Question

Topic: Social Media

Ways To Get Blog Post Participation

Posted by lathans on 7/28/2011 at 5:09 PM ET 250 Points
Back in the day when company Newsletters were big, producing content and getting people to contribute was the most time-consuming, frustrating part. Now it's a blog, and I'm still having issues getting people to contribute. Can you guys share ways you've gotten your super-smart, talented people from different parts of the country to contribute to blog posts?
We're starting to introduce it in Orientation so people adopt it as part of the culture. We've thought of contests, as we deal with pretty competative bunch of people and have given away company swag for participation. We've even thought of a travelling award for "King Blogger" or something that gets awarded monthly to recognize the biggest participant. Any other ideas out there?
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 7/29/2011 at 7:06 AM Accepted
    Besides some extrinsic award, why should people want to contribute? What's the purpose of the blog?

    Does your company value sharing of information/talent? Is there pride in what they do? Are there great stories (focused on the customer) that you can share?
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 7/29/2011 at 7:10 PM Accepted
    You get super smart people to contribute to your blog by asking them, and by offering them links. Just make sure there's congruent alignment between your audience's needs and the topics your guest bloggers have to offer.
  • Posted by peg on 7/30/2011 at 5:10 PM Accepted
    Back in the day, we got newsletter participation by not expecting the contributors to write. Most have secret insecurities about writing; and there are countless other objections as well, nearly all of which are at least semi-justifiable.

    Instead of hounding people to contribute, we interviewed them by phone -- real interviews by a freelance writer who was trained to ask the types of questions that resulted in interesting material. This shifted the dynamic because nearly everyone could make time for an appointment to be interviewed by a professional writer. In every case the interviewee was permitted to review the copy before we went to press. While they were not permitted to make style changes, they were welcome to point out errors or misrepresentations, which the writer corrected. No one was ever made to look bad -- quite the opposite.

    The interview subjects were given the by-line, except when they didn't want one. In such cases, the article was written as an interview ("This month, Sally Smith talks to John Johnson, Managing Director of UK Operations, about motivating and training new distributors."), and the writer was given the by-line.

    By treating the internal expert in the same way that an external publication would treat him/her (except allowing them to have approval before publication), resistance was removed in almost every case.

    There's no reason why this same approach couldn't work with a corporate blog. As a bonus, if you use a professional writer, they'll be alert to things such as editing for prime keyword placement, to help your blog maximize its readership.

    Hope this is helpful in working through your blog dilemma.

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