Blogging - Some Perspectives

What is a Blog?

A blog (a contraction of the term " Web log") is a website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. As of December 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 112 million blogs.

One of the best bloggers I know of is Dr. Bill Ives, who writes regular tips and techniques on Knowledge Management, Web 2.0 and other perspectives on how to improve knowledge practices. Just think some of the best knowledge is only a few key strokes away by tapping into innovative blogging leaders like Bill. I had the pleasure of working with Bill when we were together at Accenture, a prince of a man, and a wonderful visionary leader.

5 Key Tips to develop an effective Blogging Strategy

Step 1: Define your Blog Site’s Goals (What are you trying to do and how will you achieve it)

One of the most important decisions in starting to write a blog is deciding what you are trying to achieve with your blog.

In my case, my blog is on Innovation and Transformation related topics as this is what I am most passionate about, and also this is where I have spent the last 20 years of my career in helping large global multi-nationals or early stage companies innovate more successfully.

Step 2: Identify who you are targetting to be your audience.

Being clear about who you want to read your blog will require linkages with other bloggers writing about topics that are relevant to your blog to enable cross linkage opportunities and increase traffic flows. This takes time and effort, and promoting your blog on your email is also an effective technique to get the message out to relevant people you want to connect with. Registering your blog on blog aggregator sites is also important, sites like Technocrati, Blogger, etc.

Step 3: Decide on the Visual Layout and Branding requirements of your site.

Draw wireframes (rough sketches to experiment with element placement and layout) Helpful programs to do this are OmniGraffle (Mac Only) to help play with your site layout. I went with Google eBlogger as it allowed me to easily drag and drop layout requirements and I did not need any technical help. Highly recommended.

Other Key Blogging Tips include:

* Recognize Reader Attention Span is Limited. A typical web reader has a short attention span when it comes to reading content online. Average blog readers stay 96 seconds per blog. So keep your content length down to a level to between 250-1000 words.

* Get RSS Readers' Attention - titles have the ability to grab the attention of those following your blog via RSS in news aggregators. Even if your feeds are full post feeds rather than excerpts, it’s likely that most news aggregator readers scan the titles of posts for things that interest them rather than reading full text. The same principle is true in other indexes and directories like: Technorati, del.icio.us, digg etc

* Get Started Developing regular writing habits is critical. hard to do but necessary. Builds confidence. Builds New Networks. Creates new conversations. Your memory is forever captured.