Blog posts I hope you write...soon

Blogging is a great way to communicate with your clients, peers, prospects and network. It allows you to tell people about who you are, what makes you different and what you are passionate about...it also puts a human voice to your business. Everyone should be blogging, but there is always one big obstacle...what should you write? Writer's block gets the best of us.

Chris Brogan is a social media guru and he published a post called "100 Blog Topics I Hope YOU write" and it was full of ideas for blog posts. I am borrowing (not stealing :) his idea and offering up a list of 25 blog posts I hope you write.

I know we are a Networking Group and I know this site is the online community for the people who attend our networking events or who are involved in our Connector Groups, but that does not mean you need to blog about networking.

Here are some easy ideas to get you started:

1. What do you do? - You can start blogging by introducing yourself. Tell us who you are and what you do.
   
2. Why do you do what you do? - How did you get to where you are today? What made you start doing XYZ? How long have you been doing it?
   
3. What is your favorite part about what you do? - Tell us a story about a recent success or the thing that makes you love your job?
4. Share your success stories? Mike Bavuso recently shared a story about an award his company won. Sharing these successes is a great way to show people that your business is the "go-to" guy/girl.
5. Share you failures and what you learned? - Did your company make a mistake (don't worry it happens)? Tell us about it and what you learned or how you made things write with the client.
   
6. Who do you want to meet? - Who are you hoping to connect with and why? This could be a business connection, but it could also be a lifelong hero, celebrity or someone who inspires you.
7. Share pictures and the back-story - Perhaps you are a landscaping firm, architect, office furniture company, contractor, graphic designer or web designer and you could share photos of recent projects your completed with a story about the project. You can upload these pics to the Networked Events site and embed them into your blog posts in a few clicks (if you need help, let me know and I will walk you through it.) Amanda Reid does a great job of this on her profile.
8. Share videos - You can also add videos to the Networked Events website and embed those in your blog posts. Have a testimonial video, commercial or other video that would help us learn more about what you do? Post it to the site and create a blog post about the video. Mike Morris from Fitness Together is sharing some instructional videos on the site and it is a great way to learn more about what he does.
9. Share articles - Have an interesting article or information to share? This is a great way to demonstrate your expertise and build credibility. (We also tend to feature interesting articles in our newsletter so you get added exposure)
10. Comment on current events and how they relate to your business - Scott Farmelant from Mills & Company recently shared a blog post about how Toyota could have handled their current situation better with more effective PR (Scott's company happens to be a PR firm). If you notice an interesting news story that relates to your business, blog about it.
11. Answer common questions - Share answers to the questions you hear all the time...what does X do? How will you help me Y?
12. Write about the people you meet who are doing interesting things - We all have interesting clients...tell us about the people you meet who are doing something interesting.
13. Give testimonials - Did you work with someone you met at one of our networking events? If so, share your experiences and write a testimonial about them.

Those are some great starters ideas - here are some more:

1. Debunk some of the myth's about what you do - Common knowledge is not always knowledge at all, right?
2. Talk about the various business models in your industry and why you operate the way you do - Some people charge a flat fee, some charge hourly, some get paid by performance - tell us about your business model and the advantages it offers clients.
3. Compare the old vs. new way of doing things in your industry - Explain the evolution of your industry.
4. Conduct an interview with people in your niche - You can do this via email and report the results back to us as a blog post.
5. Have you run the marathon or completed a triathalon? - Tell us about it. Why did you decide to do it? Was it difficult? What was the most difficult part of the training?
6. Are you involved with a nonprofit organization - Tell us why you got involved and why we should get involved. Why is this cause important to you? How can we help?
7. Tell us a client horror story - Everyone has clients they wish they could get rid of...tell us about it (be careful with this one obviously)
8. Describe your customer service philosophy - Is the customer always right?
9. Read any good books lately? - Tell us about it. Why did you like it (or not)? Give us a brief summary and review so we can decide whether we should read it.
10. Tell us about the conferences you attend - Share stories about the conferences you attend, what you learned and what you got out of it.
11. Is your business "green"? - What is your business doing to save the environment? Is "green" a myth?
12. What is your goal for this year? What about next year? What about 10 years from now? - Tell us where you are headed and what we can do to help you get there.
    

That's 25 ideas for blog posts that anyone can write. There are probably more than 25 since each idea had several questions attached, but I hope this list helps you get over the writer's block and makes it a little easier to start blogging about your business. We all really want to learn about you, so don't be shy.

While you are here, leave a comment with ideas for other blog posts you would like to see people write.