I had a rather interesting conversation with a rather interesting gent (he knows who he is) as to the effect of businesses engaging with blogging and social media generally.

Business is bad for blogging

My friend’s point was this that blogging for business has had an almost corrupting influence on the thing that made blogging so popular in the first instance. In many respects, my friend is entirely right – the objective of business is to make profit and whether it is through blogging or otherwise – this remains as true as ever.

Blogging is good for business

What’s lost however as part of this conversation is what about the net effect that blogging and other social media may inadvertently have on business – or more particularly on how business does business. This is in my opinion an important point and has social consequences – having to engage through blogs and other social media will have a longer-term net positive effect.

Controlling the message

So what if businesses that are engaging are still highly motivated by a need to control the message. The enter into the arena with a set agenda, they may continue to stick to their guns for a period but gradually the smarter businesses are realising that engaging rather than controlling is where it is at.

No more lip

Of course we can argue the toss as to motive but to effectively blog, you must engage with the reader. That’s a blogging bottom line. This applies to business as much as it does to anyone else. Therefore, the act of blogging effectively means that business will need engage with it’s customers in a new way. For too long many businesses paid lip service to the idea of serving their customers, perhaps now they are beginning to not have a choice.

Just because you have a blog

Not all businesses engage through their blog I hear you say, and of course you are right, they don’t. Ok, so what, just because you have a blog surely doesn’t automatically mean that you can blog.

Surely effective blogging or indeed effective use of any social media is not about the technology – it’s about the people or the organisations behind them. Yes, businesses are slow to get it and in many respects they are merely involved in a desperate act of catching up but think about it – Who is really the one in control?

In part one; I talked about our second SLI meet up “From the Buyers Perspective” and in part two about our morning International Partnership event “International Success for Tech Companies”

Tuesday: The International Partnership – International Success for Tech Companies (Afternoon Session)

As already stated, the interest in this took us by surprise so we ended up holding a second session on Tuesday afternoon. The running order followed a similar pattern to the morning event, with both Donagh and Dave speaking again (see part two)

However this time first up was Paddy Holahan. Paddy is CEO of Newbay Software, a leader in digital lifestyle solutions for operators, enabling subscribers to create, store, view and share user content. Paddy brings huge experience in the Irish tech sector, having previously been Executive Vice President of Marketing & Product Management at Baltimore Technologies.

He spoke at length about his humble beginnings and how he managed to grow the various Irish software businesses that he has been involved with. Paddy is a straight talker, someone who is not afraid to call it as he sees it - but I think what impressed everyone most was his incredible focus.

He demonstrated an ability to back his own judgement, sometimes against the advice of others - but more often than not proving his was the right course to take. As a fellow Tipp man, I have to say - I liked his style.

Again, the quality of the people that attended was reflected in the intelligent dialogue and engagement that ensued all afternoon. As the risk of repeating myself, the Irish tech sector is in good hands. It’s the rest of us that need to make sure we adequately support our tech leaders - I for one, intend to make that happen.

Wednesday: Day of Rest? Yeah Right!

I travelled from Dublin to Tipp on Wednesday, happy in knowledge that the previous two days events had exceeded my expectations. I had intended to do a little work in the afternoon; I also knew I had a conference call with Jonathan Farrington and the Top Sales Experts International team that evening.

Irish Biz Blog Network

On the way down, I put a call into Fred and Facundo at Channelship. The guys and I have teamed up to launch Ireland’s first Biz Blogging Network.

Now I have always believed that best way to get stuff done is to simply trust the right people and then let them do their thing. I don’t want to give too much away just yet, but let’s just say it was another expectation exceeded. I would seriously encourage you to watch this space and Channelship because they are rightly becoming leaders in their field.

Here’s a recent Slideshare from Channelship.

TSE, the Greatest Show on Earth!

All that was left was the conference with TSE, and boy, did Jonathan have lots of exciting news. I am not sure that there is someone doing more for the profession of selling than Jonathan.

Again, I need to remain tight lipped for now but let’s just say there are a serious of BIG announcements planned over the coming months. If you haven’t checked TSE out yet, click on the banner – It is already an incredible sales resource and is on the way to becoming the one-stop shop for sales info on the planet.

