At Boardroom Metrics we help lots of executives write their first blogs.  There’s been a fantastic flow of blogs over the Holidays.

Taking a look at the tweaks we’ve been making to everyone’s blogs, here’s a quick list of tips to make your executive or CEO blog as visible and popular as possible.

  • think Google – solve pain: write from a searcher/potential client’s perspective – what is it they would be putting into Google where your blog is the answer to their pain? typically searchers are thinking – “how do I?”, “what do I?”, “what is?”, “tips/suggestion for….”, etc. Think of how you search, then write from that perspective.
  • write strong titles. Titles are the most important content to a search engine. MAKE THEM RELEVANT TO A SEARCH QUERY, PAIN-ANSWER REQUEST, eg (from Louis Nastro’s post this morning) “Three Ways to Invest in Innovation”(that answers the query “how to invest in innovation?”)
  • use words that searchers would use, eg, searchers use ‘paper shredding’, not ‘document destruction’. Talk how customers talk, not necessarily how your industry association/competitors talk.
  • use them often. ‘Key’ words used frequently (and naturally), increase the relevance of your post and attract Google to serve your post as the answer to a searchers query.
  • FOCUS ON MAKING ONE KEY POINT. If you have more to say, write another 1, 2, 10 blogs. Don’t say it all in one blog. A good blog is 300 – 500 words. When you’ve finished writing, study your blog and answer the question – “so what was my point?“. Tip: it should show up in the summary sentence or paragraph at the end of your blog.
  • assume your readers are short on time and attention to detail. Use bold, bullets and numbers to highlight key points so readers (like me) can skim through and get the information they need.
  • include links to other articles, information in your blog. Google believes the web is about sharing. So blogs with links to other content (it could even be your own – or something else on the BRM website) get better rankings, more interest.
  • include images. They attract attention.
  • be careful with “I” – first, blogs are ALL ABOUT individual perspective – it’s what makes them so interesting. Just be careful not to overuse “I” in every sentence. Ultmately it sounds condescending and selfish.
  • be careful with “you” and “must”– we’re in the advice business. However, always telling someone what YOU MUST do runs the risk of becoming arrogant and condesending. You want them to view you as a partner, not a know-it-all (how about this for softening the ‘you’ in the last sentence?: your goal is to have them view you as a partner, not a know-it-all)

 

Blogging fulfills a fundamental goal of any CEO, executive, consultant, interim manager and coach: building credibility across an expanding audience. It takes some effort but the effort can be worth it (my blog posts on RIM governance have attracted attention from some well known publications and my CEO Christmas speech blog post is viewed 50 – 100 times/day, every day during the month of December ).

Keep the blogs and letters coming! We love posting them. If you provide the content we will do the rest. Jim