When you blog for your business, it’s imperative that every word you write reflects positively on the company. Your business blog should reflect your overall brand message and each blog post needs to appropriately reflect who you are and what your company does.
In fact, as a business blogger you need to make sure you’re focusing on the company as a whole while avoiding talking too much about yourself. Here are several things NOT to do in business blogging, so you can avoid these mistakes in the future.
1. Avoid Discussing Customers Without Permission
This is a huge no-no when it comes to writing for your company blog. Never write about a customer or client without their express permission first. Even if your post paints the customer in a positive light, you should still refrain from mentioning any customer by name unless they give you the okay.
While this may seem like common sense, there are many well-meaning business bloggers who don’t realize this. Make sure when asking for permission you specifically state what you’re going to publish from or about them so they have the chance to give their full, unequivocal approval.
2. Don’t Give Away Insider Info
While it’s awfully tempting to divulge information, projects or services your company is currently working on, writing about insider information on your company’s business blog is a serious faux pas. Not only can this practice get you into potential legal trouble, but it can also hamper the marketing strategy of your company.
Your loyal blog readers will understand if you can’t reveal everything going on behind the scenes. There’s nothing wrong with hinting at a special reveal sometime in the future, but if you divulge proprietary company information without permission you are risking quite a lot – so don’t do it.
3. Stop Making it All About You
If your business blog reads more like a personal diary than a way to connect with potential customers, you’re doing something wrong and alienating those who could actually benefit from what your company offers.
Instead of making a blog all about you, you need to start focusing on your customers – their needs, their wants. This is how you grab a customer’s attention and keep it. By highlighting what your company can do for them, you build a loyal customer base and keep them coming back for more.
4. Don’t Ignore your Readers
Once you’ve built up a readership, one of the worst things you can do as a business blogger (and blogger in general) is to ignore your readers. In this case, your readers are likely your customer base as well – at least potentially.
When one of your readers takes the time to leave a comment, make sure you respond to them in a timely manner. When your readers see that you care about their input, they’re more likely to recommend your brand to others and help spread the word about your business. It’s like free promotion for your company!
Great customer service goes a long way, so take pains not to ignore your customers when they give their feedback.
5. Avoid Regurgitating Information
As a business blogger, it’s important to avoid regurgitating the same information everyone else is already writing about – or, worse, simply rehashing the information that’s already easily available on your company website. You want to highlight your unique experience and perspective when writing.
Think about your experiences. What makes you an expert in your industry? If you write with authority and a unique angle, your readers are much more likely to view you as a credible source of information.
Keep this in mind when you write blog posts; offering up your own unique experiences will encourage your readers to stay loyal to you rather than run to your competition.
Success Requires Time and Effort
Business blogging requires dedication and effort just like any other type of blogging, but when you are writing for your company it’s incredibly important to present your business in a positive light.
If you take special care to avoid these business blogging mistakes, you’ll be able to retain a loyal, long-term customer base.
Great advice. I especially like Don’t Ignore Your Readers. I hate when I leave a comment and get no acknowledgement.
Yeah – this is something I try to do as much as possible. If you’re really interested in building up a solid reputation and trust, what better way than to acknowledge someone’s effort with a reply?
Hi Brian,
This was a great post for me and very timely, as I am doing more and more freelance blog writing for businesses. I’ve been putting a lot of thought into how to position yourself in order to attract new customers and retain existing ones – it goes so much farther than just the quality of your content. I think that’s something you have really hit upon here.
Cheers!
Tom
Yep, quality content brings you visitors – while engaging with them makes them customers.
I think people can start taking example of your blog because it is also a blog for business, isn’t it?
You always try to help people to build a good blog with Genesis. I can assure you that I always like your blog posts, they help me to make a good reflection on what I can do on my own blog.
Thank for this tips, I think I totally agree that we should avoid all of these.
Although these are great tips for business blogging, frankly, they should be put into practice in most (all?) blogs today.
1. Stop talking about other people negatively…or without permission. If you don’t have anything good to say about someone, zip it.
2. Don’t give away people’s confidential information. In the Bible, this is called gossip, and it is never a good thing.
3. People go to your blog to learn something helpful for themselves, not to learn about you! Blogging isn’t about an ego trip, but about helping others. Keep that in mind and you will succeed.
