The purpose of this blog is to write about exciting and cutting edge technology relating to the Enterprise 2.0 movement as well as social softwares in general.
This first entry will be relating to what makes a blog
successful and how I intent to achieve this.
So what does make a successful blog? Well, according to The Guardian, it is the result of a large mix of factors, some obvious, some
maybe less so.
The first thing you have to do when you start a blog is to pick
your topic. It should be something your passionate about – if you don’t love
your blog, how can you expect your readers to? You should feel compelled to
write about this topic, meaning you will provide regular updates and not loose
followers due to inactivity. It would also be ideal if this topic fills an open
niche; there are millions of blogs on the internet which you have to compete
with for your audience’s time, so what would make them pick your blog over
theirs?
So now you have a blog and you have a topic, what now? Time
to start posting! The first thing that your readers are going to see of your
content is the title, so if you want them to keep looking, it had better pique
their interest. This is also what their friends will see if they share it to
social media, so it should make them intrigued as well. Once they’ve gotten
past the headline, it’s easier to keep readers if you make your posts more
personal. People want to know more about you, and this will cause them to form
an emotional connection with you, making them continue reading you posts. If
possible, you should also include pictures in your posts. This will make your
blog more visually appealing and enjoyable.
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| Mandatory picture of a cat. Don't think that you're getting more. This isn't BuzzFeed. |
Finally, make sure that your blog looks and feels
professional. Proofread your posts before publishing them and make sure your layout
isn’t a visual assault.
Okay so now you’ve got a great blog, but how do you market
it? Firstly, link your blog with your other social media so that those
friends/followers are aware of your blog and can follow you. You can also begin
to build up a reputation by posting comments on other similar blogs so that
those readers are aware of you. You could also do guest contributions on other
blogs, and have guest contributions on yours to help make those other blog
readers notice you. I intend to gain a readership by promoting myself through
various social media platforms. These will be both my personal ones and the
INB346’s Google+ community. I also hope to include on this blog a wide
range of quality posts which people outside this small community will be able
to find.
So what kinds of blogs do I like? Well, one of my favourite
blogs is xkcd’s What If?. It encapsulates
everything that I wish for this blog to become. It is both informative and
hilarious. The reader instantly has their curiosity captured by the strange
titles and stranger questions the blog aims to answer. The author, Randall
Munroe, also has a great relationship with his audience, with each week’s post
topic being taken from reader suggestions. Possibly the only downfall of this
blog is the lack of ability to comment on and easily share posts.
Another blog I love is The Drum. This site, run by the
ABC, provides opinion pieces on a wide range of political and social issues. It
is always very topical, in depth, and unlike many other less professional blogs
of this nature, provides facts and references to back up their authors’ claims.
Unlike What If?, readers are encouraged to comment and add their opinions
(although, like with many other blogs like this, it can often end in a flame
war) and easily share the story to their personal social media profiles.
However, also unlike What If?, the reader has a much harder time connecting
with the authors. There are many regular contributors and even more guest
writers, so unless the reader already knows of the author or is a very regular
reader, they will not know much about the author and probably won’t even
remember who wrote the article they just read.
That’s all for this week, stay tuned for next week’s post.
Feel free to write anything in the comments. What are your favourite blogs?
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