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Is there a simple answer to blogging success?

January 24, 2011 By Emily Leary 4 Comments

Don’t worry. I’m not about to tout a single secret to blogging success – I don’t think there is one. But I have managed to get twenty-one bloggers to share their very best tips – and that’s a good start.

Every Monday night (8pm-9pm UK time) I co-run #CommsChat – a Twitter-based chat for people with some interest in the communications industry (PRs, journos, bloggers, marketers, writers, community managers). We usually have an expert guest host appropriate to the topic, and around 100 people take part, with anything between 400 to 1,000 tweets flying back and forth.

This Monday 24th January 2011, we’re having a Big Blogging Brainstorm (check out #BBB on Twitter). The premise is simple. Get 100(ish) communications pros together and bat ideas around to create more post ideas than you can shake a stick at. [More info here]

Now I wholeheartedly believe that constantly coming up with new things to write about is a BIG challenge for many, but it’s not the only one. So, ahead of Monday’s chat, I talked to twenty-one bloggers and asked for their best tips for blogging success.

Blog with purpose…

Blogging is great. But blogging with a strategy is even better. – Mark Shaw (@MarkShaw)

Try and have a cohesive theme, an anchor point. – Ben Johnston (@2ftfromfreedom)

Decide on what you are going to write about and stick to it. – Heather Townsend (@heathertowns)

…but retain the freedom to evolve

Know your niche but don’t let it define you. Too often bloggers begin down a very specific path and then find it hard to evolve / adjust because they get ‘known’ for something. – Adam Vincenzini (@AdamVincenzini)

Audience matters…

Choose your target audience and write your blog for that audience. – Richard Osborne (@RichardOsborne)

Write on topics, & in a style, that your intended audience will connect with. Put yourself in their shoes & write something that is appealing to them. – Marc Lawn (@businessgp)

…but so does self-belief

Simply write about what you know. – Ben Johnston (@2ftfromfreedom)

Don’t try to emulate another blogger / writer. Be yourself. YOU ARE interesting! – Rob Fletcher (@Tfgrobfletcher)

Be passionate and interested in what you are writing about. – Carli Ann Smith (@Carlir6)

Only ever write about things you enjoy writing about, else you won’t keep it up. – David Lurie (@Setsights)

Don’t try to be someone you’re not, let your own personality shine though. – Mike Garner (@realgoodwriting)

Stop worrying about what people think, write and publish often. you cannot improve your blogging if you do not do it. – Sarah Arrow (@SarahArrow)

Blog regularly…

State upfront when or how often you will post: every Thursday, twice a week, on the 1st and 15th of every month… This will keep you on schedule. – Catherine Jan (@TranslateTrad)

Go with a topic you like and develop a posting strategy (once a week, once a day, etc) and stick with it. You’ll find that over time it becomes a habit and you will continue to improve and gain confidence. – Allan Schoenberg (@allanschoenberg)

…but favour quality over quantity

Don’t ever think that because a blog post is short and sharp it won’t get as many hits as a full-blown thesis that takes you weeks to write! It’s the insight that counts. – Jon Clement (@JonClements)

Blog sparingly, comment frequently. – Richard Bailey (@behindthespin)

Sometimes the best thing you can do to a blog post before you hit publish is delete it or re-write it. Your readers will thank you for your quality control. – James Ainsworth (@AlterianJames)

Differentiate yourself…

Keep your content, style and ideas varied for the sake of you and your readers. – Adam Vincenzini (@AdamVincenzini)

Always add value – don’t just regurgitate. – Trefor Davies (@tref)

It’s important to differentiate yourself. Try to be very creative in order to provide new and different content and don’t copy other bloggers. – Petya N. Georgieva (@pgeorgieva)

…but don’t dismiss what’s tried and tested

Some of my most popular blog posts have been lists. There is nothing people like more than top 5s, top 10s etc so settle on a subject and create a list. It always leads to a debate! – Dan Martin (@Dan_Martin)

Get your own domain and web host right from the start. – David Bennett (@Quillcards)

So if there really is a secret to blogging success, it’s simply listening and learning from those already doing it well.

What are your biggest blogging challenges? And what do you think is the most important element of blogging success?

Filed Under: Social Media, Writing Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Introducing The Student Perspective – a series about comms, from tomorrow’s stars

September 12, 2010 By Emily Leary 3 Comments

Tomorrow sees the launch of The Student Perspective – a series of guest posts from the future stars of comms.

