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Posts Tagged ‘ideas’

Good Blogging is a State of Mind

Darren Rowse had an interesting blog post recently about the lessons he has learned from his five-year-old son about blogging. His son, otherwise known a “X”, is really into art, and often thinks about his next project while doing other activities.

It is a concept that resonated with me because, in many respects, blogging is about the next post. By their very nature, blogs are fluid and dynamic creatures. A good blog (and bloggers) constantly keeps moving forward. As much as a particular post can be fantastic, it is not long before the next post must be produced.

For some people, the steady demands of blogging can be overwhelming, which is why many blogs die on the vine after a few weeks or months. The need to “feed the beast” is a fact of life. By not blogging on a regular basis, a blog can lack the consistency it needs to attract an audience.

So what are the things that can be done to keep the beast happy?

A key is coming up with a non-stop flow of ideas that can be turned into blog posts. As important is the recognition that ideas can come from anywhere. You can be talking to a friend or colleague. Ideas can come from a newspaper article, blog post or newsletter. They can emerge when you’re working out, taking a shower or listening to music.

Given this reality, it is important to “bookmark” these ideas as they materialize. Keep a piece of paper or small notebook in your pocket, or have a text document on your desktop to quickly write down ideas. By being disciplined, you will be surprised by how quickly a notebook or document can start to fill up with ideas.

Not all of these ideas are going to be amazing but there will be enough quality ideas to keep your blog vibrant and consistent. As important, you’ll discover that as you open yourself up to ideas and start capturing them, the ideas will start to flow.

To paraphrase Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind” (see the video below), doing well with your blog means being in a “Blogging State of Mind”.

By Mark Evans - January 23rd, 2012 - 3 Comments »
Tags: , , ,
Posted in Social Media

Five Ways to Maintain Your Blogging Passion

Truth be told, blogging is probably the most challenging part of the social media ecosystem.

Writing a blog requires time, ideas, creative and writing skills. And there the effort required to consistently generate good content is considerable, particularly when the ideas aren’t flowing.

So how do you keep your blogging passion? What keeps the posts coming day after day, week in week out?

1. Be passionate. The easiest way to keep things humming along is being focused on a topic or topics that you’re passionate about. This makes it more fun than work, even though there is a lot of work involved. Have a focus also lets you allocate resources (mostly time) more efficiently than having a scattered approach.

2. Be consistent. Like exercise, blogging is easier when it’s part of the regular routine. The more you do it, the easier it becomes. If you stop working out or blogging on a regular basis, it can be difficult to get going again.

3. Variety if the spice of life. Blog posts that consistently take the same approach, style and length can feel like a product on an assembly line. On the other hand, writing different types of blog posts can be like cooking different meals each day. Sometimes, a post is a lengthy opinion piece, sometimes a post is a short comment on a news event or a post written by someone else, and sometimes a blog post is a video or a photo with a caption.

4. Read other blogs. It is important not to operate in a blogging silo in which all you’re doing is writing about your own thoughts or ideas. By reading other sources, it opens up the world to new ideas, perspectives, companies and people. Inevitably, it leads to some inspiration or even a nugget of an idea.

5. Get out and about. Talking to other people and hearing their ideas and thoughts is a a great way to spark new ideas for blog posts. In these situations, taking some quit notes can generate a flurry of potential blog posts.

More: Paul Jun has a blog post on Problogger talking about the benefits of taking a break from blogging to jump-start your blogging activity.

 

 

 

 

By Mark Evans - November 3rd, 2011 - 2 Comments »
Tags: , , ,
Posted in Social Media

How We Blog: A Labour of Love

In keeping with the spirit of Labour Day, I thought it might be interesting to provide some insight into how we write the Sysomos blog, which is now nearly two years old.

When we started the blog, its focus was unclear. This wasn’t a surprise because Sysomos had just launched MAP, its social media monitoring and analytics service, and we were trying to determine how to effectively communicate what we did and what insight we had to offer. Many of the early posts were focused on our technology and new features.

In time, the blog evolved to offer insight, perspective and information about social media – an editorial approach that seems obvious given what we do. We mix this type of content with occasional posts about new features, as well as our popular reports on the social media landscape.

One of the questions people ask is where I get ideas for blog posts. Here’s some of the “buckets” that I dip into every day.

1. Read a lot of blog posts and articles about social media companies, trends, services and technology. Although the list is too long to include everyone, some of the bloggers that provide insight and inspiration include Mitch Joel, Jason Falls, Seth Godin, David Armano, Francisco Rosales (aka SocialMouths) and Social Media Examiner. Sometimes, I’m looking for information, and sometimes it’s perspective that provides an opportunity to offer a different or additional perspective.

2. Check aggregators on a regular basis as a way to quickly see a lot of information. Some of my go-to sites include TechMeme, Social Media Today and Hacker News. These sites make it easy to get a lay of the land for ideas and new trends and developments. I also have a long list bloggers within my Google Reader account.

3. Talking to people. As much as I spend a lot of time reading online, a lot of ideas materialize after conversations – short and long – with people about what they’re doing, the things they are interested in, and the companies that they work for. The trick is keeping a mental checklist of all the interesting items. This is why I usually carry a pen and a piece of paper in my pocket, which is a holdover from my days as a newspaper reporter.

4. Playing with other social media services. I’m an application junkie who’s happy to check out anything that sounds interesting or intriguing. To me, it’s social media candy; some is sweet-tasting chocolate that becomes part of my social media arsenal, while others are like those orange and black Halloween candies that everyone seems to hand out but no one eats.

5. Doing something else other than being focused on social media. It may sound strange but some of my best ideas emerge when I’m bicycling, playing hockey, out with friends, watching TV or reading a book. By giving my brain a social media break, it lets me focus on other things, which sometimes are an inspiration for blog posts.

Where do yo get your inspiration for blog posts?

By Mark Evans - September 7th, 2010 - 2 Comments »
Tags: , , ,
Posted in Social Media

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