Can You Help?
Though many blogs seem to be tossed up during a short lunch hour, business blogging is not intended as a stream-of-consciousness exercise (leave that to the diary scribblers). If you’re blogging for business, you probably want your readers to understand you. Give them a helping hand: organize your thoughts for them.
No one likes this step. It’s closely related to those outlines you had to create back in college.
Here’s something in my deep, dark past that I usually don’t talk about: I taught college English back in the 90′s. And that’s when I discovered that the failure of almost all poor essays is lack of organization. Students have great ideas, lots of them, but communicating them with others – there’s the challenge.
My Point, and I’m About to Make One
You can get past dull language and even cliché-ridden copy as long as your reader can follow your thoughts. But if you’re expecting them to follow you off on tangents, to connect the dots for you from a thought you had in the fifth paragraph to one you had in the second and then again in the 20th, amidst several others you had along the way, then you’re dreaming.
People need signposts; they need you to organize your thoughts so that they can understand them.
How to Organize a Blog Post
First, come up with your great blog idea. Second, think through how you’re going to tell your story, from top to bottom. Then, begin at the top. Finally, read through and make sure you followed your plan.
And – ahem - spelling counts.
