The Two Words You Want to Avoid on Any Team Blog
October 17, 2011
1) Posted by: Anonymous (also known as Anon. or Admin). Along the same lines, I also see Posted by: _______ (clinic name) or ______ (clinic owner name - even when it was written by another team member).
These words put a barrier between you and your audience, and keep your readers from seeing all of the real people behind the team blog.
Instead, create a profile for each of your team bloggers, complete with their title or specialty. You can even get fancy and have a bio page and photo for each person.
The benefit of taking this step is that it profiles each individual team member and shows your audience the diversity of skills and knowledge you have in your clinic. Plus, the person is likely to feel prouder of the post and share it more freely amongst family, friends and colleagues.
Note: If you are a service professional who occasionally invites guest bloggers to contribute to your blog, you won't necessarily want to create a profile for them - especially when you're just starting out in your relationship. The guidelines in this post are specifically for team blogs.
2) Posted in: Uncategorized. Describing a blog post as uncategorized can make your blog seem disorganized. Instead, choose 5-10 meaningful categories and assign each blog post to one or more relevant categories.
The benefit of taking this step is that it will help your readers find the information they're most interested in. Blog post categories also help you to plan and write your content.
If you're not going to use categories, then remove that information from your post footer.
To make these changes to your blog, consult the person who set up your site in the first place. If you're on WordPress, you can also contact my friend Sandra De Freitas. After all, she wrote the book on WordPress blogsites, now in it's second edition (I should know, I edited it!).
For more tips on writing a team blog, check out these Team Blogging Success Tips for Wellness Clinics.
Indeed, what were they thinking?
Thanks for the comment.
All the best,
Linda
Posted by: Linda Dessau | October 19, 2011 at 05:41 PM
You'll find it interesting that the default category with Wordpress is uncategorized.
Wha? I obviously obliterated that one forever ... and replaced it with miscellaneous.
Just kidding - wonder what they were thinking?
Posted by: Jeff Korhan | October 19, 2011 at 05:37 PM