How to Blog Well

Just yesterday, I was browsing Facebook and saw a post Public Relations Global Network (which HMA is a member of) shared from Bulldog Reporter about becoming a successful blogger. While the article seems tailored to individuals with their own blogs, I think many of the principles apply to an agency blog that is shared amongst all the employees.
The HMA blog has been around for nearly 10 years and was just recently ranked 50 in Feedspot’s Top 100 PR Blogs for Public Relations and Marketing Communications Pros—a pretty cool honor. So how did we make the list? While this isn’t the criteria Feedspot used to choose us, I think they had to account for some of the tips Bulldog Reporter mentioned, so I’ve explained below how HMA embodies them.

• Create a loyal following—most of our readers are other Phoenix/Arizona communications professionals, but we also know journalists, clients and prospects as well as communications professionals from around the globe will click on a post or two. , One of our most popular features is #MediaMonday, where we get insider information on some of our favorite journalists
• Set goals—our goal is to post once a day during the week and promote it through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus.
• Build an email list—we have an email that sends out a link to the new post every day to our subscribers.
• Be organized—each month, I build an editorial calendar with assignments for each member of the HMA team so everyone has the chance to write several posts each month. We discuss it every Monday at our staff meeting and make adjustments as necessary. And we have two consistent types of posts our readers can look forward to—in addition to #MediaMonday, we just launched #FunFactFriday, where we share some interesting facts about some sort of topic on the first Friday of every month. You’ll also see on occasion #TipforTuesday and #WhatIs…Wednesday features. Our readers can be sure to check back on these days for these types of posts.
• Build a bond with your readers—we often write about our readers, whether they are journalists, mentors, or other communications professionals. We are sure to tag the right people when promoting the blog so they can interact with us.
• Find what makes you unique—while we host a marketing and communications blog, we are six individuals that contribute to this blog who all have different hobbies, interests, writing styles and past experiences. Some days you’ll find a post from Alison about sharks or Survivor. Others you might find a post by Rachel about her son and Pokémon. Or you might find a post from Scott about the latest in sports. Our blog is unique in that we all find different ways to relate our interests back to marketing, PR, communications or small business.
• Be yourself and experiment—just read the previous bullet again.
• Devote time to social media—like I said, we promote our blog on virtually every platform available that makes sense for a business blog , and it takes time. Generally it takes me 30-45 minutes to post on every platform and also think of several tweets that can be posted on Twitter throughout the day.

Having a blog is fun. It’s nice to take an hour or two out of your week to write about whatever you want. And it shows clients: 1. you know how to write and you know how to write well (a skill that many don’t have); and 2. that you’re up to date on current trends in your industry.