Content Mastery Guide

Tap Into the Possibility of a Team Blog

I mentioned in an earlier post that when it comes to blogging, many hands make light work. Blogging with a team has five key benefits:

1. Less work - Keeping a blog fresh with weekly posts is much easier when there are more contributors.
2. Lower costs - Team members can share the blogging costs of domain name registration and hosting, as well as editing and blog management.
3. Higher credibility - As long as you hook up with other trusted professionals, your combined qualities will boost your individual clout as well. 
4. Shared network - Each team member can promote the blog to their professional and personal contacts, creating a much broader audience.
5. Greater momentum - When a group of like-minded people put their heads together, creative ideas flow more freely. This is bound to impact the rest of your business as well.

If you're a solo practitioner or business owner, you may think there's no way to tap into these benefits of team blogging. Yet consider these possible teams:

• Co-leasors of an office space, office building or strip mall
• Independent service businesses with complimentary specialties
• Networking groups
• Business associations

Who can you get together with to make lighter work of blogging?

If you have a team that's ready to start blogging for business, check out my Team Blog Editing packages.

Should You Call Your Blog a Blog?

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Denise Wakeman should be flattered. I noticed that she described herself on LinkedIn as a "Business Blogging Consultant for Service Professionals" and decided to try it on for size. And so far I like how it feels!

Titles and names are important. As we know, people skim when they read online and titles help them decide whether to keep reading.

So when people land on your main website and you want to lead them to your blog, what do you call it? "Blog" seems like an obvious choice, but it may not necessarily be the right fit for you.

If your particular readers don't understand what a blog is, or what they'll find there, they won't click on it. So they'll never see the high-quality content you've worked so hard to produce (unless, of course, you're also sending email newsletters).

When you're setting up your blog and choosing the names of your navigation buttons, consider one of these names for your blog: Free Tips, Health Tips, Career Tips, Articles, Resources, Musings, News, Journal or Updates.

I have one caution about using the title News: Be sure you're delivering on your promise by posting current industry news or announcements about your business. Also, make sure to publish new posts frequently, or it will seem as though nothing is happening or that you're not on top of things.

When a blog is a blog

As I was brainstorming about this post, I reflected on what I'm looking for when I click on the name Blog. Not as Linda Dessau, Business Blogging Consultant for Service Professionals (still testing that out - yes, I still like it!), but as Linda, a consumer looking at hiring a prospective service provider.

Here's why I click on a blog named Blog: 

• To see how active the business or clinic is, and what's going on with them
• To observe how they communicate with their clients and prospective clients, before I take the next step of joining a mailing list or speaking to them directly
• To get to know the voice and personality behind the business - who is the person (or people) I'd be receiving services from?
• To learn tips I can use to improve my business and my life
• To assess how knowledgable the service provider is 

When you're deciding whether to call your blog a blog, consider what your audience is looking for on your site, and what terminology they'll be using. 

If you'd like to get off to a good start with your blog, check out this free webinar.

How the One to One Wellness Centre Uses a Team Blog To Attract New Clients

When physiotherapist Nick Matheson first raised the idea of using a blog to promote the services of the health care practitioners in his wellness clinic, marketing consultants warned him against it. 

I see their point. Many businesses start a blog with the best intentions, only to abandon it later. This not only counteracts any of the benefits of blogging, it can actually detract from the credibility of the business because it looks like you don't finish what you start.

That hasn't been an issue for Nick and his team, because "apparently, we have a lot to say!" In fact as weekly bloggers, the One to One Wellness team embody some of the best practices for group blogging. 

They launched their blog in January 2010, although Nick Matheson started blogging in 2004 when his daughter was sick (it was a way to process his thoughts and cope with the experience). As a marketing tool, it appealed to him as "a way for us to have a conversation with people when we're not there." 

The blog has brought them some media attention, including a profile in Process Magazine (Volume 18 No. 2, 2011) and a quote in an upcoming article in Canadian Living Magazine.

