Do you participate in #blogchat? Every week, this weekly discussion on Twitter focuses on a specific topic and bloggers everywhere are invited to join in. Because I often have more to say than what will fit in 140 characters, every Sunday night (or Monday morning), I post about some of the most interesting #blogchat tweets. Join the conversation by commenting below.
(Still confused? Read more about #blogchat here.)
This Week’s Theme: Creating Engaging Content (w/ special guests @MarketingProfs & @CC_Chapman)
To kick off this week’s Overheard on #Blogchat post, I wanted to highlight what I think was one of the best tweets of the night, straight from the mouth (or fingertips I guess) of one of the special guest hosts:
@cc_chapman: My best blog writing advice? Only write when you have something to say.
No matter what your niche, there is certain information your readers need. Sometimes, it’s basic 101-level information. Sometimes it’s a news story that affects the lives of your readers. Sometimes it’s an update on a post you did in the past. For most bloggers, not every post is going to be super entertaining, something that’s going to win an award. And that’s ok. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be an amazing post.
Why do your readers come to your blog? That’s an easy one: They want to get their information from you. If you don’t have a voice, what’s the point? Depending on the tone of your blog and your niche, for some people, the information needs to come first and the personality needs to come second, but if what you’re posting could easily go on anyone’s blog under any name, maybe it’s time to rethink your approach.
After all, this is blogging, not encyclopedia creation. If I want a straight news story, I go to one of the major news outlets. I go to blogs because I want to know what those bloggers have to say.
- Lots of bloggers reported on the iPad 2 announcement…but did you just state the fact (which can easily be found everywhere), or did you tell your readers why you do or do not want to buy it?
- Lots of bloggers talk about writing great headlines, but do you present the headlines tips in a fun, new, or interesting way?
- Lots of bloggers live blog events, but do you give your readers a typical bullet-point rundown or do something original?
It’s not about being quirky or off-the-wall. It’s just about being you. A news story isn’t you. Give it a voice! And if you aren’t inspired to do that every single day, maybe you don’t need to post every day. It’s better to have one amazing post per week than it is to have 10 so-so posts per week.
After all, it only takes one. One good post will create a reader who hits the subscribe or bookmark button…but more importantly, one bad post or boring post will create a sense of urgency to hit the back button, and even if your next post is amazing, they likely won’t be back to read it.
I was on #Blogchat last night, too! It’s crazy and fast, but you do get nuggets of gold.
I agree you should only write when you have something to say, but maybe blogging isn’t for you if you only have something to say once or twice a month. Readers do come to expect some consistancy in your posts and won’t check back if there isn’t anything new in a long time.
To keep myself on track, I’ve learned not to post everything as I write it. I maintain a schedule and save posts if I already have something for my time slot. That way, if I’m tired or uninspired, I have something of quality to post.
That’s a really good point, Sherry. If you’re only inspired to write a few times a month, that might mean that 1) you’re not a writer so maybe you should consider video or podcast formats or 2) you really don’t have as much to say about your niche as you thought. There’s nothing wrong with that – but dragging readers through boring piles of slush in an attempt to post consistently is not a good plan!