Social Media. Blog Consulting. Web content.

Look Before You Leap

OK, time for a reality check. Here’s the dirty secret about blogging: to do it well and produce quality content, you need someone who’s motivated and skilled from the outset. Of these two blogging prerequisites, motivation is the most important. You need someone who really “gets” blogs – who grasps how they work, why they matter, who their audience is, and what their audience wants. This person should have sufficient motivation and fodder for content to keep them posting not just a few times, but over the long haul. For years.

Yep, I said years.

That’s a HUGE commitment. No good blog is a casual sideline project. Anything that gets in the way of that commitment (such as lack of time), or that interferes with content quality (such as an inability to use the blogging software well or lack of writing skills), will probably cause the blog to deteriorate and ultimately fail. This could happen quickly or it could drag out, but either way it won’t be pretty.

For a blog to succeed, especially a corporate blog, it’s more important to pick a blogger who’s already sufficiently skilled and motivated to take on this long-term commitment than to try to turn someone “important” into a good blogger.

If the person who “should” blog “can’t,” then that wasn’t the right person after all. Your dream blogger may be ready for blogging someday – but for now, accept the reality of blogging and choose a blogger who will be a logistical and content asset, not an obstacle. Blogging is all about people, which means that you have to choose the people best suited for this medium in order to succeed in the long term.

posted by John Palmer @ 1:02 PM