4. Nobody likes being ignored. Interact with your readers in the comments (quickly, not in a week or two when you get around to it), twitter, facebook, etc. Foster your tribe and say hello. People love hearing (and reading) their name. Use it.
5. “Imitators” make it in the short-term, but not in the big picture. If you only imitate, people will just go to the original source and leave you behind. People are looking for fresh stuff, new content, the best mouse trap in the prettiest box. If you glean insight or ideas elsewhere, put it in your own voice and give the proper link attribution to the original source. Don’t plagiarize, but remember that there’s nothing new under the sun. It shows professionalism, and your readers will appreciate it more because they know they can trust you.
Disclaimer: I’ve only been blogging for about one year, and I’m learning as I go. I just think these are helpful.
Man, I got busted again for not angling the post as “general audience” vs. specific audience.
It pretty much goes without saying that everything I publish here can be applied to any areas of business, blogging or social media. For conversation, it’s fun to aim for certain types of audiences from time to time to see how people react.
I totally agree.
I was just thinking about that with respects to blog design. There are a couple of good themes out there with solid code, but everyone who has that theme tends to look just like everyone else with that theme. The Genesis themes are built/designed with the user/industry (and reader) in mind, and so they are more attractive, at least to me. When you blog for a specifc industry, you focus more, and that resonates with people.
Amen, Brian!!! I squirm and have to hold myself back when I see even “personal” opinions that violate all of the above! It’s amazing to me when people say I have a right to my personal opinion but they’re a small biz owner. I would never use their services. Old adage holds true: Don’t put anything in writing you don’t want the whole world to know!
Nice going.. love those tips.. bless ya
Brian,
Your point about integrating something original and calling on experience and expertise in blog entries was very appreciated.
As a professional writer I’ve always worked hard to produce quality, valuable and original content. The sheer volume of content “out there” should not deter anyone from writing a good quality piece, each time. Our readers experience our content 100% as they read it, and one at time.
Happy to see you promoting originality in our “mass blast world”. (as far as I know, this is an original phrase by HK!!)
Thanks for your posts.
Helena
Hi Brian,
Great post – thanks for the insights!
#3. Stop Making It All About You, extends to a business’s website in general. I work with architecture firms, and I am constantly amazed by how often designers’ websites come off as portfolios of every project they ever designed, let alone thought about. No one has the time (or desire!) to sift through all that stuff. The website, like the business blog, should speak to the visitor, not overwhelm them with “me-focused” info.
Thanks for the post!
Best,
Krista
Hey Krista – thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment. I think you are spot on with your “me-focused” analysis, and love the idea of architecture firms blogging.
The problem most people have is the disbelief that their niche doesn’t warrant blogging or content production. But I can tell you that when I go to someone’s webeiste (for whatever reason), the first thing I look for is a Blog link.
To me, it’s pretty much instant validation.
My content is all reader focused however I do refer to myself because my posts are based on my own personal experience.
I think personal experience posts are WAY beter than generic information posts. Anyone can Google or hit up For Dummies if they want to learn something specific.
Add a little honesty, personal touch and transparency? Well then you’ve got a bunch of people who want to follow you and come back for more.
Hi Brian,
#5 is a common mistake. There’s a lot of regurgitated information out there.
I think the thing that folks do wrong, like you mentioned, is not adding their own personal experiences, recommendations and thoughts to a topic. For example, you’ll lose readers discussing the importance of guest blogging, but you’ll generate much more interest discussing recommendations you’d make from doing your own guest blogging gigs.
It will take a little more time, thought and effort, but you’ll draw more readers and they’re more likely to come back.
I don’t add my own personal experiences as much as I should.
A well written post (informative/teaching one that is) should come off as personal, but still teach.
I know it can be a delicate balance between letting others get to know you – showing a little of your personal side – and keeping your blog “business minded.” People do want to know the person behind the business, but you are right – it is a business blog, so the majority needs to be related to that.
Great post.
Thanks Laurie, appreciate it. I think the About page is a great place to showcase personal information about yourself, but it is a fine line between what you should/shouldn’t write about on your blog.