Aug 18 in Posts for other blogs
Written by: Heather Rast
Let’s look at one of the most critical factors to the success of your shiny new biz blog: the authors. Those who will produce jaw-dropping content and make angels sing.
Choose the right authors, and you’ll have an entertaining and alluring online force field drawing new visitors and repeat readers to your blog.
Choose the wrong authors, and your blog’s content will leave readers disappointed. Their collective body of work won’t reflect positively on your brand and it could even hamper business development if prospects see the blog as representative of how your company thinks and operates.
Choose the right authors for your blog team
Big-name authors aren’t required (although sure, if your business already has a high-profile community front man like @jasonkeath (SocialFresh), you’ll have some great exposure and reach naturally built into the lineup. Go, you!). Instead, look for qualitative author attributes like:
- Sense of humor
- Writing style
- Approachability
- Tone and voice
- Connectedness (as in “accessible” and “lives in the news hotbed”)
- Specialty areas
- Depth of field
- Perspective
- Editorial and grammatical prowess
“Great,” you say. “So to be successful I need a major player to anchor the blog along with a roster of top-notch writers?”
“But I have no budget,” you cry, “and our company is in Topeka, not San Francisco!”
Look outside the echo chamber
Relax, you can do this. I recommend taking another look at what you want the blog to do for your business. You should have 2 to 4 major objectives and some soft goals tied to each of those objectives (I say “soft” because if you’re just starting the blog, you lack relevant data).
With those objectives in mind, identify the competencies that surround them. From there you can do some research (Google blogs, Twitter search, industry associations, etc.) that can help you identify prospective authors.
Key to standing out: strong, clear, unique voices that probe the edges…Remember: you’re looking for interesting and unique voices along with fresh thinking. That may or may not come from someone with a higher Twitter follower count, for reasons that have nothing to do with their awesomeness.
You may be looking for subject matter experts, futurists, technical specialists, researchers, academics, or some other types. I recommend you opt for a cross-section of authors from a variety of backgrounds including big business, small biz, corporate side, independent, or other permutation. Find a contrarian, an analyst, an ordained minister. There’s always something your audience can learn from someone whose world view is a bit different than their own.
For example, I contribute to the Social Media Explorer blog, owned by Jason Falls. Some of the authors on that team lean toward digital marketing and social topics, others lean toward PR, and still others have an educational bent or see communications through the lens of custom content. By trade, one contributor is a comedian (who does crazy things with video) and another is a phenomenal data hound.
Bottom line: mix and match your authors to cover the entire landscape of disciplines and topics that relate to, or feed into your business segment. Think shades of gray, not straight-up black and white.
Concerned about making a choice that may later prove a poor fit? Consider including a 3-month probation clause when signing authors up. The clause can help you gracefully let an author go if you later learn he or she isn’t quite right to carry out the vision you hold for the blog.
Ye old editorial calendar
Objectives? Check. Authors? Check. Now on to mapping out a publishing rhythm and topics. An editorial calendar (see my sample below) can be a useful way to keep authors informed about their respective due dates. As an administrator, it can help you organize posts into content categories to ensure the content published rolls up under those objectives we looked at earlier. Publishing frequency will undoubtedly also be part of your equation.
- Make sure the content is optimized and ready to fly through your networks
- Find ways to re-purpose (get more mileage) out of your original content. Can you turn a white paper into a post series? A post into a podcast?
- Collectively tweet the posts of the blog team (Triberr could be useful here)
- Make regular stops to review your analytics to identify the categories and content that generates the most traffic and longest page views.
- Match those findings up with RT’s, Facebook shares and likes. Layer on your eNewsletter and RSS subscription data. Track activity over time to truly optimize your schiz.
Oh, and if you use WordPress, you might want to check out this post which covers plugins and extras to help you streamline some of the blog management processes. You may not need all these bells and whistles, but it’s good to know there are parts you can set to autopilot.
Happy group blogging!
I first published this post, titled “How to choose the right authors for your blog team,” on the Oneforty blog May 6, 2011 as a contributing author. I’m cross-posting here so that Insights & Ingenuity readers might also learn and enjoy.
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