Posts in this series will cover the usual fodder seen here (inc. PR, marketing, branding and internal comms) but the thoughts and opinions within will come from the freshest minds in the industry – those of PR & marketing undergraduates.

If you follow the work of David Clare (@davidjmclare on Twitter and once an intern of mine at Cagle Comms) or have ever checked out the articles submitted to @behindthespin (a PR student magazine), you’ll know how valuable such insight can be.

Stay tuned for the first post in the series tomorrow (Monday 13th) at 2pm.

And if you’re a PR/Marketing/Journalism undergrad with a passion for comms and something interesting to say, please send a short summary of your post idea and we’ll get things rolling.

Filed Under: Guest posts, Marketing, Public Relations, The Student Perspective Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

The launch of #CommsChat on Twitter – fancy it?

May 3, 2010 By Emily Leary Leave a Comment

#CommsChat, a weekly Twitter-based chat about anything and everything to do with communications, is inspired by chats like #JournChat, #PRstudchat and #BlogChat, which focus on specific subjects / participants.

These chats are typically based / moderated out of the USA, which means that the times are often challenging for people based in Europe.

#CommsChat has been developed with these things in mind, and will hopefully be shaped even more by you after reading this post.

The top line framework of #CommsChat

  • A weekly chat on Monday nights at 8pm UK time (1 hour duration)
  • Wide-ranging topics connected to communications, including: traditional and social media, PR, blogging, marketing, journalism and lots more
  • Special guests will be invited to take part most weeks based on the subject matter

Help shape #CommsChat

The rest of #CommsChat and its make-up will be determined by you over the next few weeks.

  • What would you like to see?
  • Any thoughts on subjects / topics?
  • Is there a format from another chat you’ve taken part in that you really like?

All this feedback will help us collectively create an engaged community and host sessions that add value to everyone taking part.

Put a date in your diary

The first #CommsChat is scheduled for 24 May 2010 at 8pm (UK time).

Although based out of the UK, it is open to anyone from everywhere – comms professionals, bloggers, journalists, students – basically anyone with an interest in / passion for communications.

Over the next few weeks we’ll provide you with more information about how it will work.

But the primary objective is simple: encourage like-minded people to get together for an hour each week to share their tips, hints and lessons relating to the world of communications.

It should be a lot of fun…and we look forward to hearing what you have to say.

Thanks

Adam Vincenzini and Emily Cagle

Staying connected / useful links:

Filed Under: Featured, Public Relations, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Preparing tomorrow’s PR pros

March 29, 2010 By Emily Leary 1 Comment

This is a guest post by Jane Crofts, a PR Lecturer at the University of Lincoln. I asked Jane how the university is preparing the next generation of PR pros for the changing landscape amidst the rise and rise of social media

So how are we preparing the youth of today to be the PRs of tomorrow? Particularly bearing in mind that many of the tutors of today are the PRs of yesterday… and bearing in mind that the advent of Web 2.0 sees PR changing faster than it has for very many years!

At the University of Lincoln we are a small but beautifully formed team of ex-practitioners and academics setting PR in the business context alongside Marketing, Advertising, occasionally Management or HR and even less occasionally Journalism. Our purpose is to give students a solid academic grounding in their chosen subjects but with a practical dimension to give that added extra to their employability. To this end we encourage them to get as much paid or unpaid work experience as they can find and to develop a portfolio of work they can show off to potential employers.

Increasingly we are encouraging students to develop this portfolio online in the form of blogs and integrated web pages taking advantage of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn used appropriately – Facebook is very much the ‘Uni life’ and softer side of the portfolio! So, we are inviting our protégés to embrace Web 2.0…and then explain it to us!

The portfolio may also be a repository for some of their assignments for example in their studies of Managing PR the assignment is a blog about developing team working skills and a reflection on how the individual has learned about their own strengths and weaknesses as a team player. As part of PR for organisational communications part of the task is to develop a real campaign for an organisation of their choice – a charity or voluntary group – and to get as much of it implemented as possible.

