How to start a blog

“Tech Geek Blogger” and former Microsoft personality turned podcast guru Robert Scoble got Supernova2006 workshoppers talking about how to start a blog and build a community around it. Here’s what the group came up with:

1. Know your passion.
Blogging takes time, so you’d better be passionate about your subject. In the business blogging world, the subject will define your brand. Create an emotional connection to the brand. Articulate your unique value proposition, and make that your overarching theme.

2. Identify the community.
People who share your passion will be your primary audience and, in B2B marketing, your once and future customers. Understand what they want to know when they search for information about your subject and deliver expert information.

3. Define what they care about.
People will find your blog when they search for info about your subject. What keywords will they use? Use the strongest in your blog’s name and the rest in your blog post titles. Start conversation threads around these keywords. Break it down into categories.

4. Get people to link to you.
If you post credible and authoritative information on a subject, people will link to you and so raise your popularity in Google search results. (Google considers Scoble a super user. If he links to your blog, you’ll automatically rank in the top 3-4 in search results, because you’re popular with an expert user.)

5. Keep the conversation going.
Once people begin to come to you for solutions, catalyze conversations to make the community thrive. Make people stars in your community by rewarding them for participation.

6. Aggregate information.
Cull through the mass of info available on your subject and find the gems that are worth sharing. Lead the conversation within your community. Post as often as you must to be the thought leader (in the tech community, that’s about 30 times a day).

7. Be authentic.
If your employer tells you to start a blog about your company, that’s disingenuous. If you’re not passionate about your company and its products/services, you shouldn’t be doing a blog. Blogs don’t have to be personality driven. The difference between a personal blog and a business blog is personality vs. product/service. In either case, you need to have a talent for blogging, so you have an authentic voice.