One of the great things about blogging is that it gives folks a look at the inside of you… things outside of regular business… so that they see you are a human being.

Funny things that are outside your field offer all sorts of opportunities to blog about something different. Here’s the thing, though… it has to be relevant to your readers and it has to be something consonant with you… in other words, readers could see what you have put up and actually believe that you enjoy it. In other words, it can’t just be something off the wall.

Example?

I am a web designer. It’s what I do. Now what would a web designer be into? You’d be surprised at some of the non-geeky things, and you would expect a lot of nerd-culture. But if I start posting a whole bunch of things from those, it probably doesn’t resonate with you…

However, I’m also a marketing junkie… and if you are reading my blog, then you have some interest in marketing your business. So that would be fertile ground for me to play.

So if I post a link to this article about 20 business cards you would probably never, ever forget (not safe for work or around kids), then even though it is not about web design, it is about marketing… and you might even be likely to pass it on to others who find making fun of marketing to be funny.

Blogs offer visitors a window to see inside your company and to learn about you: the person (if you build the blog that way).

So your blog doesn’t always have to be about business, as long as what you do talk about is relevant to your visitors… and it’s probably best not to throw them a curveball until you know for sure that they are very familiar with you.

Interesting things could be something related to your business… say for example you sell things that cater to left-handed people. A blog post on the origin of the word “Southpaw” would be relevant… then you could for other word origins having to do with the left hand (ever wonder where the word “sinister” came from?).

This could be a series of blog posts that would entertain your readers.

You could even have 101 Interesting Facts about Left-Handed People and have a blog post for each one of them. There are 102 Blog Champions Rules… each of them will have their own post eventually. Right now, I’m getting to about one every month or so in and among my other blog posts, so if this is number eight, I have about 94 more months (almost eight years!) of Blog Champions posts.

Do it.

I’m not a fan of mandating charity.

However, if you are taking advantage of the opportunity to run your own business, then you should be supporting a charity,  a cause, or something.

Why? Because we small businesses are quite often either the loudest voices for a cause or among the largest contributors to charities, and we kinda owe that to society in a “pay it forward” kind of way.

It’s as simple as posting once in a while about a cause you believe in. It doesn’t have to involve money. The only rule in play is that when you talk about a charity or a cause, it is all about the charity or the cause. The point is to help the charity and to raise awareness… it is not about “hey look at me!”

Once it becomes “hey look at me,” then you lose all credibility, or worse, become offensive… and being offensive is a real hard label to shake off once someone has applied it to you.

We are businesspeople. There are things we can do for charities that people who do not own businesses simply cannot do… or do as well.

What can you do?

Become a drop-off location.
Lots of charities are looking for collection points for items like canned foods, blankets, diapers and other necessities.

Be a mouthpiece for them.
Raise awareness through your blog. Don’t make it a beg-a-thon, but if you have information to share, the blog can be a great place to share it. The same “don’t sell through the blog” rules apply, but there’s a little leniency if you are telling your readers to go to a certain event or something along hose lines. It’s great to raise funds, just don’t make them feel all bad to do so.

Put an icon on your blog that leads to their website, if they have one.

It’s not about “here let me give them money” or about “look at me.” It’s about getting these groups the help and/or awareness that they need.

Buying is an emotional decision, no matter how logical a purchase may be. And if you have a few stories that will pull on people’s heart strings, they need to be one of your main marketing tools, because people empathize with those types of stories.

Wait! That’s not fair! You’re toying with people’s emotions!

Well… “toying” isn’t the word I would have chosen, but… I can see your point…

Welcome to the world of advertising and marketing.

If you plan on being in business, you’d better be able to make people want your product. Want is an emotion.

Do you think for a second that McDonald’s would sell nearly as many hamburgers as they sell if they displayed them the way we get them?

Do your burgers show up with bright, freshly cut vegetables and meat right off of the grill, steaming with that distinctive char-broiled aroma that makes your taste buds sing the hallelujah chorus?

When you take your kids to McDonald’s is it to get food that you know they will eat and to let them blow off some steam in the playground?

Or when you take your son to McDonald’s after the big little league game… the one where he struck out in the last inning with the game on the line… he’s hurt, been crying, feeling like he let down the team… and you order him that Quarter Pounder….. no… that DOUBLE Quarter Pounder for your big man… does it bring that smile as a sunbeam lights up his face?

People are emotional buyers, and if you want that purchase, you’d better pull that string… and yes… that includes your blog, because your blog is a natural part of your marketing strategy.

Kittens.

It’s hard for most people not to smile when they think of kittens… especially with all the pictures of them doing silly things on the internet.

Kittens press what I call “the Awww button” which causes people to send the picture on to someone else… and so on, and so on, and so on…

A true Blog Champion either has a few “cute” things about their industry in their back pocket or they are looking for them, because they know that these items are likely to get passed on to others through people who may not ordinarily pass their information along.

The trick is: it has to be related to your industry… otherwise, it isn’t congruent. A website about football that suddenly features a picture of a ballerina without some connection to football (like the ballerina is really a football player).

Stereotypes.

People say that stereotypes aren’t very nice… But they can be funny. They can also be huge differentiators for your business if you let them.

If you use stereotypes in your blog, you need to be deliberate and confident about it. There is a fine line between talking about stereotypical traits and being offensive.

One of the best I have seen at bucking stereotype is Dan Cohn of Cohn Consulting Services. Dan would never say this about himself, but I’m pretty sure that he gives I.T. guys nightmares. Most I.T. guys (for this discussion) are someone who works at a company and is “good with computers.” In reality, it is more accurate to say that they are good at following help screens and piecing things together.

