500 DIGGs can receive as much as 85,000 unique visitors ? Really, that's more than most websites see in 5 years. So the question is how do you get DUGG on DIGG? Well you have to write compelling articles or show a wow video. The wow factor is what gets you DUGG and the first thing that people see is your title. The title gets you in the door and the content keeps you there. Let's talk titles.

To write an effective design blog title you need to consider these 5 things:

1. An Interesting and popular topic.
2. Something that is fairly current
3. Useful guide or list of interest (using numbers like top 10, 50 most)
4. A reference to a Popular source or tag, i.e. Google, iPhone, DIGG, Twitter
5. And great content, of course

Your goal is to use as many of these as possible. So first you choose a topic of interest. Say your topic is ‘writing an effective design blog title' and you want to tell your subscribers how to do it. You can easily call it

Rules For Writing an Effective Design Blog Title.

The problem with this title is that it's not very imaginative. You'll find many articles with similar titles talking about the same thing, which may not prompt the reader to stop and click. So your next thought after you've selected your topic is to relate that topic to a current event everyone's interested in like the presidential election, Senator Obama, etc. or a popular product or service; that could be Twitter, DIGG, the iPhone, Steve Jobs, Google, Apple, Facebook, etc. So now that you're equipped with a topic and a popular tag, let's try it again, how about:

How to Write a Blog Title that Shows up on Google Search Results.

This is a great title because now you're using your topic along with a popular search tag, i.e. Google. Now you have to consider the ultimate goal of your title which should be reflected in the content. Even though you're writing to attract readers, it's important that you do not mislead them... so as a pro design blogger your goal is to write great articles for your readers to enjoy and also use your articles as a vehicle to drive more traffic to your website. One way of getting more traffic is putting your article on websites like, you guessed it DIGG so how about this for a title:

How to Write a Blog Title That Shows up on DIGGs Front Page.

Perfect. We've incorporated at least 4 of the 5 things that needed to be in the title, your topic, a how to statement, linking it to a popular tag and of course, great content. Now if that doesn't work for you... at least I got you to read my article ;) Just Kidding - you have 3 options.

1. Call your friends up and have them DIGG you :)
2. Try again with another article
3. Or post a video with the title " This Is Just Too Freakin Cool."

Like I said it's not rocket science. But seriously, if you have some advise that you'd like to share about writing a great title please share! CHEERS.

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