Category — blogging

I had a good time writing Blogging as Company Narrative the other day… figured I’d write a couple more on blogging over the next week or so. So keep an eye out!

Today, it’s blogging as entertainment. What I mean is that a good startup blog will bring people in to your site, and it will bring in people that want to be there. People that like your culture, your style, your pictures, your whatever. People that not only want to visit when they need your service, or when they want to use your app, but people who want to see what’s up in your company on a day-to-day basis. The best part, of course, is that they come for the fun of it, and they stay for the business. Eventually, they’ll click on to your frontpage, and check out what you have to offer. Even better, they’ll click through with a developed notion of your brand. So in the end, the blog not only brings new people to your site, but it prepares them for what they see (and prepares them to like it).

Really, that’s why I talk so much about producing quality stuff. If you want your blog to work for you like that - you want people to click through from your blog and you want them to be exposed to your brand before they do - you better make sure it’s the right brand-impression. I’ll bet you can get people to your blog and to your site with shock-and-awe ‘buzz’ tactics, but if that’s not the type of impression you want to make, and that’s not the brand you’d like to communicate, the people will do you no good when they get there.

So, go write a blog, promote it, and get people to see your stuff. But please, write a good one.

A couple days ago, Alan Jones wrote a good piece about company narratives - how startups can define who they are by telling good stories about the timeline and character of the company. I agree with Alan too - the company narrative is a crucial part of startup writing. But I’d like to add something to the post.

I gather Alan is just talking about company narrative in the ‘About Us’ section. But I think sometimes, it develops best in your blog. Sure, you should probably have a story somewhere on the frontpage (it’s likely the first thing people will look at), but your blog is the place to really bring it to life. Post funny pictures as you take them; post funny stories as they happen; post why you’re doing what you’re doing as you figure it out; and post retrospectives as you go. Pretty soon, you’ll have accumulated a depthful and dynamic company narrative. One that people can consume all at once by cruising your archives, or even better, one that regular readers develop as you and your story evolve.

That’s the type of company narrative that not only communicates who you are, but engages customers day after day, and brings them back for more again and again. That’s a good narrative, and that’s a good blog.

Now… is your blog telling a story?

@gruen wrote another noteworthy post over at blog.michaelgruen.com, this one about bloggers writing the same stuff over and over again… about how we’re not creating any original content anymore. It’s good stuff, but the best part of the whole thing came when @megfowler quickly replied: “EVERYONE writes about how no one’s blogging unique content anymore!”

Why (besides relaying this interaction) do I bring it up here? Well, first, I thought it would be funny to link to it, to prove his point (that I’m just recycling other people’s content). And second, to contest the point. The blogosphere is about new ideas, and I try to produce good ones on a near-daily basis here. But it’s also about community. About trackbacking, twittering, and talking… about bloggers and readers connecting around a common interest. It’s not original content sure, but that’s the idea. It’s human engagement.

Community, not isolated people talking, is what makes a blog interesting.

Just as much (for StartupWriting purposes), community (not just founders talking), is what makes copy interesting.