When Dan talks about the stereotype, he notes that “when most people think about computer guys, they think of people running around with propeller beanie hats and pocket protectors.”

Doing the exact opposite, when Dan goes to an appointment, he is sharply, sharply, sharply dressed in a suit. He uses technical jargon only with a plain English explanation of what that word means.

In using the stereotype to describe his industry, he allows customers to relax, taking comfort in knowing that Dan will knowing that they are coming to the right person to get the job done!

Blog Champions Rule #3: look for funny things within their field to blog about.

People on the Internet are more likely pass along something that is funny than they are to pass along something useful. The internet is a social media, as evidenced by sites like Facebook and twitter. Old and new friends getting together, sharing stories and of course, laughing.

Blog Champions look for things that their target viewers will find funny that they can post. The key here is their target viewers. Two twin babies having a conversation is a pretty universal laugh, so it appeals to everyone and gets passed along by everyone.

Once you determine your target market, make sure that what your posting is funny to people in that group. Things that poke fun at ‘senior moments’ are probably funnier to one group tha another. Parodies of one’s company with Star Wars characters will be funny to some whilenothers won’t be amused at all by it.

So definitely know your crowd, and put out things that will amuse them. If they really like it, they’ll pass them along to their friends (who probably include some people in your target market).

Blog Champions Rule #2: Blog Champions look for interesting things within their field to blog about.

It doesn’t necessarily need to be funny pictures of cats, but entertaining and useful information is the kind of thing that people want to pass along to their friends.

So the question becomes, “what can I find in my industry that people would want their friends to see?”

Now this will be more difficult for some industries than others. For example, a fire dancer will always have cool pictures to share, but finding unique pictures after the first couple times can be a challenge. What if they were to post a quick series of posts about particular parts of fire dancing, like certain tricks that they like to do, one for each trick?

Real Estate agents all over are talking about the recent buying trend. What about simple things that someone can do to increase the value of their home?

Each industry has something valuable to pass along, as long as their messages make it to the right people. Housewives may not pass along the latest football stats, but they might pass along the cleaning tips that guys don’t normally pay attention to.

Who are you reaching? What can you send to them that they are likely to pass along to their friends?

Blog Champions Rule #1: Blog Champions set aside time for their blog like they would a meeting. It’s like a quick coffee with a whole lot of people at one time.

Blogging for a business is a deliberate process, just like anything else you do. Execution in a business is not an accident. The Executive Chef’s stuffed sea bass doesn’t accidentally come out right every single time. It’s a process. A limousine company doesn’t accidentally get the bride to the church on time. It’s a process.

Business blogs don’t just appear by accident. They are planned… And the first step to planning your blog is deciding when you are going to post your articles/posts/tips.

It needs to be a specific time and a specific place.

Profitable business people already understand the secret of planning with specifics… They do it every time they set a meeting with someone else. They don’t stop at “let’s get together some time.” They plan a specific time and a specific place to have their meeting. It may have taken an extra thirty seconds, but now they have a meeting set up and their business progresses because of it.

Planning a blogging session takes the same effort. Simply pick a block of time in advance and treat it like you would a meeting…

Because at the end of the day, a blog is like a meeting with a whole lot of people at one time and on into the future. So shouldn’t it get at least the same priority as a meeting with one person?

It’s kinda ironic – like ray-ee-yain on your wedding day – that I waited a long time to start my blog. I urge my clients to do a blog for a host of reasons, yet I hadn’t done it for myself. It’s funny… a website design guy who helps others with search engine optimization (or SEO) and I hadn’t done a whole lot of it for my own site.

While I could argue a business reason for not doing the SEO (haven’t needed to do it… most of my business is referral-based) or do the whole “image management” thing and use some professional-sounding excuse… the truth to the matter is that the reason I didn’t started my blog is the exact same reason that many folks I know haven’t started theirs:

“I’m going to, but I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.”

“Blogging” is a business task if it’s done properly. If it’s treated like checking email, taking out the trash, follow-up phone calls or transaction-entering, it gets done.

Now it’s one thing to preach time-management or to know what it’s about, but applying it is a totally different matter… one brought to my attention by my daughter going back to school.

My wife and I own a hair salon which serves both the American and Brazilian communities. Her specialty is Brazilian Hair Straightening Keratin Treatments… with very long and physically demanding hours.

Forcing yourself to get good at time management:

I have stepped in and become the school and activities taxi and official homework checker. Our daughter’s schooling in Brazil has her a couple years behind the other kids, so I am working with her to get her caught up. Yes – I am my kid’s mom (I’m glad football season is here so I can get weekly doses of testosterone!).

This new role has forced me to get good at time management. Not only do I lose a half-hour in the mornings – but I also cannot schedule meetings between 12-3 each day because I pick her up from school. In addition, her homework takes an average of two and a half hours for me to help and coach her to completion (language barriers, math deficiencies, etc… all taken into consideration).

I have to take the hours that I do have and do more with them… which includes fitting my blog and other promotional stuff in there…

…and I am loving it!

So why am I telling people this? What does it have to do with a company starting a blog?

Force yourself to manage your time to get your blogging done.

Whether a business has a website or not, it needs to get a blog going. Blogs create more opportunities for search engines to find and present a company to someone who is searching what that company has to offer. It is worth planning a 15-30 minute session each day to handle your blogging and social networking tasks.

Treat it like a meeting and put it on your calendar if you need to. You will be amazed at what happens in a couple weeks. Not only will you have a blog that is actually being used and read, but you will find that it is one more thing that you can get done in a day…

…and that’s what’s up!