Creating Content

     In my last post, I overviewed a few of the ways to get your company blog in front of interested people. In this one, I'll try to help you find enough material to keep them coming back.

     If you're not a media company, you're wrong. Every business has news and events, products or services to sell and a need for the public to know about them. And if you think that your latest contract or the opening of a new plant in Oklahoma isn't worth talking about, just take a look at what we're saying on Twitter every minute. Believe you me, there are eyes out there that want to read what you can provide.

     The most obvious source for blog material are the press releases you're throwing at the media anyway. However, you have to provide some incentive for people to read your version rather than the one by the AP. This might mean changing some of the language to be more intimate, to provide a tone of familiarity and even a more casual language. You want to inform, but, like The Daily Show, you also need to entertain. Take your company's 10^th Anniversary release and put some spice into it by highlighting both the hits and some funny bloopers, predictions that went awry, or lucky breaks that nobody saw coming.

      It's all too easy to get caught up in worrying if you're conforming with legal guidelines. While important, blocking all aspects of humanity in your blog results in, well, a press release. If you want customers to know your company, speak to them as you would if they were standing right in front of you. When you go out for happy hour, what do you tell your friends who don't work with you? Better yet, what does the office talk about? These are excellent sources for what's going to be interesting to everyone else.

      If, at the end of the day, you're still having trouble thinking of an idea, hunt around for a relevant news story. Even if it concerns one of your competitors, write a commentary on it. Put a link to the article and write about its impact on your industry, and on how your company is going to react to it. This provides multiple benefits - it shows that your company is in tune with what's happening in its field, that you have views and plans to deal with the situation, and that you're mature enough to share this kind of information with the consumers upon whom you depend. Not only will you garner trust from your readers, you'll get recommendations as well.

      Lastly, use those forums I mentioned in the last piece to find ideas. If you notice a lot of questions about a specific subject, put your company's answer on your blog and link back to it.

      Remember that, like most living things, a blog requires almost daily care in order to derive the biggest benefits. However, finding food to feed your internet venture isn't all that difficult, it's just different.