Nick says that the other benefits are harder to quantify, but they get a fair amount of positive feedback, and "a number of people check out the blog before coming in for an appointment."

With eight contributors, each person only needs to produce a blog post every two months - that's the beauty of team blogging! They have a central blog schedule, so everyone knows what's expected of them. Nick goes in to edit, approve and publish the posts once a team member has submitted a draft.

I especially like how each post is clearly labeled with the name and speciality of the team member (like this one by Nutrition Consultant Liz Manwaring) - no anonymous posters here (although I do see another word I don't like)! Descriptive category names further organize their content, and there's also a handy search box to find a particular topic.

Congratulations to Nick and the team at One to One Wellness Centre. And thanks for providing such a positive example of a wellness clinic blog.

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If you would like to start or re-start a group blog for your wellness clinic or other healthcare practice, check out the free webinar, "Blogging Basics: Getting Off to a Good Start" and my Team Blog Editing packages.

The Two Words You Want to Avoid on Any Team Blog

1) Posted by: Anonymous (also known as Anon. or Admin). Along the same lines, I also see Posted by: _______ (clinic name) or ______ (clinic owner name - even when it was written by another team member).

These words put a barrier between you and your audience, and keep your readers from seeing all of the real people behind the team blog.

Instead, create a profile for each of your team bloggers, complete with their title or specialty. You can even get fancy and have a bio page and photo for each person.

The benefit of taking this step is that it profiles each individual team member and shows your audience the diversity of skills and knowledge you have in your clinic. Plus, the person is likely to feel prouder of the post and share it more freely amongst family, friends and colleagues.

Note: If you are a service professional who occasionally invites guest bloggers to contribute to your blog, you won't necessarily want to create a profile for them - especially when you're just starting out in your relationship. The guidelines in this post are specifically for team blogs.

2) Posted in: Uncategorized. Describing a blog post as uncategorized can make your blog seem disorganized. Instead, choose 5-10 meaningful categories and assign each blog post to one or more relevant categories.

The benefit of taking this step is that it will help your readers find the information they're most interested in. Blog post categories also help you to plan and write your content.

If you're not going to use categories, then remove that information from your post footer.

To make these changes to your blog, consult the person who set up your site in the first place. If you're on WordPress, you can also contact my friend Sandra De Freitas. After all, she wrote the book on WordPress blogsites, now in it's second edition (I should know, I edited it!). 

For more tips on writing a team blog, check out these Team Blogging Success Tips for Wellness Clinics and my Team Blog Editing packages.

It's Blog Action Day - But First, Let's Eat!

I've written on this blog about how my ideal work day has me blogging first and taking care of clients second.

But there's something even more important, and that's my self-care, which includes both physical and spiritual practices.

To plan my day, I use a combination of a daily printout of my Google Calendar and the Freelancer Workweek planners from Charlie Gilkey of Productive Flourishing). But long before that, I've blocked out time for my self-care activities, including meals and snacks.

My current self-care regime has me dividing my meals throughout the day to separate the foods that don't seem to get along well when I eat them at the same time.

While it's been better for my digestion, it raises some challenges to add those other meal times into the day. And I do it. Because it's important.

Without the proper fuel, my body cannot do its daily work and I won't be able to help anyone.

Back when I was coaching creative artists and others on their own self-care journey, I wrote two articles about food:

• Try a Slow-Carb Habit (co-written with Susan Baker, Natural Nutritionist) - still one of my most popular articles at EzineArticles.com, with 54,849 lifetime views
• Meal Planning: Your Ticket to Freedom - along with a free meal planning worksheet 

Please enjoy these articles, as well as the multitude of other blog posts that have been published today as part of Blog Action Day. Start at blogactionday.org or follow the hashtag conversation on Twitter.

Website Traffic Should Not be the Goal of Your Blog

We know that website traffic is one of the key benefits of blogging. A 2010 study by the inbound marketing experts at HubSpot showed that companies that blog have 55% more website visitors per month than companies that don't blog.

