There is a long, long, long list of do’s and don’ts of professional blogging. Writing in a blog is not very complex, but there are a few guidelines which should be respected as much as possible.
Interactivity
Create events to bring interactivity to your blog. You could for instance organize contests asking your readers to write posts and submit them to you so that you would give them an ability to be published on your blog. You could also ask your readers to vote for some of your articles. Contests like this would generate visits an increase reader loyalty.
Pictures
Be careful about those pictures! Don’t believe that if an image can be picked up easily from the Internet (via Google images for instance) you would be to use it freely on your blog. This is not true and can cause your company to be liable for damages. If you want to include an image and your company doesn’t own its own image database, try online image databases like www.caedes.net. Just make sure you give proper credit to the artist and make sure the picture is relevant to your article.
Bad language
Bad language should be avoided at all cost. Any form of defamation, strong language, criticism, or even downright critical opinion of a competitor, partner, and/or co-worker is never appropriate and could open your company up to defamation lawsuits.
Comments
Don’t be afraid to open your blogs up to comments. It allows users to interact with your blog and offer differing opinions which is actually a good thing. People appreciate an interesting and civil debate. It will bring users to your blog that wouldn’t have visited otherwise. Do make sure and moderate the comments. Any comments that contain strong language or are inappropriate should be removed right away.
Written by Nikki Wardle
Nikki has a degree in Marketing from Boise State University and worked as an Inbound Marketing Specialist at Tribute Media from 2014 to 2019. She's a Google Whiz and dog lover, now serving as a marketing director for a local veterinary clinic.
