We had such a good time the last time we did this and it was a very popular podcast. So, what's the first question?

Our first question is from Matt and he says: "Everyone keeps telling me I should be writing a blog as part of my marketing activity but where do I start?" Over to you, Nicky!

Well Matt, what do we always say at The Marketing Menu? You need a plan! But before we go any further, let's say at this point that blogging is indeed a very good platform to demonstrate your expertise, share opinions and raise your profile.

I agree. But you are so right about the plan. Doing a blog isn't something you can just throw together or do on the hoof. It needs some careful thought about what you are going to say and how often you are going to say it.

That's absolutely right – set a realistic target. Think about your workload. Don't announce you are going to do a weekly blog then find there's no way you can fit it in with everything else you are doing. You're better off doing one a month and making it a really good quality blog than scraping around for content more often just for the sake of it.

You said the key word there, content. It needs to be consistent with your other marketing content but the blog does give you scope to go into much more detail about what you are going to talk about than on other social media platforms.

So, what can Matt talk about in his blogs?

First of all, I would say avoid any sales talk. Use the opportunity to do some storytelling. Have a listen to Podcast 3 Crushing it with Storytelling for some great guidance. And remember your voice – we talked about this in Podcast 9 about Social Media. Other than that, use the blog to talk about what your business is doing, go into more details about some case studies or offer some opinion on what is going on in your industry.

Yes, we've talked about this before, haven't we? Positioning yourselves as experts and actually, blogs are a perfect way to that. As long as you're confident in what you are saying and can back it up with your knowledge, you can almost afford to be a bit contentious and offer an argument or alternative opinion.

As with any social media platform, they key is getting people engaged. I had a client who was an author who reluctantly started writing a blog after much persuasion when he realized that, as a writer, a blog was the perfect way to showcase the breadth of his writing.

It's very different though, right?

Yes, it is, but as he was submitting manuscripts to agents, the first thing they would do would be to search for him online. The fact that he had a back library of really well-written blogs helps showcase that he knows what he is doing. Only one problem though.

What's that?

He used to complain that no-one ever commented on his blogs but he would never go and read anyone else's!

Aha! And of course, the key to the success of a blog, as with all social media platforms, is audience engagement. You can't expect anyone to read your blogs if you're not engaging, and by that I mean reading and commenting, on what other people are writing.

Precisely! And when you read other blogs and leave a comment, hopefully, that will generate interest in your own because of how you have responded. So, think carefully when you are crafting your comment so people will want to know more about you.

Yes, think creatively listeners! And of course, you need to promote it. Now you could say the blogging platform, and Wordpress is a good example of this, is the base that you are trying to drive traffic to so if you've created a post you then want to circulate a snippet of the blog through those channels, like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc.

I'd also add that if you can include your blogging platform on your websi...