While I was on a bit of a social media vacation last week, Mashable published my post on 40+ Topics for Corporate Bloggers. I started it off by saying that there will be times that you have to contribute a post for your company’s blog and you just don’t have one idea that inspires you to start a conversation.
It’s difficult to blog on behalf of your company, even if you love what you do. For one, you’re representing your company in a public way. That’s scary, especially if you haven’t done so before. Also, you have to find topics that don’t compromise your company’s corporate blogging policy but still provide value to readers. Of course, some of the most exciting things you’re working on might not be ready to be shared publicly. So what the heck do you write about?
The Drama 2.0 blog took issue with my list, saying that a canned list of topics lacks authenticity and that “forcing” a blogger to write on a topic that doesn’t inspire them actually hurts the conversation. Frankly, I couldn’t agree more.
The value of lists like this is that they provide a resource for corporate bloggers to turn to when they just can’t think of something to write. I’ve been there before, and I find lists like this one from Chris Brogan are helpful in sparking a new post idea or topic. That’s probably why they are so popular. We all approach blog writing from different perspectives, even if we begin with similar ideas.
The conclusion of my post is the same one that I’ll end with here:
Remember, what makes a good corporate blog post is the passion of the writer. Find the topics that you are most interested in and help your readers to feel that same type of excitement.