But of course this is just part of the picture, it’s getting those blogs and pages noticed that will count. ‘Behind the Spin’ the Chartered Institute of Public Relations student online publication provides a great outlet for the students to write about their experiences, review books and observe about developments in PR. Recent contributors from Lincoln have attracted comment from far and wide resulting in offers of help with their careers and even jobs. Subjects have included a discussion of the role of Twitter in crisis communications and aspects of the debate between students from different schools at the University – is PR killing Journalism? One book review by a Lincoln student prompted the book’s author to make contact and another student’s observations about a PR campaign to stamp out spamming in PR attracted interest from the campaign manager.

Dissertations form a critical part of the final year of study and students are encouraged to explore something new. This year social media is a popular subject including its role in the workplace as an internal communications tool, its impact on music PR as well as the afore mentioned crisis management. The students are developing a wealth of original thought and creating new angles on old models such as the popular Grunig and Hunt four models of communication (Managing Public Relations, 1984).

So, to return to the question, I guess the students are preparing themselves very well and in true academic style we are guiding them to think independently, take risks and try new ideas in a safe environment. I am confident, therefore, that tomorrow’s PR specialists and thought leaders will be able to shift and change to meet their clients’ needs and provide wise counsel to ensure PR objectives are fully integrated into a powerful package of communications using the most appropriate tools and techniques from the ever expanding kit bag.

Are you a blogger? March is Be My Guest month, and we’re encouraging bloggers from all over the world to swap posts and reach new audiences. See Be My Guest for more information.

Filed Under: Guest posts, Public Relations, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

The launch of #BeMyGuest in March: a month of mutual blogging

March 1, 2010 By Emily Leary 6 Comments

Be My Guest

Written by Adam Vincenzini and Emily Cagle

Guest blogging is great. It’s great for the guest poster, great for the blog ‘host’ and most importantly, great for the audience.

Why?

The guest poster gets to expose his / her work to a new audience. The host gives his / her audience something new and fresh to enjoy. It’s what social media and sharing is all about.

So, we thought it would be a good idea to make March the month to encourage some mutual guest blogging via ‘Be My Guest.’

What is ‘Be My Guest’?

It’s pretty simple. During March 2010, anyone taking part will aim to:

  • write at least one post for someone else’s blog, and
  • feature at least one guest post on their own blog.

How will it work?

We’d really like to focus on creating some new relationships, so instead of writing and featuring posts for people you already know really well, we’d like to extend it further.

All you have to do is use Twitter to tweet out your blog details and the hashtag #BeMyGuest to let people know you’d like to take part.

Your tweet might look like this:

“I write a blog about #media called The M3dia Blog <link> and I’d like to take part in #BeMyGuest http://bit.ly/bemyguest”

“I blog about #food at The Yum! Blog <link> and I’d like to take part in #BeMyGuest http://bit.ly/bemyguest”

This will hopefully see bloggers who are interested in specific subjects connect and do some ‘mutual’ blogging.

You might want to just link up with one other blogger for the month or four…or more! It’s really is up to you.

Some guidelines & ideas

  • Use the hashtag – If you post on someone else’s blog or have someone post as your guest, let everyone know by adding #BeMyGuest to a tweet when it’s published. You can also set up a column in Hootsuite, Tweetdeck or your Twitter app of choice to track every mention of the keyword so you don’t miss any great opportunities.
  • Blog about Be My Guest – If you’d like to outline what you’re looking for from guest posters, and showcase what you’ve got to offer other blog hosts, write a post about your requirements and push it out across your social networks with the #BeMyGuest hashtag.
  • Set out your preferences – Some hosts prefer to retain the right to edit a post, while others publish as is. Similarly, some hosts only take exclusive posts, while others are happy to reuse. So think about your preferences before you get started and once you make connections, chat to each host/guest you work with to make sure you’re in agreement.

Have fun and good blogging!

– Adam and Emily

(For daily updates, check out the dedicated #BeMyGuest Posterous site)

Filed Under: Featured, Guest posts, Social Media, Writing Tagged With: , ,

Lost for words? Five novel ways to beat writer’s block

January 14, 2010 By Emily Leary 7 Comments

Fountain pen

Getting examples of your knowledge out into the public sphere is a great way to raise your profile and prove that you understand your industry. Whether you write a blog, place articles in the media, or even pen a book, you can be sure that one day, without warning, you’ll suffer from the dreaded writer’s block.

