COMM 3215: Strategic Writing Exercise #5_Blog Post (LULULEMON)
Purpose, Audience and Media
Blog is short for weblog, an online personal essay. Blogs are informal, informative and often entertaining: They seek to build relationships with regular readers. They sometimes resemble opinion columns in news sources: Both provide individual responses to current news stories as well as to other issues—everything from favorite recipes to terrible first dates to product evaluations. Because blogs can help an organization tell its story, they can be an important part of content marketing. Organizations use blogs to communicate with individuals who seek the less for-mal, more personal relationships that successful blogs can build. A blog—or even bet-ter, a collection of blogs—can help give a human face to an organization. Increasingly, the primary audience for blogs is customers and potential customers. Social Media Examiner reports that almost 70% of organizations use blogs in their social media marketing—and two-thirds of those organizations intend to increase their efforts in that area. Blogs actively invite written responses, offering a Comments button to allow readers to agree, disagree or extend the discussion. Ideally, bloggers should write their own posts. Occasionally, public relations practitioners are asked to write posts for others. Though not advisable, this practice is acceptable as long as the purported writer reviews and approves the post. Blogs exist as webpages but are often reposted to social media such as Facebook and LinkedIn.
Key to Success
When bloggers represent an organization, they must fully disclose both who they are and the nature of their relationship with the organization. Good blogs are informative, informal and frequently updated. They include links to other information sources.
Format/Design
Blog entries usually begin with a headline in large, bold type. Beneath the headline, in smaller type, is the date of posting. If more than one writer posts on a particular blog, a line below the posting date specifies the blogger’s name. That byline often is a link to more information about the author. That biographical information often is included below the blog post as well. A small photo of the author often accompanies the byline. Consider including an appropriate photograph or image at or near the top of a post. A growing number of blogs focus on travel, fashions and product demonstrations, making images and links almost indispensable. The text of a blog is single-spaced, with extra spaces between paragraphs. The text often is a sans-serif typeface such as Lucida Grande. Blogs contain highlighted links to earlier posts, other blogs, online documents, videos, other websites and/or similar information sources. They also can contain icon/links for sharing to social media platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Many blogs include subscribe/unsubscribe options at the bottom.
Content and Organization
The best way to learn to write blogs is to read blogs—as many as possible. Search engines such as Google can easily lead you to blogs in almost any area that interests you. Employees have been fired for controversial or unapproved blog posts on organizational websites, so if you plan to blog on behalf of an organization, be sure to know the ground rules and to have each post approved before you go online. Ideally, a blog has a strategic purpose that helps fulfill an organizational goal. Blogs must be updated frequently; many are updated daily. Successful blogs generally address different aspects of a broad topic, such as politics, product development, fashion or travel. If you’re the leader of an organization, almost anything you say about any aspect of your organization has the potential to be interesting. But if you’re the head of community relations for a corporation, you might want to confine your posts to discussing community issues and volunteerism. In other words, establish an area of expertise that will keep readers coming back for more. Blog posts can range from one paragraph to several paragraphs. Be informal: Use the first-person pronouns I and we. Blogging guru Mu Lin recommends short paragraphs, frequent internal headlines and use of bullets for lists. Each of those ingredients makes a post easier to read. Sentence fragments and nonstandard grammar are fine. However, deviations from standard grammar should be intentional; nonstandard grammar should not appear to be the result of sloppiness or ignorance. Bloggers must frequently review readers’ comments and respond when possible: Remember, the goal of most blogs is to build productive relationships. Blogging etiquette allows you to delete obscene or threatening comments but not comments that simply disagree with your post. Many blogs will not post a reader comment until the blogger or a representative has reviewed it.
BLOG TIPS
1. Read other blogs: Not only will you learn more about blogging and particular issues for your own posts, but you’ll also discover blogs to which you may wish to link.
2. Link: Most blogs have links that allow readers to navigate to other areas of the website or to publicize the blog through social media such as Facebook.
3. Optimize: Be sure that your blog is optimized for tablets and phones.
4. Use keywords: Keywords can make it easier for search engines to find your blog. (Search Engine Optimization: Typically, the user will enter your site through a search engine query. Therefore, your first job as a web writer is to write so users can find your site. A keyword is a word or phrase included in the website content to help a search engine locate particular pages. Users also type keywords into search engines seeking relevant websites. Thus, search engine optimization (SEO) plays a vital role in getting your website found. SEO involves editing content and inserting HTML coding to increase the relevance of specific keywords and to remove barriers to search engine crawlers. Theoretically, the better optimized your website, the higher on the search results page it will appear. SEO is not a science or an art, although many in the field would argue it is a bit of both. Because search engine software is proprietary, Google, Yahoo!, Bing and the others don’t want you to know exactly how they sift through data. In fact, the processes are ever-changing, so it’s impossible to know exactly what formula will work best at any given time. Google reportedly changes its algorithm 500 to 600 times per year and says it uses hundreds of different ranking factors that range from location of keywords to basic content reading level and the inclusion of videos. The search engines themselves do provide suggested practices that will help your site be found, ranked and indexed.)
