Have you decided your business blog really does need CPR?

• Did the audio emitting from your blog turn out to be gasps for life?
• Or worse – there was total silence?

Quick, grab the defibrillator.

Hopefully, it’s not life-threatening. It might just be a cry for attention.

If you are having trouble diagnosing the problem, here are ideas to get your business blog breathing comfortably.

Spread the Talent

Often the responsibility for a business blog ends up falling on one or two people – who have other responsibilities. It becomes a chore rather than something they enjoy.

Here are ideas to give them a shot of support.

Run a Company Challenge

Sure, you could just throw more staff on the writing end, but you want them motivated. Try running a company challenge for your business blog.

• The best headline – give staff the topic and let them come up with a headline – you can run this on a regular basis and award the best post per month/per quarter
• The best post topic/photo – variations for stirring up creativity – reward the best topic idea, challenge staff to find the best photo for a post and then run a separate challenge for the topic/caption to go with it
• Tag-team posts – create teams that develop posts for the month – have them build off each other’s post – award the best team each quarter

Those are just a few ideas that get your staff involved that help take your blog off life support.

Your staff consist of you – me – and I?

• Engage a group of your friends
• Pool small business owners
• Run a challenge in your community
• Start a group on LinkedIn, Facebook or your favorite social media

Spread the Word

Feel like you are talking to yourself? There’s no sign of human life out there?

Time to spread the word about your business blog.

• Put links to your blog on all online communication – e.g., in email signatures
• Brand your blog – obtain a unique domain name
• Add your blog name/address to all written communication
• Establish RSS feeds to the social media sites where customers hang out
• Create videos for posts and create YouTube account for sharing
• Network, network, network

Engage Your Customers

• Offer free products or services for a limited time
• Use comments section as their “sign-up” to encourage participation
• Conduct surveys with free product or service for responding

Don’t forget you newfound friends from Spread the Talent.

Spread the Topics

One of the biggest challenges in managing a blog is coming up with ideas for posts. There are 30 ideas in this previous post.

Here are the top 10 from that list to get you started.

1. Create a post from one of your business case studies
2. Answer a question that your customer service or sales team get asked a lot
3. Make a list of your top 5  or 10 questions and answers about your service or product
4. Do a review of your business’ industry – where it’s been, where it’s going
5. Conduct a video interview with your business owner or a featured employee
6. Interview a well-known industry specialist
7. Share stories about your company’s community involvement
8. Promote a favorite charity
9. Create a list of helpful resources for your clients
10. Review an industry presentation you attended

Sometimes all you need are a few ideas to spark a renewed interest in your business blog.

1. Spread the talent
2. Spread the word
3. Spread the topics

What ideas do you have for your gasping blog?

BigStock Photo Credit

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