Let me be clear up front, I am not a business blogger. I’ve been advocating for an organisational blog at WWF for almost 2 years now and I will continue to push for it as it will definitely help us reach our global goal of “mobilising millions”, but I’m not currently writing, in charge of, contributing or planning a business blog. BUT I have found some very good articles online about this very topic and I found them very helpful in my own thinking while I get ready to start planning a business blog. A blog is an integral part to any social media strategy. If you’re organisation or business isn’t currently blogging, you need to consider your social media strategy and its long term goals and decide if and when you may launch your business blog.

The Business2Community blog gives very practical advice for businesses engaging in social media. It’s not the run of the mill, WHY you should use social, it simply offers advice, case studies, trouble shooting and experience. The 10 key components to business blogging are practical and might seem like they’re stating the obvious but in my experience, this is often needed. People think they know the basics and get bogged down in the detail and the strategy and then when they go live they realise they’ve forgotten the most simple elements that eventually bring them unstuck.

The blog definitely mentions the need to measure your blog success. But if you’re not getting huge audience numbers right from launch, don’t despair, your organisation will benefit over time from your blog but it will be incredibly rewarding for your business blog contributors. Don’t underestimate the value of cotent, inside your organisation, as well as outside.

The Business2Community business blogging article stays focuses on the return on investment and the business benefits you will receive from sustained blogging. Blogs are about sharing information and being helpful. Become a little helper today.

The 2nd useful resource I found online this morning about business blogging was from Jeff Bullas. Jeff was singing the praises of the Hubspot Blog – an inbound internet marketing blog, which he believes is the best practice business blog. Jeff Bullas breaks down the 11 elements you need for a successful business or corporate blog. I’m going to cheat and list them for you below – because I think he and Hubspot both have it right – and I hope that I’ve ticked at least half of these boxes in my own short blogging career.

1. Multiple rich media content – videos, cartoons, infrographics, slideshare and more
2. Posting regularly – every day or more( if possible – we are only human and life gets busy)
3. Multiple social media channels – don’t just choose 1 social networks, choose ALL
4. Use your blogs to solve problems for people. Understand your audiences’ needs and help them
5. Don’t sell yourself in blog posts – if your content is good, it will sell itself
6. Keep your content focused on what your audience wants to know – don’t go off track
7. Have a call to action – keep it simple and usually free (download, subscribe) – but capture their information
8. Entertain your audience and put a face to the blog from time to time
9. Don’t forget the power of email – it is definitely not redundant yet
10. Make sure you keep evolving – update your blog and move with the new trends
11. Stay up to date and topical – keep your readers abreast of new developments in the industry. Blogs are about sharing, not every piece of content needs to be original (such as this blog post here).

I hope these two expert blog posts about business blogging help you, they have certainly got me thinking.