There is a story in the AgriNews about a woman that started a blog and has turned it into a success. The success seems to be both about interest from people in the industry and success by having the blog turn into a business.
The story – Blogger promotes agriculture through social media – is a great read so check it out. The main focus of the blog is GOODEness Gracious. Cris Goode is the founder of the blog.
There is one overall point from the story that I want to touch on along with two other sub-points.
Balance Personal and Business Blogging
Something every blogger runs into when they’re blogging for a business is dealing with personal and business issues. You want to inject your personality into the writing. People are looking for a human behind the writing. Sure, some people are looking for strict business-type writing or instructional writing, but for the most part it is the personality that separates the popular blogs from the ones that go unseen by the majority of the target audience.
Image the plumbing industry. Most people have the question about how to unclog their bathroom drain the right way. Picture three plumbing businesses that have blogs. The first two write basic posts with the step by step process of unclogging a drain. The posts are very good with instruction, but very straightforward in language.
The third plumbing business, though, writes a similar post with great step by step info, but in addition they share personal stories or work stories about how they’ve unclogged drains.
People are going to appreciate the third blog post more than the first two.
Here is what I suggest. Inject stories into your blog. You don’t have to share your feelings, but by writing stories you’ll give off a look inside your personality. That is what people are looking for and it’s why they will hire you over the competition.
Find the Questions In Your Industry
There is a great point in the article where Cris talks about getting questions from readers. This is so crucial for business blogging. You have to find the questions your target readers have. This is why keyword research is good in some respects. If you find the big questions your readers are asking and you provide the best answer (with personality) you will win.
Look everywhere for questions. Look in forums, in your comments and in your every day business activities. Think about all those questions your customers are asking and answer them all with blog posts.
Form Partnerships to Expand Your Knowledge
Finally, Cris mentions that she is not afraid to ask for help if she doesn’t know an answer. The bigger point is that reaching out for partnerships is really good in blogging. You can write guest posts for other blogs that have more readers. You can do interviews. Any way you can create partnerships will benefit your business blog. You’ll grow faster as a blog and in turn your business will begin to grow as a result of the efforts.
Conclusion
This is another example of a blogger that came out of nowhere and created a very popular blog. You can do the same for your business and when you do make sure you inject some of your own personality into the posts.
It’s necessary for successful business blogging.