Green Cross Code of Business Blogging

[For those not of a certain age, or not from the UK, the Green Cross Code is a road safety campaign for pedestrians which was launched in the 1970s which initially used the instructions Stop - Look - Listen - Think - Cross.]

When you are starting a blog for your business, it can be all too easy to get carried away, rush into setting up a half baked blog and start writing immediately. If you are in this situation then try employing the Green Cross Code of Business Blogging. I first wrote about this idea at Better Business Blogging but I think that the message is so important that it warrants a reposting here with some additional commentary.

Stop! Wait, don’t rush into writing your blog immediately, you need to plan first and decide the focus of your blog.

Look at some established blogs and see how others go about it. Make sure you read some of these to get a better feel for blogging from those already doing it.

“Listen” to the conversations going on in the blogosphere and to what people are saying in their posts, as well as to as much good advice as you can get.

Think about what you have read and take the time to plan your blog in terms of what you want to say and to whom, as well as in terms of your overall goals for it.

Finally, start to blog with all of these elements in mind but make sure you keep reading other blogs, listening to new ideas and thinking how to develop your blog.

To make a success of a blog, you need to spend time planning a variety of elements on your Blog as you start to develop it, and crucially you should also spend time looking at what is being written about and listening what is being said, before you put “pen to paper” on your first post.

I recognise that there are advocates of a more immediate approach – that of simply starting to blog and gaining experience by actually writing one. I can see the advantages of that and of not falling into the trap of “paralysis by analysis” (ie thinking about it for so long that you don’t actually ever do anything).

But I also know that whatever you write while “gaining experience” will still reflect on you and your business and that once it is out on the internet, then there is no easy way to withdraw it. By taking the time to plan and to read what others are writing about, you will gain confidence when you start to post as well as having a framework to work with – remember that when you start blogging, it is the equivalent of entering an enormous noisy stadium full of people talking rather than sitting down to a quiet one-to-one dinner. It can be intimidating so it’s good to be as comfortable as possible when you start.

So, taking it back to basics, to make sure that you start blogging with confidence, I recommend that when you start your business blog, you follow the Green Cross Code of Business Blogging:

Blogging for Business

In a post at the end of last year, Des Walsh on his excellent new B5 Media blog, Business and Blogging, picked out a post by Ben Yoskovitz which focused on the argument that business blogging is not a sales pitch but rather a meaningful conversation.

You’ll get no argument from me on the “Sales pitch” front. There are lots of excellent direct marketing and sales tools available to businesses but a business blog is not one of them. You’re quite simply not playing to its strengths if you try to use it in that way.

However, a conversation (meaningful or otherwise) is only useful, from a business perspective, if it leads somewhere. The conversation shouldn’t try to lead straight to an attempted sale – in fact it mustn’t, you’re back to direct selling again there. Nevertheless, to be properly effective, it should have a direction and be taking you towards your desired outcome, whether that is developing the relationship, encouraging a news feed sign up, setting up a face to face meeting etc.

Ben also makes the point that:

“It’s not about telling people why you’re great and why they should do business with you.”

Agreed. But if you shift the emphasis slightly then you get a concept which is much more valid for blogs. For me:

“It’s about demonstrating to people why you’re great (or helping people find out why you’re great) and why they should do business with you.”

Don’t tell them, but do make it easy for them to find out through what you write and the way that you write it. For me this comes down to the distinction between selling to someone (an individual or a business) and helping them to decide that they want to buy from you.

If you do this well, then hopefully you’ll find that you don’t need to go and tell people why you are great because you’ll have others doing that on your behalf, either in their own blogs, on their sites or face to face. And that’s probably the clearest sign that you are running a valuable and well focused business blog.

Keyword phrase selection: some helpful tools

You should always write first and foremost for your readers – that is a rule which is key to achieving a successful blog. However, a blog is also an important tool in getting good rankings in the Search Engines for keyword phrases which are important to us and our businesses.

We know that identifying the best keyword phrases is going to be key to our efforts to get better rankings through Search Engine Optimisation. This will allow us to focus our articles at areas which we know will appeal bot to our readers and to the Search Engines at the same time. It can also help to achieve a more comprehensive coverage in our chosen area by identifying keyword phrases in adjacent areas that are relevant to what we offer.

