Best Practices for Blogging for Your Business

Blogging is one of the most stellar ways to promote your business.  It gives you an opportunity to not only promote and talk about your products, but also yourself.  People want to get to know the person behind the brand, and blogging is one of the sure fire ways they can do that.

If you’re not yet blogging for your business, I highly suggest that you read Lauren from Elle & Company’s post on “Transitioning Your Blog to Grow Your Business“.  She offers some amazing insight into how she did it and how beneficial it has been for her.  Lauren also offers ways to do it, so if you find yourself having trouble with how to transition your blog, her post is an excellent resource to get you started.

Though I’ve been blogging for a while, I’ve only recently started to really take blogging for my business seriously.  Before, I would share something business related every now and then, but shied away from doing so, because I didn’t want my audience to feel I was always selling to them.  I’ve since learned that blogging for your business is not about selling to your audience at all.  Its about offering solutions, and how your product or service can be a part of that.

I’ve seen many others blog in their businesses or rather have a “personal” blog on their business site, and I always kind of cringe when I see this.  I feel if you’re going to be sharing deeply personal things, that could potentially sway people’s perception of you in a negative or not so positive way, your business site may not be the place for that.  I’m referring to those who are running their businesses full-time, it being their bread and butter.

[Tweet “Blogging for your business is about offering solutions, and how your product or service can be a part of that. “]

On the flipside, there are many bloggers who also run businesses, part-time that is, and so their business is only a branch of their blog.  Its something they just do on the side and may not take as seriously, so its less important if they’re not blogging about their business.  Moreover, its less important if they share things that don’t impact their businesses, because they aren’t dependent on that business to pay their bills.  This post is geared specifically to those who blog for their business, or feature a blog on their business site.  I’m offering some tips on how you can keep it classy, professional, and insure that what you’re blogging about is in alignment with your businesses goals.

[Tweet “Bliss & Faith offering tips on how you can insure that your blogging is in alignment with your business goals.”]

Don’t overshare.

Yes, people love to hear the nitty gritty, but they don’t need to know every single aspect of what’s going on in your life to get to know you.  Share a personal story or situation every now and then, but think twice before you hit the post button as to whether this post adds or takes away from your image and brand.

[Tweet “Think twice before you hit the post button as to whether this post adds or takes away from your image and brand.”]

Keep your emotions to yourself.

If something happens that upsets you, don’t take to your blog to share your frustrations.  Using your business blog as a place to rant is unprofessional, and people will soon loose respect for you.  [Tweet “Using your business blog as a place to rant is unprofessional, and people will soon loose respect for you. “]It also shows a sign of immaturity, in that it shows poor judgment, because it shows people that you can’t decipher between what is and isn’t appropriate to share.  You never see or hear CEO’s of huge companies like Coco-Cola and Apple sharing how they got cut off in traffic by some rude person.  Save those type of conversations for real life interactions with friends and family members.

Share the stuff that matters.

If your business’ mission is about making people’s lives easier or more organized, share a story about how you’ve done it.  This also gives you an opportunity to talk about XYZ product or service, and how its helped you and how it can help them.  Your killing two birds with on stone, in that your allowing people to get a peek into your life, while being able to talk about your product or service.

Know your business and what it stands for.  

I referenced this a smidgen in the previous point, but I’ll go into a little more detail here.  Sometimes, depending on the type of business you have, personal stories are necessary, because they directly align with what your business’ mission is.  Lara Casey does an amazing job at this, and part of the reason it works so well for her is because her brand is all about inspiration and goal-making.  She shares many personal stories of triumph and tribulation, but still does it in a professional and delightful way.  Even if she’s telling a not so happy story, I still walk away from her posts feeling uplifted, positive, and better about my own life.[Tweet “When blogging personal stories need to directly align with what your business’ mission is.”]

Be Positive and humble.

For me this is the biggest one!  I’ve come across blog posts that literally have just brought me down, because the individual was so negative or boastful.  I walked away from reading their post shaking my head, because I couldn’t digest all of the negativity and lack of humbleness that I just read.  I think to myself, wow those are 5 minutes of my life I’ll never get back, and I never even saw it coming.  On the other hand, I love a good humble post where even if the individual is going through something negative they still managed to turn it around and leave something positive on the table.  Alisha, from The Alisha Nicole does a great job of this.  She shares her current struggles with grace, but always leaves the post on a positive tip.  I don’t worry about this girl, because I know she will be okay.  I can also appreciate her honesty and humbleness, and I believe that if I meant her in person she would be exactly who she appears to be online.[Tweet “Be Positive and humble; don’t have your blog be a place that brings people down.”]

Be honest and consistent.

Your online personal should mirror your real life persona.  Don’t fabricate stories or situations that make you appear to be someone you’re not. People are very keen on noticing whether your actions and your words match.  You can appear to be one way on social media, but then we step over to your blog we see someone completely different.  People value consistency, especially from business owners.  If anything, they’ve come to expect it, so if you’re not honest and consistent with who you are and what you do, you’re doing yourself a disservice.[Tweet ” Your online personal should mirror your real life persona. Always be honest and strive to be consistent.”]

Remember that you are the face of your business, what you put out there directly impacts it.  Be smart, resourceful, and mindful when it comes to blogging for your business.  People only give you so many chances to offend, upset, or make them feel some kind of way.  Its extremely hard to win people back once you’ve done this.  Use best practices, so that you never find yourself in this position.  You want your business to grow and prosper, and so your thoughts and actions should dictate that!

I’d love to hear your thoughts!  – Do you have any other best practices that business owners could use for blogging?  What are your main dos and donuts of blogging for your business, or blogging in general?

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