Continually developing good content for your blog is a very difficult task. If you are a dentist or insurance agent, the last thing on your mind is your next blog post. You have much bigger fish to fry and bigger rocks to fit into the jar.
However, having a well-informed blog connected to your website will do wonders for your social proof and overall online presence. Trust and credibility are invaluable qualities business can have. At all cost, avoid gaining negative social proof.
Depending on what you are aiming to do and talk about, creating content isn’t that difficult. For a regular business who wants to target regular everyday customers, your content should be specific to the needs of your customers.
Take a step back and consider things from their point of view. What would they search? If you ran a dental office, do you really think your customers really care about the latest update in some random jargon they never heard of. No, they would be more interested in simple tips such as “How to properly floss.” “What are common causes of tooth decay,” or “What are daily steps I can do to improve my dental hygiene.”
It is not about selling anything. Take off the sales hat for a second, and instead of being needy, start being engaging. Spend some time with your staff once a week, or monthly, and brain storm a list of topics that can be useful. You mix it up and include new updates and trends. Adding a variety of information will ensure a wider demographic. You might be able to attract customers, clients, and the attention of other industry leaders.
Once you have a long list of ideas, it is time to create a blogging calendar or commonly referred to as an editorial calendar. Depending on how regularly you want to publish a post, fill in the dates. The key is to remain consistent. While life may cause some delays and schedule conflicts, it is good to have specific days to post and publish, so your audience understands when to expect mail (assuming you have set up an email campaign).
While many people like to use different methods of keeping track of their posts, I am personally happy with a simple spreadsheet. The spreadsheet outlines what we want to be written for the next two months or so. Keep in mind that this should be a live document. Life and trends are volatile, so your calendar has to be ready to reflect those inconsistencies. If some new kind of treatment or discovery is released, be prepared to move items around…and this will happen often.
Upload the spreadsheet to Google Drive. Have I ever mentioned that I love Google? Once it is on Google Drive, share it with your team. This will ensure transparency within the company. Blogs are the voice of a company and should be a group effort. Check out the many ways to make your blog better.
Here is a sample image of our Blogging/ Editorial Calendar:
As you can see, we like to keep track of what article is published, by who, and the status of it. We have various color codes to decipher certain variations. Overall, it is very simple and efficient.
Keeping a blogging calendar will help you become more organized. Instead of spending time worrying about what you will write next, you will already have a schedule. It is that simple.
Nelson Ta is the Content Editor and lead blogger for Omnibeat. As a social media enthusiast with an extensive background in writing, he strives to help businesses and people understand the latest trends in social media, technology, and marketing.