Faced with this malady, some scour the internet for ideas to inspire them, while others head to the shops or water cooler, hoping a distraction will allow their next brainwave to come naturally. But sometimes, these methods just don’t work.

The next time you find yourself staring at a blank screen, bereft of inspiration, these five questions should help get you writing once again:

  1. When was the last time a client asked you a question about what you are doing for them or how you do it? Keep a note of these questions to create a ready list of article topics to dip into.
  2. What are the most common misconceptions about the kind of services you offer? Posts that make a complicated industry easily understood can be very popular, and will also put potential clients at ease.
  3. For each of the services you offer, there’s usually a line between DIY and calling in the professionals. Can you define that line, and what advice can you give DIYers?
  4. Do you subscribe to industry news sources to keep up with events and legislation affecting what you do? Translate these into layman’s terms to create useful news snippets for your readers.
  5. Are there others within your business with a related but different skill set or knowledge base? Make the most of the rich resources around you by inviting staff to contribute ideas, anecdotes or even full articles.

So, would these ideas work for you? What do you do when your creativity takes an unscheduled vacation?

Filed Under: Copywriting, Featured, Writing Tagged With: , , , , ,

Bloggers, are your messages being distorted?

December 11, 2009 By Emily Leary 1 Comment

Phone cans

Have you ever asked a question or sent a suggestion to a client or colleague, only to have them entirely misconstrue the message you are trying to convey? Does it sometimes feel like you are communicating in another language, with messages that appear straightforward simply not making it through to your audience in one piece?

Blogs can be a hotbed of miscommunication, often because posts tend to be led by personal opinion, and therefore carry an element of bias. Here’s my guide to three factors that can disrupt or distort your message on its way to your audience.

Message/medium mismatch

How you word any written communications should be governed in part by the intended method of delivery. When blogging, if you address your readership directly, it’s worth taking time to think about who they are likely to be, and try to avoid making broad generalisations that lump people into a category they’d rather not find themselves forced into.

Simliarly, the imagined audience referred to as “you” in a blog post addressed to a large audience will be very different to the “you” in a follow up email in response to a question from a reader. We expect personally addressed messages to be, well, personalized – to show an understanding of the individual recipient.

So, in a blog post, “Are you lacking a web presence?” might be a reasonable question to open with, whereas with a follow up email, you would be expected to have done your research and know the answer to this before firing out the message.

Multiple meaning mix-up

The accepted meaning of certain words can vary widely. This isn’t just down to dialect; it’s also down to personal opinion and experience. For example, if writing a review, keep in mind that one person considers to be a “fast service” could be positively snail-like in the eyes of another. If you’re using descriptive words like this, be sure to back them up with the facts. So, in this case, you could say, “Fast delivery, typically within 3 hours and in this case, within 45 minutes of receipt of my order.”

In addition, it’s wise to avoid complicated phrases as the wordier you get, the more open to misinterpretation the message becomes. This also goes for jargon and technical words, which should generally be avoided where possible, and clearly defined when used.

Tainted by terrible timing

In the event of an accident or tragedy, certain posts may have their meaning temporarily or permanently changed by the new context the event creates. For example, if you were to publish a post based on the concept of a business as a high-speed racing car on the same day as a serious Formula 1 accident, your message would be severely distorted.

If the event occurs after you have hit publish, there is, of course, little you can do other than respectfully amend or withdraw the materials from further public viewing. However, your audience is unlikely to be sympathetic if you allude to a tragedy that has already occurred, even if it done unwittingly. For this reason, it’s worth scouring the news for recent and current events that relate to your blog post’s concept before distribution, so as to reduce the risk of inadvertently causing offence and appearing obtuse or callous.

These are just three of many potential causes of miscommunication. What others would you add?

Filed Under: Featured, Marketing, Writing Tagged With: , , , , ,

Emily Cagle Communications new website and blog

April 29, 2009 By Emily Leary 3 Comments

Sapling

Most small businesses have a web presence these days but, in my experience, few are capitalising on the multimedia and social nature of the internet.

At the very least, a website should fulfil the core functions of:

  • positively representing your brand
  • attracting interest from potential customers
  • providing information on products and services

But in fact, a well designed website can perform a multitude of additional functions, including:

  • keeping customers informed of company news and offers
  • providing an alternative way to converse with customers
  • offering a value added service in the form of forums, tools and advice articles

As you may have noticed, my own website has recently undergone a major redesign, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to look at what has been achieved and why.

