Tips and Tricks to Build a Better Blog

By Tracey Batacan

Blogs are a great way to communicate a variety of timely information to vast audiences in bite-sized formats. Some blogs may be very successful while others struggle to maintain their content for niche audiences. So how does one create and sustain a blog? Take a look at some of these tips and tricks to building a better blog. 

• Call for Bloggers: Great ideas come from a variety of viewpoints. One of the best tips for building a better blog is to create and maintain a diverse blogger community ready to share their ideas and blogs. The goal is ensuring you reach out and connect with them on a regular basis via emails, group chats and more to review blog topics and new concepts. Also, create a feedback loop to inform bloggers about their submissions, editorial changes to their content as well ask for input or suggestions about the blog.  

• Blog Process: How many times have you created a new communications tool, but the project did not move forward due to an overly complicated process? Keep the blog process short and to the point from the ideation of topics, through the approval process to the publication and promotion. For example, keep the blogging process at 5 to 6 simple steps. 

• Mobile vs Print: Check your content to make sure it is 508-compliant and accessible to all audiences. Also, folks like to have mobile-ready blogs to take with them on the go so they can share it with other like-minded professionals. Test out your blogs on multiple browser platforms to make sure it meets the best viewing capacity. Lastly, create an opportunity for readers to print your blog collection so they can share it with others. 

• Marketing: David Avrin, author of the book “Visibility Marketing” once said, “at the beginning of the day it’s about quality and at the end of the day it’s about competitive advantage.” Your goal is to create and promote a blog that is relatable, attainable, funny at times, always informative, and serves as the leading edge of news and information. This includes building a strong brand for your blog so that people begin to look forward to the latest updates, share, like, or re-Tweet readily.  So, promote the blog abundantly with zeal to get people talking about new and upcoming content. 
• Take Risks: It is okay to try something new and exciting to launch your blog. Some people feel it is easier to follow existing processes instead of creating new ones. While existing SOPs may serve as a baseline, everything can use a bit of process improvement to make sure the project runs smoothly.  Therefore, the ability to create and maintain a blog that is both visually compelling with great storytelling requires taking a certain amount of risk on everything from the bloggers, to the layout, blog design, and marketing concepts. It may help to change one’s perspective about risk-taking so that your blog can break the mold and release your organization from legacy practices that no longer work.

View the original blog online @FedCommunicatorsNetwork.