5 bad habits of business blogging

I truly think Scots are taking over the world, they’re everywhere. Gordon Brown, Susan Boyle, my girlfriend, the plumber yesterday and then of course there’s Mashable, the incrediably successful social media guide with 1.5 million twitter followers and 254,000 RSS feeds - made in Scotland, from servers.

Mashable has just posted their top 5 business blogging mistakes and already has 17 comments. So foolishly I’m going head to head with my own. Come on big man, let’s see what you’ve got (cue Victorian boxer type shuffle and arm movements).

1) Going off brand

Frankly we’re just waiting for the next Gerald Ratner like disaster to happen and it will probably come via social media. Too many senior egos operating off piste, off message, without a map and forgetting they represent their company.

2) Not telling anyone.

To maul the classic existential question, if a blog is written, in a remote wood with no one to read it, does it make a noise?  Blogs entries need publicising through social media channels and email to make sure your audience has a chance to read it.

3) Not posting regularly

There’s a direct correlation between frequency of posting and the number of views. Blogs allow you to reach out  every day – you couldn’t get away with that by email or post. Don’t post often enough though and your audience will assume you don’t have much to say.

4) Running a blog remote to the company website.

 It’s all about traffic. If you have compelling enough content, why would you want to send all the resulting traffic to a separate destination rather than your company or brand site where you can sell things?

5) DIY  

Because channels like email, Twitter, LinkedIn  are quick and cheap to set up, many companies assume they’ll be cheap to run and forget about a content budget. In new media terms, you are what you communicate and best not leave that to the intern, as Habitat found out in June. Employ a content provider that knows something about public relations.

Mashable’s top five blogging mistakes here