Business blogging is a real stakes proposition. There are real costs. There is real risk. And there are also real opportunities. And success is by no means guaranteed.
The truth is this entire business blogging “machine” can quickly overwhelm a person. It can also overwhelm an organization and even a multi-national corporation. It can sprawl. It can morph. It can quickly devolve. And yes, your business blog can grow and even take on a life and personality of its own. Lots of potential. Lots of risk. Lots of opportunity. And yes, plenty of potential downside too. And we’re all sophisticated enough to appreciate that simply starting a business blog in and of itself is likely not going to be enough.
A Method to the Madness Starts with A Business Blogging Framework
In a complex and very competitive world, where yours is likely not the only business blog on the block there are a wide variety of strategies, tactics and methods you can potentially utilize to manage your blogging efforts, but as your intention is to derive actual business value from your business blog, it is critical that you begin at “the beginning” and introduce a climate that can lead to actual success. And that starts by developing a broad business blogging framework that can offer ongoing guidance while also being flexible enough to endure change and forwarding thinking enough to go further and to actively nurture adaptive behavior.
Your business business blogging framework will give you a 30,000 feet view of what it is your are trying to accomplish (real goals that are tied to business objectives) and your framework should also offer you some visibility into the logic and wisdom of your entire blogging effort.
Most important – a strong business blogging framework is flexible and can adopt based on new marketplace insights and performance intelligence. This is critical as it is important that within your business blogging framework you give you and your team permission to evolve. Said differently, your business blogging framework needs to be responsive, informative and ultimately additive to your business.
The Business Blogging Framework Activity Hierarchy
Click here to print a copy of Business Blogging Framework Activity Hierarchy.
As you can see from the hierarchy activity diagram there is a very specific sequence by which to structure your efforts and by approaching your business blog in this manner you are empowering you and your team to be well defined in your approach, to test out specific strategies that should be directly tied to business objectives, and from there to implement specific blogging tactics that are tied to strategies. Finally we shift into measurement mode to determine what works (more of that) and what fell flat (less of that…) and utilize performance metrics to continue to evolve the blog on multiple levels.
And further, by providing coverage through a fully developed business blogging framework, provided there is enough capacity (people and resources), there is an ability to pursue multiple strategic objectives during a calendar cycle.
With all the mechanics involved, you and your team should be very mindful of dependencies inside of the framework and recognize that while tactics are ultimately the pieces that are most easily measured, none-the-less your business blogging tactics should be directly informed by your blogging strategy. Further your strategy should be inline with your framework, and ultimately your framework should be driven by the realities in your own business orbit.
Replacing Guesswork with Direction
Too often we encounter clients that come to us with completely disjointed business blogging efforts. The blogging strategy revolves around tactics without any regard to strategy, and even more so with a complete disregard to measurement. Most people would call this “guessing”, and when it comes to YOUR business, I’m sure you will agree that guessing is not a great utilizing of your resources across any effort, including your business blog.
Instead what we are advocating in this post is that by being thoughtful at the very top your business blog will ultimately achieve stronger results and your chances to realize success will be dramatically increased.
Owning Your Business Blogging Framework
Of course you are the expert of your own business, so now that you are empowered with a stronger business blogging framework it is critical then take these ideas and craft them to meet the needs of your specific business.
As you likely have already surmised, there is not a one size fits all solution but rather just like you are all likely catering to a very select and unique set of customers with a finely crafted set of solutions, so too will the trail you blaze with your business blog also be unique. What works for someone else may not work for you. Further just because someone else is operating a blog in a specific manner does not mean it is working for them….
Final Considerations
While this post is very much focused on the development and implementation of a strong business blogging framework, in no way should you minimize the tremendous value in being armed with specific and very targeted action points that provide and in depth view on how to achieve specific blogging objectives (tactics).
Taking the time to map out this entire framework including your initial strategy and early tactics before simply diving in will have huge impact on your business, and mapping these efforts to align with the core values of your business will further ensure that your blogging efforts are directly tied to business goals. Further, spending the time to deliver a critical assessment of your efforts at the beginning will also greatly enhance the effectiveness of your final product (universally true, but none-the-less also very applicable to your business blogging as well)!
Your overarching goal is to provide a compelling and meaningful business blogging framework that maximizes the chances for your business to succeed (versus being focused entirely on the “success” of your blog based on non-business related metrics). Your specific tactics will vary but at a high level I’d like to impart upon you the value of being a better thinker, at least when it comes to your business blog, and how utilizing a well thought out business blogging framework will empower you and your team.