We are wrapping up this short series, where we’ve talked about – Effective Facebook, and  What to Tweet

Next up: What to Blog

You mean I have to blog, too?? Blogging is another great social media/marketing/PR/ communications tool that helps to connect your business to the outside world. It’s a good idea to have a hand involved in blogging so that you can stay relevant in today’s world. So, what should you write about?

Five suggestions:

1)    Be a resource for your customers. What do they need or want? Create content that helps your customers succeed. The more you do this, the more they will engage with you. How do you know what they need or want? Ask them. Use a short survey sent with your invoices. Send them an email with a link to an online survey. When you have them on the phone, ask them if they will take a few minutes to do a short survey with you. The more you know, the better able you will be able to meet your customer’s needs.

2)    Answer their questions. Most places probably get asked the same questions time and time again. Why not use a blog as a public forum to answer those? You’d be killing two birds with one stone—answering the questions and creating a blog (or two or four) (poor birds. . .).

3)    You can often glean your next topic by reviewing readers’ comments on your own blog. . .or read other blogs and see what their readers are saying. That may spark a few ideas on what to write about next.

4)    Current news. People care about what’s happening in the world around them. And you can turn almost anything into content that is appropriate for your audience. Well, almost anything. This is a great area to consider mining for content, but take our advice: Tread that one carefully.

5)    If something is meaningful to you, it will likely be meaningful to others. If you’re passionate about it, writing about it won’t seem like work, and you’ll be able to knock out a blog entry painlessly and easily. Plus, if you’re passionate about it, it tends to connect you on a deeper level with readers.

The best advice here is to let your topics choose you. Whether you are answering customer questions or responding to news of the day, find something that resonates with you, hits home with your audience and has relevance to your business. Blogging then may actually be something you come to enjoy.