The study also revealed that business-to-business (B2B) companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month than companies that don't blog. Business-to-consumer (B2C) companies that blog generate a whopping 88% more leads per month than those who do not.

Website traffic should not be the goal of your blog

Warning: When getting more website traffic is the goal of your blog, it will show up in your writing - and it won't be a pretty sight. I explain further in this excerpt from my series about social media writing sins (this one was #3):

While it's important to use the same language your ideal client might type into a search engine, SEO (search engine optimization) should never come at the expense of quality writing. 

Trying to force particular keywords into a blog post or title can result in awkward (or just plain bad) writing - especially if you're trying to slip them in after the post is written.

Writing for the search engines, trying to get clicks or traffic at any cost, defeats the purpose of content marketing because you will repel your reader instead of attracting them. What is the gain of getting more clicks if people only leave again because you've failed to make a meaningful connection with your writing?

So how do you choose more meaningful and appropriate goals for your blog? Learn more in the free webinar, Blogging Basics: Getting Off to a Good Start.

Team Blogging Success Tips for Wellness Clinics

For healthcare practitioners and alternative therapists, blogging is a non-threatening way to attract clients, not chase them. A well-written blog post about a health issue that your ideal clients struggle with will highlight your expertise in that area, building your clients' trust in you.

Blogging consistently keeps your website fresh and updated, which shows your visitors (and the search engines who direct those visitors to you) that your clinic is an active, thriving business and that you and your team have lots of valuable content to share.

Even more importantly, blogging will show these prospective clients how much you care about and understand them. Since blogging tends to be a less formal style of writing, they will see that you and your team members are real people who can provide practical, useful information in plain English they can understand.

Blogging is a team sport

There's a saying that "many hands make light work," and the same is true for a blog. Instead of one person being responsible to post something new every single week, with a group blog you'll have a whole team to share the task.

Top 10 Success Tips for Your Wellness Clinic Team Blog

1. Appoint a blog captain - Have one person be responsible for keeping everyone on track with your publication schedule. This may be your clinic administrator or owner, a team member with good organizational skills, or you may choose to hire a blog editor/consultant.
2. Edit, rewrite and polish - Ensure that your blog posts are free of errors or confusing language. Use a checklist, style guide, blog editor or any other tools that will ensure consistency and quality. After all, you want your blog to reflect the same high standards as your business.
3. Publish consistently - Create a shared calendar (e.g., Google Calendar), where everyone can see the time line for upcoming publication dates. Remember to leave extra time for editing by setting each blog post's due date a week before you actually want to publish.
4. Meet regularly - Get the team together to brainstorm ideas, choose a monthly theme and get the power of your creative minds working together. Maintain your commitment to this valuable marketing strategy.
5. Celebrate your diversity - Encourage each team member to blog from his or her own expertise, discipline and speciality. Tap into each person's unique perspective and tone of voice.
6. Produce good content - Apply these proven content marketing practices: write with your readers' interests in mind, focus your writing into bite-sized pieces and address the most pressing problems your ideal clients are looking to solve. 
7. Suggest the next step - Create a unique call to action in every article, e.g., attend an event, sign up for your mailing list or call the office for more information. Remember that people will arrive on your site at different times in the relationship-building process.
8. Keep in touch - Make it easy for readers to find out about your newest articles and events by posting a subscription form on every page of your website and blog. Then, in your monthly or bi-weekly newsletter, share one of your blog posts (plus links to all recent posts), as well as information about upcoming events, featured services or new team members.
9. Shout from the rooftops - Ask every team member to promote the blog by adding the blog link to your email signatures. Share links to each other's blog posts on your social media networks, online forums or email groups. And when you get a specific request for information on a particular topic, use the blog as your primary resource.  
10. Lead the way - Make it easy for blog readers to take the next step of getting to know you and your clinic. Either integrate your blog right into your website or add extra pages to your blog so they can take action right away.

If you need help to implement these ideas and keep them going, I would be delighted to serve as your team blog editor. Click here to find out more.

In the meantime, please check out the free webinar, Blogging Basics: Getting Off to a Good Start.