To help in this task and find the best keyword phrases, there are a number of tools available to help us achieve this and a lot of them are free!

Here are ones that I have looked at and consider worthwhile.

WordTracker
Probably the best known tool in the field and self styled “Leading Keyword Research Tool”. It is charged for, although there is a limited free trial, but it is also very complete in what it offers across a number of Search Engines.

Google AdWords: Keyword Tool
Gives ideas for new keywords associated with your target phrase but does not indicate relevance or give details of number or frequency of searches

Overture Keyword Selector Tool
Returns details of how many searches have been carried out in the Overture engine over the period of a month and allows a drill down into associated keywords containing your keyword phrase as well.

NicheBot
NicheBot has a mix of Wordtracker and Overture based tools as well as a nice keyword analysis tool which focuses on Google’s results

Digital Point Keyword Suggestion Tool
One of a set of tools available at the Digital Point website – this engine gives search numbers on keywords from Wordtracker and Overture sources

In addition to these, although some of the keyword tools mentioned above already include it, I would also recommend taking a look through a Thesaurus (online or paperback) to open up other avenues. Sometimes you just can’t beat going back to basics!

Starting to write your Business Blog

It is always an exciting (if slightly nerve racking) time when you actually start to write your Business Blog. It is also a very important time because in your first posts, you will be laying down the ground rules for what your readers can expect from you in the future.

However, there are certain things that you can do in this initial period which will make it easier to get your first posts in place and will give you a solid foundation from which you can then develop.

Set yourself realistic goals for posting

You should try to set yourself some goals as to how often you want to post to your blog. Don’t commit to once a day if you know that you won’t have the time – instead, make your goals realistic and then stick to them. Once you get going, you can be certain that it will not be a lack of subjects to write about that will hold you back, but rather how much time you can dedicate to it. You should also bear in mind that you will need to split that time between researching your posts AND writing them.

Hint: set up your RSS reader NOW and start to record your information sources in it. It will save you hours in research later on!

Plan ahead

You don’t want to feel under pressure to think of what to write about, particularly at the start. You want to be able to concentrate on the post itself. So, map out the topics that you want to cover during the first few days and weeks and try to make them ones that you feel particularly comfortable about. This will provide you with a framework to work with.

You don’t need to plan every post, in fact you shouldn’t. If you are intending to create a blog which will get people coming back on a regular basis then you will also be commenting on breaking news or on articles that are posted elsewhere. However, by getting clear in your own mind the initial topics that you want to cover, you will allow yourself to really focus on them which in turn will help your initial writing.

Set out your stall with your “Foundation” posts

Within this first set of posts, try to include at least 2 or 3 articles on key topics – these are ones that I call “Foundation” posts. They are posts which focus in on some of the principal areas and concepts that you are going to be dealing with in your blog as a whole. They can be simply instructive or could introduce a number of the ideas that you will build on (hence “Foundation”) and develop over the course of writing your blog.

Suggestion: if you are unsure about what to include, then have a look at the presentations that you have made to clients or partners and pick out the important themes that you highlight there.

Write a series of posts on a specific topic

Another good way of getting going is to write a series of posts on a topic which is important to your overall subject area. A series can help in a number of different ways, but in particular will allow you to go into detail on a single topic that you feel is particularly important and that you are comfortable writing about. Not only will this help to get you started and gain some momentum in your writing, it will also establish a strong focus area in your blog.

Comment on news in your industry

By commenting on events and announcements in your industry, you are showing yourself to be up to date with what is happening and that you are informed enough to have an opinion on them. It will also help you to position yourself as a key source of information for your readers who no longer have to trawl the web for the information (and view your competitors’ sites) because they know they will find it on yours! Essentially, this is a great way of adding content to your site which also helps build the level of trust and confidence in you and your knowledge.

Sitting there with a blank screen in front of you is always a difficult time, so use some of these methods to get you started. You can be certain that you’ll be up and running much more quickly than you expected.