Better visuals

There can be little doubt that the first impression a site gives is largely down to the way it looks, so the first aim was to bring the site’s aesthetic up-to-date and to give a level of visual polish that complemented the written content.

The motif of the old website was of ink flowing into clear water, chosen to represent the art inherent in good writing and the fluidity of style required to make any piece of writing effective. The new motif was chosen to communicate those same messages and, thanks to Wayne Smallman at Octane, the web design consultancy behind this project, it is now better integrated into the overall look of the website, illustrating just how effective words and images can be when they are working well together.

Improved navigation

The original website was organised quite logically according to services offered, so the overall structure of the website has remained untouched.

However, the new design gives the services special prominence to make it easier for clients to find what they are looking for. In addition, the homepage has become a showcase for some of the key services on offer.

Integrated blog

A key factor in my decision to have the website redesigned was the need for a blog.

Following on from the theme of fluidity described above, one of the key requirements I passed to Wayne was that the blog should be seamlessly integrated into the main website. I think the results speak for themselves.

If you’re able to commit to posting regular content, blogs can offer a range of benefits, including:

  • providing a channel to keep customers informed – posting company news and offers in one place is convenient and helps build trust in the brand;
  • improving search engine visibility – sites with regularly updated content will generally fare better than static ones;
  • offering a useful resource for customers – posting advice articles relevant to your customer base will also help frame you and your company as experts in your field;
  • increasing your visibility via word of mouth – with the prevalence of social media such as Twitter and Facebook, an informative post can quickly spread across the web.

With the above points in mind, my own blog offers PR, marketing, copywriting and proofreading tips for small to medium businesses in the UK and Wayne has installed plug-ins so that every post comes with the option to share via Twitter, del.icio.us, Facebook, StumbleUpon or Mixx.

Since the redesign, I’ve written several advice-based posts, including:

In addition, I’ve been providing updates on all awards relevant to small businesses and aim to begin doing the same for business events in the coming months.

If you have any feedback about the new design, or the new content, please feel free to post your thoughts via the comment box below. I’d also love to hear what others have done to improve their own websites.

Filed Under: Marketing, Writing Tagged With: , ,

Use Wordle to keep your writing on track

April 26, 2009 By Emily Leary 4 Comments

Words

I just found myself on Wordle.net. I hadn’t heard of it before, but Google throws up some 900,000 results, so I’m guessing it’s already pretty popular.

Anyway, the site generates ‘word clouds’ which give you a visual representation of the most common words in a piece of text.

Here’s the result for the last few posts on this blog:

Wordle of the Emily Cagle Communications Blog

So, you can see quite easily that my recent posts have concentrated heavily on marketing and communications, and that I’ve been keeping track of business awards.

It seems to me that Wordle could be a very useful tool to help keep your marketing literature – or indeed your blog – on track. It could even be used to test for keyword frequency with a view to improving search ranking.

I’ll be posting ‘Wordles’ for my blog again, so it’ll be interesting to see how it changes over time.

In the meantime, why not try Wordle on your own blog?

Filed Under: Marketing, Writing Tagged With: , , , , ,

Free the Blog! covers London’s world literature festival

April 8, 2009 By Emily Leary Leave a Comment

Handwritten scribbles

Writers’ association 26 have relaunched Free the Blog! to cover the Free the Word! world literature festival.

The festival, organised by worldwide association of writers International PEN, takes place from 16-19th April at venues around London’s Southbank.

Edited by Emma Lawson, Jonathan Holt, Melissa Wolfe and Rishi Dastidar, Free the Blog! provides a home for posts about or inspired by the festival.

Writers featured at this year’s Heaven and Earth themed festival include:

  • Nadine Gordimer (South Africa)
  • Azar Nafisi (Iran/USA)
  • Tariq Ali (Pakistan/UK)
  • Catherine Millet (France)
  • Lydia Cacho (Mexico)
  • Jack Mapanje (Malawi/UK)
  • Leila Aboulela (Sudan)
  • Lee Stringer (USA)
  • Kamila Shamsie (Pakistan/UK)
  • Samir El-youssef (Lebanon/UK)
  • Wen Huang (China)

Visit Free the Word! and Free the Blog! for more information.

Filed Under: Events, Writing Tagged With: , , , ,