Last week I gave a presentation on the top 10 tips to better blogging to the team at IDC Insights.   Below I am sharing some of the details of what I presented as well as my slides.  While the discussion that we had was far more interesting, I do hope that this overview is helpful.

10 Tips for Better Business Blogging

1. First Person / Familiar
   Blogs are meant to be your personal perspective and observations.  Unlike the rest of your corporate web site, they should be written in the first person and in a familiar tone to put a more personal face on your organization. While the language is first person and familiar, it still must be professional in business blogging.  For example: slang and idiomatic expressions should be avoided.
   
   
2. Find an Angle
   What makes a business blog work is that it humanizes the voice of your company and makes it approachable and interesting.  Find an angle on the topic that makes it important to you.
   
   
3. Images / Video
   While a picture is worth a thousand words, it also entices the reader into the blog post.  It helps to set the stage on what the post is about and how interesting the post may or may not be.  A good compelling image that accompanies your post will help to ensure that more individuals read your post.
   
   
4. Title 
   Titles help you break through the clutter and excite your audience.  Think of concise, clear, relevant and interesting titles to draw your audience in. Use of first person and numbers in titles also help to draw readers in.
   
   
5. Lists 
   Usability studies have proven that online reader's find lists more compelling that large blocks of test.  Lists help to structure thought and are a great center point for a blog post.
   
   
6. Stay concise
   Keep blog posts short and to the point.  500 to 800 words is a good guideline, but the occasional 200 word post is certainly allowed!
   
   
7. Maintain a schedule 
   Staying regular in your blog communications is critically important at many levels:
   
   • It sets expectations for your readers so that they can expect a regular pattern.
   • Search engines will also expect and look for this pattern and it will help the blog to rank higher.
   • It helps the writer to get used to creating regular content. 
     
   • Getting used to regular deadlines will help the blogger to constantly be thinking of new ideas and always be looking for new angles.
   
   
8. Invite discussion
   How you end a blog post is very important.  While some blog posts may be simple statements that do not invite opinions, the more interesting posts will be those that engage the readers and invite them to participate and continue the discussion.  Ending with a simple 'what do you think?' is rarely powerful enough to have the audience reach for the keyboard.  Here are some additional ideas to get your readers to comment:
   
   • Those are my Top 5 Examples of XXX: would love to hear what others have seen.  Please add in comments below!
   • Ask a specific, relevant question: How will regulation and compliance impact innovation at your organization in 2010?
   
   
9. Link to others
   Linking out to other organizations helps create visibility to those blogs and sites and to the search engines.  When you link to other bloggers it sends a clear message that you are listening and that you respect their thoughts and ideas.  It is a simple way to get them to notice your blog and potentially get them to comment back on one of your posts.
   
   
10. Keywords
    After you have completed a blog post, go back over it with the key industry search terms in mind and try to ensure that they are used throughout the post.  Search engines focus on blog posts for their use of key words and frequency of posts.  Blog posts are a tremendous resource for your organization to increase its natural search engine ranging and visibility when key industry terms are used regularly throughout all the posts.
    

What would you add? What have you found that helps you in your business blogging?  I would love to hear.