Are you a blagger or a blogger?

by Farrah Khan, Intern at Northern Lights PR

Do you write blogs or are you really just blagging it? On the Northern Lights internship we learnt that successful blogging is about more than just telling the world what you think.

1. Why should you blog?

The purpose of blogging is to give your brand/organisation a face or a personality which your audiences can relate to. However complicated or specific your subject matter, it needs to be in a language that anyone can understand and engage with – but should still be well written, good quality content. Understanding your audience and using keywords that they will search for will push your blog up search engine rankings.

2. Why don’t blogs work?

As part of a workshop at Tinderbox I was given the case of ‘Penelope the PR Supremo’. She had a blog but she gave up with it. A number of things could have gone wrong

• It didn’t feel natural because there was no personality coming through in the blogs
• This meant she rarely updated it
• The blogs were more like stories than conversation and didn’t invite comments with a question
• The titles used didn’t grab attention so no-one was finding/reading them

3. The ending of a blog is as important as the start

I have learned that an ending is just important as the beginning as it keeps the reader engaged if you end with a question or a view that can be challenged. But is there ever a right answer when it comes to blogging? I don’t think there is because at the end of the day a blog is one person’s opinion against another’s. It’s not always fact.