Corporate Blogging = Boring?

When I first started in the tech world almost 20 years ago, I would read everything I could get my hands on. Those were the days when multitasking only meant writing a Word document and drinking coffee at the same time.

The pace of change in technology and the amount of information we deal with nowadays is astounding. I have found that my ability to focus and concentrate on what someone is saying to me has diminished considerably and I am less forgiving of people who drone on and on. 

This makes for challenging personal relationships with the chatty people in my life (you know who you are!). This also explains my preference to surround myself with lazy cats that ignore me and allow me to be dazzled by various distractions like reading email, chatting via IM and talking on my land line all at the same time.

But enough about me. All marketers need to realize that all of us have shorter and shorter attention spans.  Frankly, we need someone to get to point and get there quickly.  I asked Lorrie Thomas, Web Marketing Therapist and marketing instructor at UCSB and UCB Extension, what are some common pitfalls that companies stumble over in their marketing communications?

She offered three pointers to avoid the common pitfalls that corporations encounter when blogging:

1. Don’t make the blog overly commercial.  This is where most organizations really blow it.  Offer something of value to the customer or prospective customer.
2. Don’t just do a sales pitch. Once you turn off your customer, you can be sure they will ignore your blog the next time around.Remember what is blog-worthy. Blogs should be authentic with a personality – your personality! (Note: If you are truly a boring person, then you are summarily excused from doing your company blog.) Provide a good narrative to engage your audience. Be creative. Paint me a colorful picture with your words. Be a good story teller and you will always have lots of readers. 
3. Recycle, Reuse, Repurpose.  Save yourself some energy. Write once, repurpose everywhere – Facebook, Twitter, Podcast, YouTube, linked to someone else’s blog or website. You get the idea. Waste not, want not.  This strategy of repurposing is going to save you a lot of time and effort. It’s challenging enough to create new content so give yourself a break.

This topic reminds me of my favorite three B’s of effective communication: Be bold, be brief, be gone! To that I would add, be everywhere – on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. –  to engage your audience in multiple locations.

And now, I will practice the last “be.” See you at the next posting.