Blog Writing Style

Molly Holzschlag and Darren Barefoot

Edit your materials before you post, but don’t let your own editing censor your voice
Blogs lend themselves to quick writing and shorter posts
Resisting the temptation to push “Publish” too soon can be helpful
Corrections are best handled with strikethrough text on the error. “Update:” at the end of the post works well too
Editing too many times can irritate people because subscribers to your web feed see it as a new post each time you update
Don’t name people on your blog unless they are already in the public space
Don’t excerpt email discussions unless you have the person’s approval
Understand the blogging environment by reading for a while before you write
Companies don’t blog - people blog. Passionate ones make the best bloggers.
Blogging is about telling a story, and extending that story into a conversation
Having a voice and a personality is critical. Boring or bored people aren’t engaging.
The last people in the organization you want to run the blog is the PR or marketing department. They have been trained to think and speak in a certain way that doesn’t work in a blogging environment.
PR and marketing people can be great bloggers if the get on the Cluetrain
The amount of time spent blogging is dependent on how fast of a writer you are and the size of the posts
Controversial posts bring traffic, inbound links
If you’re not a controversial person or in such an environment, this may not be the right approach for you
Blogging is an act of courage, because you are putting things out in the public that never were before
Blogs are changing the corporate culture of Microsoft, Adobe
Define the audience, offer public feedback mechanisms and listen to them
If you don’t give customers a place to talk about your products, they will make their own
Discuss your competition frankly and honestly. You become a source for information on them.
Cite other blogs, you can’t do this enough
Bottom line: be transparent, be authentic, tell your story