Sazbean

Software Development Management

Main navigation

You are here: Home / Archives for Strategy

Strategy

/

Is Anyone Listening?

insightslogoAs business professionals sometimes we get caught up in blogging, twittering, facebooking and networking.  It seems like we’re putting hours and hours into blogging and networking.  We’ll ask for feedback at the end of blog posts, but no one usually replies.  We’ll ask questions on Twitter but don’t get many responses.  Is anyone listening? – Is Anyone Listening? – Sarah Worsham – Insights Group

If you feel like you’re putting in lots of effort in blogging and networking, but not seeing any return, I hope you’ll head over to my guest post over at Insights Group to get some tips on how to tell if anyone’s listening….

/

12 Ways to Get Ideas for Business Blogging

ideaapesaraI have a lot of people ask me how I come up with ideas to blog about every day.  It’s not that difficult – I just end up thinking quite a bit about various topics that can also be used for blog posts.  Not all the time, mind you, but I do carry around various devices (iphone, pen & paper) to record ideas when they do hit.  Here’s some ways to get ideas:

  1. Read – a lot – Other blogs, Twitter feeds, books.  Anything related to your area of business (and some that aren’t) can spark a great blog post.
  2. Ask – your customers, your colleagues, your friends.  What have they always wanted to know about (related to your business/industry)?
  3. Help – Provide helpful information, not only specific to your products and services, but related to your industry in general.
  4. Brainstorm – Sometimes just a regular old brainstorming session surfaces some great new post ideas.
  5. Spark – some controversy – Within reason, feel free to have and state an opinion related to your industry.  Just do it in a friendly way, back up what you say and invite others to comment.
  6. Converse – with other bloggers. Post your thoughts on what others are blogging about.
  7. Share – links to other sources of information.  Feel free to add your thoughts and comments.
  8. Review – products and services of interest to your readers.  Skip your own (and probably those of your competitors).
  9. Support – take a look at questions your customers are frequently asking.  If you have a FAQ (frequently asked questions), take the time to expand on them in various postings.
  10. Inform – Keep your readers aware of various events, industry happenings and news of interest.
  11. Create – If you’ve been able to gather some information or data that may be of interest to your readers/customers, create white papers and supporting blog posts to share your findings.
  12. Reuse – Take old posts and update them.  If you do list posts like this one, take them and expand on the individual items in larger posts.

For tips on how to get started, check out today’s post over on Insights Group – Blogging, Are You?

How do you get ideas for business blogging?

(photo by apesara @ Flickr CC)

Technorati tags: , , , , , ,

Liked this post? Consider subscribing to our RSS feed or our monthly newsletter.

Related Articles:

/

Are You Building an Audience or a Community?

Chris Brogan had a great post yesterday – Audience or Community.  I think businesses often get caught up in the need to use every new technology to grow and reach their audience, when the advantage of social networks is in the ability to create, engage and be a part of a community.

The only difference between an audience and a community is which direction the chairs are pointing. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. When we say community and we mean our selling demographic, that’s not the same thing. When we say community and we mean audience to absorb our message, that’s not the same thing. It’s important to understand this. – Chris Brogan – Audience or Community

When you take a look at a lot of Twitter and Facebook accounts – they’re just people and companies broadcasting about what’s important to them.  But they’re missing the true power of the technologies.  Using Twitter and Facebook and other social networking tools, you can create a community around your company’s products.  This community allows people interested in your company to engage and meet and talk to each other as well as you.  This turns out to be much more engaging than just broadcasting your message – and can be much more powerful, meaningful and useful in the long run.

Technorati tags: , , ,

Liked this post? Consider subscribing to our RSS feed or our monthly newsletter.