There are many stagnant and sluggish blogs out there. Many bloggers run out of story ideas to keep their blogs vibrant or even alive. The key to finding many good topics to write about is connecting with good sources. One of the best sources for fresh topics is other blogs – including those that have nothing to do with your industry. Here are some top-rated corporate blogs and ideas for how to use them to benefit your own blog…
Many bloggers allow their sites to go fallow because they run out of ideas for new and meaningful blog posts. Indeed, 50 percent of blogs are inert.
To do great blogging you need great sources, and those are not hard to find. One of the best sources for topics is other blogs. If you’re serious about blogging you should be subscribing to many good blogs – both in and outside your industry or subject category.
I follow about a dozen blogs by people like Denise Wakeman, Chris Brogan, Seth Godin, Leo Babuta and David Silverman. That doesn’t mean I read them all, though I do read at least the headlines. They offer fresh topics that I might use for my own posts, or even serve as guest posts so I can take a break once in awhile and treat my readers to a new voice and fresh material.
I also subscribe to corporate blogs or their Twitter posts. These are also rich sources for blog topics. Among the top corporate blogs according to Technorati, the blog search engine and media company, are:
Let’s take so-called Official Google Blog, as an example, since I subscribe to that one. It’s prolific, producing long posts almost every weekday. Let’s review some of its headlines over the last few months. I’ll number them so we can refer back.
Those are not necessarily precise or direct topics you or I would write about, but that doesn’t mean we can’t benefit by extrapolating the larger point. In other words, is there some way the topic can apply to our business, industry or cause? Let’s review headline-by-headline how we might be inspired by Google’s blog topics and turn them into something that might be useful for our own blog posts.
Headline 1: Have we added any new options or enhancements to any of our products or services that would be of interest and value to those following our blog? Let’s get our readers up to date.
Headline 2: Do any of our products or services integrate with another company’s offerings? Do we have an affinity program with other companies our followers should know about? Anything related to such matters?
Headline 3: Are we supporting any charities, non-profits, causes or movements our subscribers should be privy to? Are we instituting meaningful green business practices? This would serve our interests because people like doing business with socially responsible companies.
Headline 4: Are we engaging our followers by asking for their ideas and opinions? People like opportunities to participate. They like when others value their input. Starbucks uses Twitter to occasionally ask questions of their followers. One terrific question was: “What concerns you most?” The answer to that open-ended question can give an organization much insight. Then we can be responsive to the people to whom we owe our livelihoods.
Headline 5: Have we shared any tips with our customers related to our business or industry – especially on a timely topic.
Headline 6: Do we help our subscribers avoid problems and potential rip-offs? Doing so increases our value significantly and builds customer loyalty.
Headline 7: Is there a new product or service introduction to share? Perhaps a new store we’re opening. Something we’ve been so involved in we didn’t think to share it with our clients?
Headline 8: What company or industry research do we possess that could be shared with readers who would find it interesting or useful? Again, this enhances our value and builds customer loyalty.
You get the idea. And Google is just one of many good corporate blogs you can follow. Find good sources and mine them. Don’t be afraid to borrow good ideas, as long as you give credit where it’s due. Use your imagination to build on the inspiration of others – and keep that blog alive.
How to end your speech, William Penn style
The two most important parts of our speech are the start and the finish. But most of us spend a lot more time concentrating on how to open our speech rather than how to end it. That’s a mistake because the end of our speech is our chance to give audience members something to walk away with. One of the people who offered words of wisdom about how to properly end a speech is the great William Penn, a man who gave innumerable speeches during his lifetime. Here’s what William Penn had to say about ending a speech…
Punctuate your public speaking by pausing
One of the common exhortations of speaking coaches is to put a period at the end of each sentence. That is accomplished by briefly pausing at the end of each sentence. Indeed, the pause serves as various punctuation marks, based on its duration. A very brief pause has the effect of a comma, breaking a sentence into its parts or clauses. A longer pause has the effect of a period. A long pause, depending on the context, acts as an exclamation point.
If your company had a personality, what would it be?
Have you ever considered creating a personality for your company? Giving it human characteristics that consumers and business customers can more easily and meaningfully relate to? Let’s boil this down to a simple consideration. If your company was a human being what type of personality would it possess? Here are some examples of companies that have developed personalities, as well as characteristics to consider in developing your own company’s personality…
