Blogging for Business II – What to Look for in a Blogger
by Matthew Lees
In his post earlier this week (“Blogging For Business – B2B Best Practices”), Mike Rowland expertly covered a lot of ground in laying out best practices and benchmarks in running a successful blogging program. The “Ingredients” chart alone is worth the price of admission; I’ll bet a lot of people who run blogging programs that are successful now, only after a lot of fits and starts, wish they had information like that when things were starting out.
Some time ago I wrote about this topic for the Patricia Seybold Group (see “Best Practices in Corporate Blogging”). In reviewing that report, I found that there was just one aspect of B2B blogging in which I could add some value…regarding the bloggers themselves.
Who Should Blog?
There is no well-defined or industry-accepted profile of a B2B blogger, but certain characteristics and skills indicate the likelihood of success. Based on dozens of conversations with bloggers and sponsors of blogging programs, the following elements bubbled to the top. For the most part, B2B bloggers should:
- Genuinely care about what they do and what they’ll be writing about. Lack of interest shows. The most important thing for bloggers to bring to the table is a positive attitude. If they like what they do and enjoy the topics they’ll be writing about, they’ll probably be in good shape.
- Have some degree of expertise and experience in their subject area and with your company’s products and services. No surprise here. Bloggers need to know what they’re talking about. Note that this says “have some degree of expertise,” and not “be a full-fledged expert.” It’s fine for bloggers to admit they don’t know everything about their subject area. Doing so makes them more personable and can help generate buy-in from readers.
- Bring a particular perspective to the topics they’re writing about. Regurgitating what’s already out there may work once or twice, but, as they say in the newspaper biz, you gotta have an angle. (Well, they used to say that.) Advice commonly given to bloggers is to “be yourself.” That’s much easier said than done, but it’s relevant when it comes to finding their voice and their perspective. Once they’ve got it, though, it makes everything a whole lot easier.
- Have an interest in engaging with and learning from readers. One of the goals of blogging, of course, is to generate conversations. So, ideally some readers will comment on posts. It’s almost always beneficial to the blog and to the sponsoring organization when the blogger chimes in and responds to comments. And it’s a much more positive experience if they look forward to, are energized by, and learn from such conversations.
- Not be overly sensitive about criticism. It’s not that they shouldn’t care. It’s just that criticism, which can sometimes be intentionally or unintentionally harsh, shouldn’t bring bloggers down to the point where they get resentful. They don’t need rhino-thick skin, but should be able to take things in stride.
- Have some writing ability. Blog writing is definitely different from other forms of writing that business professionals tend to engage in. It’s more informal and conversational than technical documents, marketing plans, business proposals, and press releases, and it’s more structured than most business emails. Although it takes getting used to, most people who bring at least modest writing skills can eventually find their own successful blogging style if they’re engaged, determined, and well supported.
Bloggers don’t grow on trees, but they can be found just about anywhere in your organization. Getting the right people to blog is half the battle in running a successful B2B blogging program. (The other half is following best practices, such as Mike previously laid out.) There are thousands of B2B bloggers out there…but there’s always room for more.
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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 15th, 2010 at 9:12 pm and is filed under Best Practices. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Matthew Lees. Matthew Lees said: Continuing the topic (on B2B blogging) that @MRowland602 started earlier this week: "What to Look for in a Blogger" – http://bit.ly/cTsFAq [...]