Next up, was Thursday, which was the IT of Cork meet up and another very successful Irish entrepreneur – who may also double to be the most successful social networker in the land??

I recently passed the 100 post mark on this blog.

To say that I have learnt a lot in between would be an understatement. To say that I have lots more to learn, would require an even bigger understatement.

It has been an enjoyable, frustrating and fascinating experience. I have gained readers; I have gained new customers and best of all I have gained many great new friends.

My posts have resulted in praise, in controversy, and in scorn. Readers have agreed with me strongly and readers have disagreed, with equal amounts of passion.

Perhaps, now is a good time to step back, and evaluate what has a 100+ posts taught me, about blogging and blogging for business.

Lesson Number 1 - Quality always Beats Quantity

With the amount of available information that is out there, you need to stand out from the crowd. To this end, it is always better to focus your efforts on the quality of your posts, rather than the quantity.

People now have a much shorter attention span, so to get them to actually read what you have written - requires that you offer something of real value. Spend enough time constructing each post, giving extra special attention to your headline (eye-catching) and your first paragraph.

Lesson Number 2 – Never Ever Sell

So many business blogs are merely a series or reworded advertisements for the particular business. It’s awful, awful, and awful and gives nothing of real value to the reader. Instead think Give! - give advice, give insight and give resource. Make your blog valuable, in the eyes of your readers.

So instead pose questions, stimulate debate, provide commentary, and invite other experts to write interesting posts. Remember, the more value your blog brings to your readers - the more lightly that these same readers will become your customers.

Lesson Number 3 – Popular won’t always mean Popular.

There can sometimes be a tendency to jump on a particular bandwagon, and post about what everyone else is posting about. While this can be sound strategy for more established bloggers - it is rarely sensible for new bloggers to follow suit. Where possible, try instead to come up with new ideas and new topics - or at least differing angles for your posts.

It’s perfectly OK to be controversial, so long as your opinions are considered, and that you truly believe in what you are saying. Be careful, because once you have committed a point of view to the public domain - you will need to be able to back it up.

Lesson Number 4 – Engage with Your Readers

The very best thing about blogs is that, they allow for you to engage and debate with your readers. If someone takes the time to comment and give their point of view, make sure to respond and thank them.

Don’t just engage with people through your own blog, instead follow them home to their blog and leave a comment. Reading and engaging with others bloggers, not only increases readership of your blog – but is a super super way of generating ideas for new posts. Be sure to credit the other person and invite them to continue to partake in the ongoing discussion.

Lesson Number 5 – Don’t Be Afraid to be Yourself

A big mistake many new business bloggers make is to try and write in a so called “professional manner” It’s much more important to try to be yourself and to let your uniqueness out itself in your writing. If you like a joke, well then - have a joke.

Don’t burden yourself with having to sound, or come across - all professional like. The most important thing is your message, and that you communicate it with language your readers will understand.

So it’s 100+ posts down, and hopefully many more to go.  I could say more, but I will save for it 200+.

Can I take this opportunity to say a BIG thank you, to the readers, to those of you who left such great comments, to those that republished my posts and to anyone from anywhere who ever stopped by.

Warning: By the way, blogging is bloody addictive and I still cant spell LOL.

Published by Niall Devitt @ BtbTraining  

Published by Niall Devitt, Btb Business Training

In part one, we talked about how some business bloggers create posts that resemble a series of reworded ads. This is, in my opinion a misguided S&M approach, which will rarely add anything to the company’s bottom line.

For a business blog to end up adding real value for that business, it has to first add value for potential customers/readers. Then and only then, will these potential customers be motivated enough to contact the business and give you an opportunity to turn them into actual customers. So how can you achieve this?

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Published by Niall Devitt, Btb Business Training

As a relatively new business blogger, I am constantly seeking out advice as to how to improve our blog. One very simple way for me to do this is to surf the net looking at other business blogs, seeing what they do well and sometimes what they don’t. It goes without saying that ultimately a business blog needs to add value to a business or else it is simply not worth doing.

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