A client recently asked me how to find topics to write about in their blog. Most clients during the Design Brief process, when asked if they want a blog included in their website, say “I don’t know what I would write about”. Some can’t comprehend that people might actually want to hear what they have to say, which leads to them persuading themselves that they shouldn’t have a blog because no one will listen anyway. Few still recognize the value of having a blog in the first place.
The Benefits of Blogging
Opposed to a standard informational website, blogging provides a platform to display the personality of your company. Real estate agents and others use a personal picture on their business cards because seeing the person’s face provides familiarity and encourages trust, and trust is the cornerstone of building a successful brand. Even if pictures are not included in the blog, hearing information from the company’s point of view essentially has the same effect: it gives the user a sense of the person without even needing to see them. Your personality shines through not just what you say, but also how you say it.
A blog also provides you with the opportunity to display to potential and current customers that you are an expert in your field.This will give potential customers further confidence in you and once again build their trust even further. Take this blog post for example: there are countless posts on this topic. As I’ve said before and will again reiterate, I will never consider myself an expert on anything because there is always more to learn. However, I have been blogging for at least five years now, and I can confidently say that I am experienced enough to have an opinion that might help someone else out there. And for me, helping others ismy primary motivation.
In a slightly different way than social media or forums, a blog allows you to take your company from monologue conversation with your customers to a dialogue. People in general want to know that they matter. They offer comments on blogs to express their opinions. Continuing that dialogue by responding to comments will demonstrate that you hear your customers and care about what they have to say. Once again, this will continue to build trust and thus continue to build your brand.
Where I Find My Topics
This is the second post that I have written that was directly generated from a client’s question. Unfortunately, I can guarantee that there could have been a lot more. Why? Because I wasn’t training myself to listen for opportunities. It is only common sense: if one person has this question, others most likely do, too. In your everyday life, you can find plenty of topics to incorporate into your blog if you are prepared to listen for the opportunity. It takes practice, and it certainly won’t happen overnight. Until it does, there are other ways to find topics to blog about.
The main source for my blog topics is my frustration. I’m a very opinionated person, and a lot of people piss me off. Examples that you have seen throughout my posts:
- People that use “graphic artist” and “graphic designer” interchangeably.
- People that don’t recognize the purpose or value of design.
- Any marketer or designer that encourages the use of templates.
Chances are, any given post on my site generated from my frustration with something. Even one of my most popular posts, How-To: Create a Company Profile On LinkedIn, generated from my frustration with the usability issues on the LinkedIn website at that time.
Another way that I find topics for my blogs is the resources I find on Twitter. I’ll be posting soon on this same topic, but Twitter–unlike other resources–provides you with the information you never knew you wanted. I limit who I follow to those that actually provide substantial content instead of typical status updates. With 140 characters that isn’t easy to do, but it is possible.
Other Resources
As I said before, there are enough posts on this topic to occupy at least one entire server at Google just for search results. However, none of them (including this post) can tell you what will work best for you. Here is another post with some good ideas. Try some out and find what works best for you.
Happy blogging!