Blaze Communication - guest blogger!
Guest post by Natalie Smith of Blaze Communication‘s The Blaze Blog:
So I’m sitting in front of a blank screen, scratching my head and racking my brains. Surely there must be something I can write about in my blog this week. Back at the beginning of the year when this blog was just a baby I was bursting full of topics, updates and information I wanted to share. But as the winter turned to spring and slowly into summer, finding new content has become increasingly challenging.
As a relative newcomer to blogging I’m keen to take advice on board from those with more experience. I’ve spoken to colleagues, picked the brains of those I know who blog, and trawled the net to gain some inspiration.
I’m not saying that finding new topics now is always easy, nor am I constantly bursting at the seams with industry knowledge to share – but as I continue down the winding blogging road, I find that I worry less about finding new content and each week have something (hopefully) interesting to say.
Having gathered all this information together from a variety of friendly sources, I feel it only fair that I continue to share and help anyone else who is currently also scratching their heads in desperation looking for that elusive blog content.
Here are my top 10 tips I’ve received for producing blog content.
Turn detective – investigate something new and share your findings. In today’s fast paced marketing communications environment there is always something new being brought to market. Be one of the first to give it a go, test it out and share your findings with your readers
Let the press work for you – I love my trade press and am lucky that marketing and communications has plenty to choose from. I’m particularly interested in comment pieces and these are particularly useful for inspiring blog content. Pick one that gets you going. Do you agree completely or disagree vehemently? Either way, use this point of view upon your chosen topic as a starting point and let it flow from there.
Get out and about – it’s going to be depressingly difficult to produce blog content relevant to your industry if you have little contact with that industry – get out there, meet people and interact with industry peers to get your ideas going.
Use your clients – there must be a list of questions that you’re asked regularly by clients or customers. If one person has asked you, there’ll be others out there wanting to hear that answer too. Use this as blog fodder by writing it up and sharing it with the world!
Mistakes – what mistakes or misconceptions have you recently experienced? Again you won’t be the only person out there to have made this mistake or interested in learning how to avoid making it themselves. If you can bear to, write it up and let others know the lessons you’ve learnt.
Learn – training sessions and conferences are massive sources of blogging inspiration. Whether you choose to share what you’ve learnt or comment upon what’s been discussed you’ll get plenty of blog-worthy material from these events.
Break it up - nobody wants to read an essay so don’t tackle big problems head on in your blog. Break down big subjects into bite sized themes and use these to produce multiple blog entries, you’ll find that this is better for the reader and beneficial to you too!
Pick colleagues’ brains – you don’t work in a vacuum so make use of those around you; talk to colleagues, ask them about the projects they’re working on and the questions they’re asked regularly. You’ll often find that a second viewpoint inspires blog content you would never have produced going it solo.
It’s all about give and take – blogging can’t be just about you giving your ideas to the world, read other blogs, get involved in online conversations and be part of the community that you’re setting your stall out in. You’ll soon find ideas popping into your head as a result of participating in the social media community.
And if all else fails? – how about blogging about having nothing to blog about. It’s worked for me today!
If you found this post useful, you may also enjoy reading these blogs from our archive: Top tips for writing web copy and A beginner’s guide to blogging
I hope that you find some of the above useful. If you have any further tips, please do share them with us – all inspiration gratefully received!
The Fairy Blog Mother loves to republish posts that she approves of and thinks would be valuable to her readers.
