How to keep your company blog interesting

We have spoken about why starting a blog for your company can never be a bad idea. It helps you reach out and engage with your key audience, is a great SEO booster, and also one of the most reliable and economical ways to establish and maintain a public persona. Research on inline marketing has thrown some positive light on the matter, showing that 43 percent marketers in 2013 received a customer from their blog. If used well, your blog will not only be the official company mouthpiece, but also a true reflection of your organisational vision and beliefs.

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While in our earlier post we did share some ways to improve your company blog, let me reiterate the three most important points:

1. Get over yourself: Your work can be showcased on your website, but don’t make your blog all about yourself. It’s not a sales pitch — don’t try selling through your blog. No one subscribes to get spam alerts!
2. Focus on quality: Quality, not quantity, is the key with blogs! Any successful blog, which manages to stay loved and admired in the long run, has done so only with consistent quality of content!
3. Either do it or don’t: The worst thing you can do with your company blog, is give up after it has started. It’s better to not have a blog at all, than one which isn’t updated regularly.

And this last point brings us to the topic of our discussion: why do most blogs end before they have actually started? More often than not, it is because they don’t take the effort to brainstorm about topics to keep them going. To take that off your plates, here’s a quick guide that’ll help you generate topics for your company blog, sometimes with no effort from your side.

1. Company news: Even while your company blog shouldn’t just be about yourself, it is essential to maintain a fair balance. Share regular updates about new hires, promotions, key expansions, clients on-boarded, awards bagged, etc. It could be a good idea to turn this into a weekly newsletter of sorts, where all the news from all your offices is documented and updated on a specific day, making it easier for everyone to keep a tab on the happenings (especially employees).
2. Educate: The first rule of blogging is to always keep the reader in mind. Try writing about things that you think can benefit your readers, only then will it garner the desired reaction in terms of shares and subscriptions. Choose topics which will be educative and inspiring for your audience. Topics that usually garner to the “how to” dilemma are considered to be the biggest hits, and if you think you have some knowledge you can share, go ahead and do it!
3. Engage: Communication is not a one-way street — engage your readers with your blog so they have a reason to return. Something funny happened at the team brainstorming session? Share it with them, and ask them what they’d do in such a situation. Your entire team couldn’t come up with a decent campaign idea for a pitch? Ask your readers if they can, and throw in a good prize! Organise polls and contests, invite guest posts and opinions, and put them up on the blog every once in a while.
4. Opinion pieces: Your blog is what should define the vision of your company. Use it to reflect and respond to various happenings of the economy. Whether it is your take on how Trump’s presidency will affect India or why politics should/should not interfere with artistic licence, the voice of the CEO should be out through his company blog.
5. Trend prediction and analysis: Be an industry spokesperson and talk about what’s affecting your niche. The latest trends, new launches, predictions, or developments you expect — sharing detailed opinions on such matters is always good. Always back such stories with strong research and analysis to give your blog more credibility.
6. Case studies: Synchronise your blog to your Slideshare account. Let the readers know what innovative and thought-provoking work your company has been doing.
7. Blog takeovers: Every once in a while, let a member of your team write a post for the blog. They could share their experience of working for your company or just share an insightful piece about their specific area of expertise. If you want to keep it casual, let them take you on a dessert crawl of their favourite places across Mumbai or write about their Ladakh adventure. It’s a good way to involve your team, as well as add some diversity and freshness to the content on your blog.
8. Cross-promotion: Go through your contact list, reach out to the top and most influential resources from your industry, and offer them a cross-promotional blog tie-up. Successful bloggers use this tactic all the time — not only does it give your blog a brand new vibe but also invites a brand new set of readers through cross-promotion platforms.
9. Industry talks: When you see there’s a topic taking over the conversation in your line of work, take the effort to write to different spokespeople and influencers, asking for their opinions. Put them all together and you’ve got a detailed insightful blog post filled with real industry views.
10. Discussion forums: Be active on discussion forums like Quora and Reddit to know what everyone in your niche is talking about! It can be a nice way to source relevant and thought-provoking topics.

As an entrepreneur, you always have a zillion things to look after, and it is understandable not to be very kicked about adding one more task to your routine. But once you get over the initial reluctance and get a hang of it, you will realise that blogging is actually easy, rewarding, efficient, and honestly, quite fun and addictive. You can also take inspiration from some of the best company blogs across the world here! Happy blogging!