Just this month Marriott launched a second blog called Marriott In The Kitchen. The new blog is about the food experience at Marriott hotels. Find out more about this new blog via my coverage at Red Room Chronicles. From the looks of the initial posts on the new blog, the team at Marriott is following a winning formula once again.

The posts are interesting, giving you an inside track on food topics as they relate to Marriott hotels. Posts are spiced up with pics which helps out with the overall presentation and definitely makes things a bit more engaging.

It’s obvious that Marriott is on the right track with their blogging efforts. Unfortunately their are still many businesses, large and small, that wonder why they should launch a blog and what it should be about.

My two cents on why businesses should blog is simple. Businesses should blog engage customers (both present and potential) and to build a sense of community. When it comes to what you should be blogging about I’m going to break it out into an acronym. Be FUNI (pronounced funny) with your blogging efforts.

Blog about the fun things that relate to your business. If at first you don’t think that your business is fun then think again. Even still, there are three other types of posts that can engage your community.

Blog about unique things that relate to your business. How do you do things differently? What products or services do you offer that are unique in the marketplace? Point out the unique elements of offerings that may be similar to things your competition offers.

Blog about news related to your company. Throw away the press release and express what’s unique, fun or interesting about your news. Point people to a place where they can find out more about the news.

Blog about things that are interesting. I gave this away in the previous item. Creativity required here. Point out interesting tidbits and stories that only insiders know about. Posts like these give the reader a sense of being an insider. When people feel like an insider they feel special. And if you make people feel special then they are likely to be loyal to your business.

I don’t call these items rules. I call them guidance. You can blog about other things and still have a great blog. But as a consumer of many blogs I find these types of business related blog posts to be the most interesting.

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

1. Make sure that you’ve got your rss feed auto-discovery set correctly. Check my previous post to get details on what this means. In short, the most popular web browsers and a growing number of online services can help people to easily find and subscribe to your RSS feed if this is set up properly.
2. Make sure that your post and page urls are clean. Which link do you think gives you more visibility; http://blog.awakenedvoice.com/?p=506 or http://blog.awakenedvoice.com/2007/11/02/the-importance-of-
   rss-feed-autodiscovery/? Both point to the same place but having a link that displays the full title increases your visibility to search engines.
3. Ping blog search services. Check this year old post titled Ping Ping Ping. If you let blog search services by Google, Technorati and others know you’ve published a post then people will be able to find you’re new content right away.
4. Publish a list of related blogs (or blogs you read and like) on your site. Geeks like me call this a blogroll. Some blogging tools, especially WordPress, will show you other blogs that are linking to you. So when you link to other blogs they then have a greater chance of finding you. If your blog relates or provides good content then those bloggers just might reciprocate with a link on their site.
5. Create a sitemap and submit it to Google. Google has this thing called Webmaster Tools which can be very valuable to people who run a website. It basically will show you how Google views your site. Has your site been indexed? Do you have dead links on your site? Which search queries are sending traffic to your site? This is geeky stuff but can be very helpful in providing you with a full picture of your visibility to the world’s most popular search engine. Some blog tools, like WordPress and Drupal have add ons available that make this process a snap.

I hope that you find this short list of geeky ways to increase your blog visibility helpful. Anyone who has additional ideas is welcome to submit them in the comments.

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

You are a success if you’re able to find and connect with an audience that shares the passion for the ideas you present using social media.

First you need to get started though. I recommend looking over a couple of blog posts by Dave Winer and Doug Welch. These posts reinforce a pair of simple messages:

1. Just get started.

2. Don’t stress about perfection.

I will add a third message and that is to keep a low profile in the beginning.

Like anything else that is new you have to figure out if this blogging thing is for you. So just start. Don’t worry about the formatting or how everything is set up. Just start writing posts that you are moved to write. Don’t press it either. Write about things that you are compelled to write about. Keep the posts short too. Short posts make it easier for you to get the hang of publishing things that the world will see.

Don’t worry about having the most perfect grammar or the best take on a topic. Make the message true to what you believe. Some people worry about criticism. Don’t worry. If someone takes the time to criticize you then you must have done something right in catching their attention. Besides, you don’t agree with everyone about everything when you have discussions with people. So why should a blog be different in that sense?

Finally, get started with low expectations. If you plan on five posts per day you will set yourself up for fast mental burnout. You’ll spend a lot of time worrying about making sure you get your posts written. And the fun of communicating with the world in a new way will soon turn to dread. Don’t let the tail wag the dog. Let the ideas flow naturally. Sounds very new age, doesn’t it?

Early in the process you want to figure out your level of enjoyment for the process. You want to learn a few things. You want to have some time to find your voice. And I find its easier to do all of these things if you’re not worried about the world watching you. So that’s why I say to keep a low profile. This initial stage can take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months. Once you know that this blogging thing is for you then you can start promoting your blog to the world.

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.