The Best Practices of Blogging

By Stacey Hood

Blogging today is no different than it was it experienced its first surge of popularity a few years ago.

You must know your audience, write in a tight and concise manner, and pay attention to design, search engine optimization, and of course, choose the right voice of your brand.

You want to communicate on their level, educate them at every turn, and always attract new customers and readers.

It’s a very fine line to ride. How do you educate without offending or otherwise talking over their head?

Formatting Matters

Clean, simple web design is often overlooked when launching a blog.

With so many different publishing platforms — WordPress, Medium, Drupal, Joomla, Squarespace and more, it’s easy to get dazzled by the designs and themes. Always remember who you are writing and creating content for — your audience.

Keep the design of any blog easy to navigate, and organize your content using tags and categories.

How Do You Create It?

Content — blog posts, social media shares, and status updates — can make or break a company. Share too much, people will tune you out, but share too infrequently and people will forget about you.

A few pointers:

• Don’t forget about keywords!
• Cite your sources and include links to all relevant data. Statistics and data aren’t just for show. They help readers draw their own conclusions.
• Even the most brilliantly researched and written blog post needs some visual appeal to help it stand out, so get out your camera and start snapping.

Optimize your content with keywords and associated phrases related to your brand and voice of the blog, so your audience knows what to expect.

Find Your Voice

Wired Magazine is one of the best examples of a brand that has found its voice in not only social media, but also on their blog.

Wired Magazine has dialed into a great voice. Their social outposts share great information, but they also make a point of engaging directly with readers and followers.

Low-key, simple and engaging voices often get the most response in the crowded space of content today. Landing on the perfect voice won’t happen overnight. It takes time, effort, and some good old-fashioned experimenting.

Conversation content talks to your readers and gives them something to connect with for your brand.

In return, it can give you the most important item that a reader of your blog has — their time.