Blogging as the Mayor of Business Blog Village

Community. That’s what you’re building with a business blog. You are establishing yourself as the Mayor of your online village and you are hoping the citizens show up soon. If they don’t drop by eventually you need to ask yourself why.

Many blogs are simply struggling to survive instead of thrive. They are filled with information, but very little of it is worth getting too excited about. The delivery is ho hum and there are very few new informational posts. They simply regurgitate what others have already said. The citizens of your blog community post a collective yawn and forget to hit send.

In order for there to be the excitement needed for your blog you’ve got to provide your readers with new information, new facts, expert analysis and you’ve absolutely got to be passionate about what you’re talking about. Yes, allow dissenting opinion, but defend your leadership position by providing members who disagree with further proofs when needed. Another question you need to ask yourself is if you care enough about the product or subject matter to express the vulnerability of passion.

The truth is you can be an articulate spokesperson for your blog subject, you could be a random informationalist with no real vested interest in how the work is received, or you could even be perceived as a cyber bully who can’t stand to be contradicted. If I were you I’d aim for the first – an articulate spokesperson.

When you can accurately defend your position in a diplomatic and articulate fashion you present yourself as a leader who has the expertise to pass along valuable data to the readers. Many readers may want to know if you are the individual they would like to follow when it comes to information gathering and vision casting for what they are doing.

You will need links and interviews to compliment your own expertise. You might need to occasionally think outside the box on common issues. You will need to invest time and patience in developing practical and thought provoking material for your readers. You will need to make visiting your blog as much of an event as possible.

How are you doing so far?

If you get a press release you would like to share with your readers you might consider sending a blog post with the information along with links as well as a personal analysis regarding what the information means to your readers. Many bloggers err in this concept because all they do is simply pass along the press release with no meaningful leadership. Your readers can find that exact press release in virtually any blog on a topic similar to yours. It may be good information, but it’s not unique until you make it so.

You should also add applicable pictures or graphics to each blog post. Add bullet points of subheadings for the scanners in your online village. Blog readers are no different than most of the rest of the online world – they are scanners first and foremost. By drawing them visually to the most important concepts you can help them come to terms with what information they might want to read most. This can keep those scanners coming back more often.

Assign some passion and expertise to your blog it may go a long way in allowing your constituents to view you as their leader. (source)