Transform Your Business Blog

For most web developers, CGI stands for Common Gateway Interface. It’s a way to deliver dynamic content, usually using the Perl programming language.

But I’ve decided to rebrand CGI - as Change, Grow and Innovate. Those are the three concepts behind what we do, and the reasons why we even started out as a company. I could easily go back to the jobs I used to do (except for that company that went under), but I’d rather challenge myself to change, grow and innovate with my own business.

Here are some quotes on each topic that I’ve enjoyed:

Change

“It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.”
- W. Edwards Deming

“If you want to truly understand something, try to change it.”
- Kurt Lewin

“If nothing ever changed, there would be no butterflies.”
- Anonymous

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
- Margaret Mead

Growth

“There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
- Anais Nin

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people do that.”
- Mark Twain

“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”
- Pablo Picasso

Innovation

“If you have always done it that way, it is probably wrong.”
- Charles Kettering

“He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator.”
- Sir Francis Bacon, “On Innovation”

“If I had asked my customers what they wanted they would have said a faster horse.”
- Henry Ford

Seth Godin has given us a (perhaps all-too familiar) list of excuses entitled, “Top ways to defend the status quo.” We can read them and laugh a bit to ourselves, but they’re still painful to hear in real-life meetings, coming from the voices of real-life members of a firm’s ‘leadership’ team. Amongst the excuses:

• That will never work.
• Well, this might work for other people, but I think we’ll stick with what we’ve got.
• Well, if you had some real-world experience, then you would understand.

Check out the original post for the rest of the list. Hats off to the Canning Collaborative Learning Commons for bringing this to my attention.

A few I’d like to add to the original list:

• We’re waiting for the next big thing
• We’ll need to see that in a Power Point
• I like the idea, but I don’t think we have time to implement it

There are plenty of guides to business blogging out there, but I thought I’d share eleven pointers that I’ve picked up through my own experience. Following these will put any business blog on the path to success - which we should define as carrying a stable, interested readership.

1. Get personal - Use your first and last name and have a picture of yourself on the blog. This is true for all members of your orginazation who post to the blog, if it’s used in common. Include a short bio as well. Not only does this help people become more familiar with the people behind the logo, it also lends some credibility to the authors and organization iteself.

2. Don’t get too personal - Few business blogs can get away with posting information about family events or pets. It’s a distraction. Focus on what people came to read.

3. Have clearly defined categories - Nothing is more frustrating than not knowing what the names in the category menu mean. With that in mind, keep the number of categories under ten, as a general rule. Too many categories is a sign that a blog is losing its focus.

4. Do not post a series of product release information - It’s boring. People won’t bookmark it and come back unless your business happens to be Ferrari. The regular website is the place for this, under the ‘products’ heading or sprinkled on the sidebar.

5. Spelling and grammar - ‘Nuff said.

6. Make sure permalinks and trackback links work - I’ve seen many blogs where they haven’t worked. They had a great idea and I wanted to link to them, but the trackback didn’t work. Blogging is about community and links, so make sure that people can easily permalink or trackback to you and help spread your ideas.

7. Keep out spam - The War on Spam hardly seems winnable, but there are way to keep your blog free of it. One is to be vigilant and keep an eye on your recent comments. There are blogs that don’t allow comments, or force people to register to make comments, but I think this takes away from a blog’s appeal to the community.

8. Use Technorati - A lot of people search Technorati for interesting blogs. If you’re blogging enough and with the right keywords and links, you will appear in their searches. If other people like what you write, they will link to you. Someday, you might even end up one of the highest ranked blogs on Technorati, which is quite an accomplishment.

9. Make use of links, trackbacks, and comments - Links on your own blog help with search engine visibility, as well as point people to further reading on a topic. Trackbacks show someone that you liked what they had to say. And commenting in other blogs tells them, “Hi! I’m here. I’ve got great stuff to say, come read my blog.”

10. Show your business from a new angle - A blog is your chance to show your culture to the world. Let customers see what they usually can’t. Stonyfield Farm’s blog occasionally posts video clips of their cows. This is wonderful - it actually allows us to see what goes on at the farm on a day-to-day basis. It builds an on-demand connection to the business that traditional marketing and advertsing can’t do.

11. Have fun! - If blogging about your business isn’t fun, it must be an awful place to work. Imagine a blog (literally) from hell. Try new things and speak your mind and let out some new ideas. If your business seems fun, they’ll come back for more.

There you have it. I’m sure there are plently more good tips, so let me have it if you think I’ve forgotten something!