Big Time Bloggin'

Got your attention?

I know, I know.  It's a cheap way to get your attention.  But I have a point.  Good or bad, first impressions are everything in the digital world and internet. What gets your attention can vary but that first impression plays a huge role in long term retention. In my opinion, the same is true in the world of blogging. 

I believe there are five or six punch list items that make a blog worth checking out and coming back week after week.  The specifics are always different depending on the type of blog but there are certain best practices that equal success regardless of genre.

• Uniqueness – provide content you can’t get anywhere else

• Find a niche – random musings can be funny but people want to read about similar interests and often follow someone writing about something specific (i.e. biking, writing, cooking, etc.)

• Know your audience – find your core audience and write to them.  If you’re writing about biking focus on biking and stick to that topic.  Use their terminology and know your subject. 

• Make sure it’s visually stimulating.  With the ability in this new digital age to easily add graphics, pictures, and video make sure to make the blog visually stimulating.

• Have something to say and be interesting.  This is probably the hardest aspect and finding your voice can take time but this is what makes people return to a blog day after day and week after week.  Readers love stories and personality and finding a way to weave all of this together creates a perfect blog in my view.

I think GovBeat is a great example of a blog that meets my personal criteria.  Many of you will probably find the content boring but that’s the point.  Not every blog is for everyone.  In this new media age, fragmented audiences create the need to find smaller but very loyal audiences. GovBeat is a blog by the Washington Post’s Reid Wilson with the help of fellow reporters.  It focuses on the stories happening in state and local governments. 

This blog clearly is not for everyone, but if you’re interested in politics on the state level it’s a must read.  It targets politicians, journalists, and public policy experts.  However, it’s written in a way that any citizen could understand if they are interested.  In short, it’s a way for anyone interested in public policy to see how other states are handling major issues for comparison to your own state.

The authors have found a niche that very few news organizations are producing on a national level.  They know their audience is people looking for information about policy in other states across the nationl. In other words, the content is focused.   The blog is visually easy to read and makes great use of charts and graphics to help understand the content.  Finally, the writers write in a manner that’s entertaining to read (at least to us policy nerds) but like to add in humorous comments and anecdotes to break up the monotony of serious politics and policy.

While it’s not for everyone, I think GovBeat has successfully found a way to become a very popular blog to a loyal base of readers.  In this world of fragmented media, it’s a success story on creating content in the blogging world.