3 New Posts

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• Blog Traffic: Why most Blogs NEVER get much
• CEO Blogs: 5 Reasons CEOs Shouldn’t Blog
• CEO Blogs: 3 Reasons CEOs Should Blog

Blog Traffic: Why most Blogs NEVER get much Posted: 02 Jan 2020 08:30 AM PST If you’re famous, like Mick Jagger or Robert Scoble or Madonna, write it and they will come. You can write about anything you want, and lots of people will read it. Unfortunately, you my friend are probably not famous, just like I’m not. If we write on whatever we find interesting and exciting, it’s unlikely many other people will have matching interests. Oh some may find your posts on the advances of bowling ball technology fascinating, but they probably won’t care for your extensive coverage of laptop battery time extension techniques or any details of your belly button lint collection. And the belly button lint aficionados probably find bowling balls and batteries boring. In other words, it’s NOT about you – what you’re interested in. No one cares about what you’re interested in (unless you’re famous), and very few people will have interests that parallel yours. But wait, if it doesn’t matter what you’re interested in, what about all this stuff about “passion” and “passionate bloggers are successful bloggers” you keep hearing? How can you write passionately about something you’re not interested in? Well, you probably can’t, but the solution is simple — a one word answer: FOCUS! I repeat, FOCUS!! Write about ONE thing you are passionately interested in, maybe Nubian dwarf goat husbandry or American Civil War history or the evolution of belly button lint collections in museums. There are plenty of people, potential readers, for any ONE of those topics. Even belly button lint has 274,000 hits on Google, and yes there appear to be blogs on the topic too. I’m writing about Web 2.0 stuff and how it affects business, things like blogging and podcasting etc. I’m NOT writing about fishing or Chinese cooking or biking or wine or many other things I’m passionate about, because it’s not about me. And yeah, I should work about being more focused too . . . But what about Robert Scoble? He’s a blogger and his claim to fame is from blogging. Despite Robert being a great guy I read regularly he isn’t very focused. Well, you need to be and so do I if we care about traffic — Robert is famous and> he started blogging in a simpler time when there was less competition. And now I must leave you as I’m stranded in an airport and my laptop battery is almost dead. Fortunately I have the latest “Popular Nubian Dwarf Goat Husbandry” with me. Maybe I’ll check my belly button too . . .

CEO Blogs: 5 Reasons CEOs Shouldn’t Blog Posted: 02 Jan 2020 08:21 AM PST There are plenty of reasons CEOs or other executives shouldn’t blog, and many of them certainly shouldn’t. I’ll go as far as to say that many organizations do NOT need to blog. Sure, they could, and they might benefit from it, but please let’s not have any of that rhetoric that all companies must start blogging soon or they’ll go the way of the dodo — extinct. Simply not true — although MANY organizations can benefit from blogging. Here are 5 commonly given reasons CEOs and other executives shouldn’t blog. I don’t buy reason #3 or #4 as I note, but they are commonly mentioned and worth addressing. 1) CEOs are risk adverse. Much of their daily lives are occupied with risk management. They have got enough to worry about without this new-fangled blogging thing. 2) The qualifications that make one a good CEO or executive and that make one a good blogger do not overlap remotely near 100%. Even among those who communicate well, many have difficulty writing in a personal and informal tone as blogging requires. I had one CEO I coached literally hold a telephone to his head and pretend he was talking to an old friend in order to get conversational language out of his mouth! We even tried having him leave voice mail in this fashion to his secretary who would then transcribe it into a draft blog post. It took a few weeks, but I finally got him writing conversationally, but not without a lot of difficulty. 3) CEOs have confidential information that can’t be made public. This is an often cited reason, but rarely holds water. Someone that makes it that high in the corporate ladder had already better know what they can publicly discuss and what they can’t. Hey, let’s be serious — most executives are very smart people and let’s give them the credit of at least common sense! 4) They may need to stop for legal reasons. John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market stopped blogging because of an “independent internal investigation.” If a company is going public, there is an SEC enforced “quite period” which may disrupt blogging by executives. This is silly. When is “you maybe needed to stop someday” a good reason to never start? I guess I’d better never go to that Chinese Buffet because I’ll need to stop eating sometime. Doesn’t make sense to me! 5) Time — or lack of it. I have no extra time, neither do you, and neither do CEOs and other execs. One solution is a multi-author blog where several executives occasionally contribute, or perhaps a CEO and a few other people do. This generates enough content to build regular readers, and is often a great solution. Another possibility, one that makes many bloggers cringe, is the possibility of “Ghost Blogging,” which we’ll address later! Many CEOs and other executives should blog, but there are also plenty of good reasons why some of them should not.

CEO Blogs: 3 Reasons CEOs Should Blog Posted: 02 Jan 2020 07:29 AM PST There are plenty of reasons for CEOs and other high level executives to blog. I’m skipping the “because communicating is good” and concentrating on the solid benefits in this list. Blogs add a personality and face to a company. This can mean more business, more dollars and cents. Let’s face it, people don’t tend to trust big organizations anymore, whether it’s the US Government, Microsoft, Worldcom, Enron, etc. People do however trust people they know, and like to do business with people they know and trust. When an executive blogs, they become part of the face and personality associated with the organization. They build trust. They build likeability. I never liked Sun Microsystems. They were an arrogant competitor from way back. I now occasionally read their president and CEO Jonathan Schwartz’s blog, and I no longer think of them as the old arrogant Sun. I rather like them these days, primarily due to their CEO’s blog. Blogs influence the most important people. I rarely read GM’s Fastlane blog. I simply don’t care about cars. But guess who does? Well, my friend Gearhead Greg does. When I need a new car, who do I ask for opinions? Well quite naturally my friend Greg the car nut, and he’s much more positive on GM these days, in part due to their blog. Few if any of my clients read Jonathan Schwartz’s blog. But when they need to buy new Unix Workstations, my opinion is often valued as I’m an old Unix guy from way back, and as I’ve said before I kind of like Sun now. Blogs connect CEOs and senior executives to their most important people, their customers. It’s lonely at the top! The higher you get, the less feedback you get. The less in touch with the end customer you are. Blogs put you in direct contact with the people that matter most, the end customers. Writing is critical business skill Some executives and CEOs really should learn to do it better! Practice doesn’t make perfect, but it does help you improve. I’m not claiming every CEO and high level executive should blog. Quite honestly, some should be hidden from public sight as communicating is not their forte. But for many CEOs and high-level executives, blogging is a no brainer.

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