Corporate Blog Tip #4 and #5 (demonstrate your passion and authority)

A good corporate blog is both passionate and authoritative.

This tip is about how to demonstrate your passion for a topic.

How do you show your passion? Post often.

How often?

That'll depend on a variety of things. How much competition do you have? What kind of audience are you trying to build?

But, as we look at our lists of favorite blogs we notice a trend. Most of the ones we look at every day post every day. Boing Boing. Slashdot. Dave Winer. Blogs.msdn.com. Steve Rubel. Misbehaving. Gaping Void.

That doesn't mean you need to post every day, though. It's quite possible that posting twice a week will be enough for you.

But, don't follow this rule blindly. One of Microsoft's most popular bloggers (at least he was until he stopped posting in 2004) was Christopher Brumme. His blog isn't one that many normal people would read. He works on the .NET Common Language Runtime team. Translation: he's extremely technical. He would post only once every month or so and his posts were 11,000 words long.

In other words, he broke all the rules. And, yet, he still was very popular with the audience he wanted to reach: other software developers.

But, he didn't have much competition. There are only a handful of people who are as technical as Christopher is and none who write about the inards of .NET. So, he can get away with posting infrequently.

Which brings us to tip #5: demonstrate your authority.

Hey, if you're the world's top authority on compilers, all you have to do is write 11,000 word posts that show people how to use yours.

If you're a plumber, show off how to do plumbing. If you're an automaker, demonstrate that you know something about making autos.

That isn't as easy as it sounds, but start with showing us how it's done. Look at the English Cut blog. http://www.englishcut.com/

It is a blog by a company that makes suits. It is very authoritative. Has pictures. Demonstrates that they know what they are doing.

They also had influential people that already had an audience link to the blog and vouch for its authority.

Getting someone who is trusted to link to you brings all sorts of benefits. For instance, one of the guys I really trust is Doc Searls. I've been reading him for years and he's never abused that trust.

So, if he links to something and says it's great stuff, I trust him and confer that trust and authority onto the site he's linking to.

Get five people I trust to link to a new site and you have a home run. You might be able to fool one guy, but it's very hard to fool five.

How do you demonstrate passion and authority on your blog?

Comments

[Ivan Chew]

What makes a good corporate blog? Somehow the Turing Test comes to mind: A good corporate blog makes the reader forget that they are dealing with a corporate entity but with a real person.

How do I demonstrate passion and authority on my personal blog? Hmm... I'd do it Very Carefully :) Though what I try to do is to take a stand: Be Opinionated -- but re-check my facts and be prepared to take the flak that comes with it. So far, no hate mails, so it might be working (or people just can't be bothered with me, I'm not sure).

[Marc Orchant]

Great points Robert. Another good example of passion + authority - frequency = Chris Pratley. Chris is a Program Manager on the OneNote team and he rarely posts more than once a month. When he does, he gets a lot of link love, especially from the Tablet PC blogger community. Why? Every post he does make is filled with passion for his product, written with unquestionable authority, and delivers solid value in the way of great advice on using the product or an intimate look "behind the curtain about what his team is doing to make OneNote a better tool.

http://blogs.msdn.com/chris_pratley/

[Jozef Imrich]

A very passionate post Robert,

There is a quote that goes along the following lines - 'Happiness is an inside job.'

Blogging too is an inside job. If the entire purpose of a corporate blog is to take or fake authority the success will be a rather short term reality. In a long term, the real givers and sharers will blossom ... but one and all bloggers have to be careful about burnout.

BTW, Dave Pollard says the blogging popularity curve's long tail shows that it is "just" a logarithmic curve and not a "power law" curve after all ... Wagging the long tail

PS: A # of bloggers are linking to the following link: Blog burnout spreading

[Jack]

How do I demonstrate passion and authority through blogging?

Regular, consistant posts from a variety of points-of-view conveys enthusiasm. I believe that multimedia content and interactivity shows that the blog is in touch on a personal level.

I record two minute "johnny-on-the-spot" Podcasts with photos of the interviewees and post them to my blog. When a person states that they are able to live now pain free as a result of a spring in their shoe, it is believable when you see their eyes and hear it coming from their mouth. The focus is to appeal to the head and the heart.

When the public can easily access lots and lots of these photo/audio recording from the archives, there is authority.

Another way of demonstrating authority is interviewing authorities and publishing authoritive content.

Ninty-five percent of the Podcasts that I have recorded and published on my blog are actually for a Seattle Podiatric Physician & Foot Surgeon blog.

[Steven Streight aka Vaspers the Grate]

I demonstrate passion by:

(1.) Using inflammatory, confrontational post titles, like "You Are Not A Blog", "Dangers of Personal Blogging", "Hypertext Link Pollution: My Second Attack Against IntelliTXT", "Comment Spammers: Internet Pigs and How They Feed", "Streight Eye for the Dairy Queen Guy", "Rathergate: Deconstructive Analysis of the 'Apology'", and "Horrible Web Monstrosities".

(2.) Adding substantiating links within the text of my posts, to bolster and verify the radical statements, contrarian points of view, and controversial concepts that I advance, basing them on rather in-depth research at reputable sources.

(3.) Using colorful digital artwork to enhance the posts and please the eye of the reader, art that may relate somehow to the content of the post.

[Gary Potter]

Just sent a link to the The Red Couch to some of Sabre's E-Team - great commentary on corporate blogging.

Gary

[注册香港公司]

香港瑞丰会计师事务所与香港瑞丰法律律师事务所系香港特区最大的公司注册登记服务机构：友情链接LINK:注册香港公司,香港银行,注册海外公司,注册美国公司,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,香港公司注册,香港公司注册,注册香港公司,美国注册公司,美国注册公司,注册香港公司,国际贸易,外贸出口,注册香港公司,国际贸易,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,注册商标,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,贸易投资,国际贸易,注册BVI公司,注册BVI公司,注册BVI公司,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,注册美国公司,注册BVI公司,注册美国公司,注册BVI公司,注册美国公司,注册BVI公司,注册美国公司,注册BVI公司,注册美国公司,注册bvi公司,注册美国公司,注册bvi公司,注册美国公司,注册BVI公司,注册美国公司,注册BVI公司,注册美国公司,注册BVI公司,注册美国公司,注册美国公司,贸易公司,批发市场,香港政府,纺织品贸易,香港银行,注册商标,书刊出版发行,公司上市企业融资,注册香港公司,注册美国公司,注册香港公司,GOOGLE排名,香港会计师.注册会计师,香港信息,注册香港公司,注册美国公司,注册美国公司,海外离岸公司|注册BVI公司,海外离岸公司|注册BVI公司,海外离岸公司,注册海外公司,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,注册商标,注册商标,注册商标,注册商标,注册商标,注册商标,注册上海公司,注册上海公司,注册上海公司,注册上海公司,注册上海公司,注册上海公司,注册上海公司,国际贸易,进出口贸易公司,进出口贸易,国际贸易,进出口贸易,贸易公司,TRADE,注册香港公司,进出口贸易,注册香港公司,投资,贸易公司,GOOGLE排名|搜索排名|网站排名,hong kong company香港律师事务所,香港律师事务所,香港律师事务所,香港律师事务所,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,......注册上海公司,注册上海公司,香港银行,香港银行,注册香港公司,国际贸易,注册香港公司,注册海外公司,HONG KONG COMPANY | 香港公司注册,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,注册美国公司,注册美国公司,注册BVI公司|海外公司注册,注册BVI公司|海外公司注册,注册海外公司,注册海外公司,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,注册香港公司,
, , , , , , //.//.//.