8/19/2005 12:17

Darren Barefoot and Molly Holschlag are talking in the most current Blog Business Summit about the most critical and essential thing about blogging: writing well.

Yep. I keep saying your words are now your brand - so here we go!

Your blog is a conversation with the customers you serve. So editing problems, like misspellings, bad grammar, etc. will reflect on your company.

Edit your materials before posting…

If you re-edit posts that you've already posted, you'll not be able to get your final thoughts through your RSS feed, because the feed will go out with your original post, but (depending on how your feeds are configured) your feed may not go out again. Or, your subscribers may get the same post over and over again, as you continue to edit. An RSS SPAM – ugh.

Authenticity and transparency are keys to blogging. Make corrections in a transparent way. Like UPDATE: correct the errors.

Err on the conservative side when blogging about people and naming them. Don't meme people on your blog unless they're in the public space, and have made a public statement. For example, if someone sends you an enticing e-mail, it's probably not good to blog about it or the person who sent you the juicy story. (Unless they do this – which is a very cool idea.)

Read before you write… but write!

Determine your style and voice by reading what you like, and finding out what entertains you. Then find your voice. It'll take time – but read a lot and practice.

Practice, practice and practice. Set up an internal blog first, or one on a non-public area.

Write to it – it might have the additional benefit of making marketing, legal, and executives more comfortable about what you're blogging.

Individuals in companies blog – your company should not blog. Passionate, compelling people should be blogging. Readers will respond much better to passionate human beings blogging than a corporation blogging. I really (for example) love the way Tara writes. She has a subtle irony that makes me smile. I personally think that bodes well for Marqui.

You want a human relationship – blogs are about telling stories, and about conversations.

Controversy is interesting. Controversial blogs inspire conversations, which results in inbound links.

Yeah, we get that one. Risky business, but good Google juice.

Posted by at August 19, 2005 12:17 PM

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Janet email - blog.marqui.com

Sheepish UPDATE: Of course, I would be writing about editing before you post. And forgot the link to my earlier post about 'This e-mail is [X] Bloggable', which you can find here:

blog.marqui.com/archives/2005/01/this_email_is_x_1.html

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