Whether you realize it or not, as a trainer or speaker you have another natural skill you can tout: Writer!
From creating training curriculum, presentations, podcasts, or handouts—every trainer and speaker is undeniably a writer. With tens of thousands of people working from home and depending on the virtual world, think about how can you shift some of your training expertise to this larger-than-ever virtual audience.
If you have not already, start a blog. After all, you are already a writer! Transferring your expertise into helpful blog articles that readers can access anytime is a great way to grow your brand and be a key source of information that will help readers develop and grow in their own lives.
Becky Pike Pluth from The Bob Pike Group offers these nine tips on building and running a better blog.
- You need readership! If you have written a blog and haven’t told anyone about it, then it’s not serving its purpose! Through emails, social media, or during training sessions, communicate out that "we have a blog.” Encourage followers or learners to subscribe so they’ll get an email or text when a new article is posted.
- Make sure your blog is searchable. An easy way to organize your blog is to make it searchable by topic. For instance, at The Bob Pike Group, blog posts are tagged with linked topics like “Instructional Design,” “Microlearning,” or “Gamification.” Search engines will pick those topics up as well as key SEO phrases to help drive traffic to your blog.
- Think about unique content. Don't write what everyone else is writing … that is boring. Solve a problem that someone hasn't already solved. You want people to keep coming back for more! Turn your recent podcast into a blog post, or another bit of content from a recent training session. If you think about it, blogs are a written version of podcasts.
- Look at the word count. While writing and posting to your blog, think about the length. The amount of times you post each month will affect the word count of each post. Remember, blog articles do not have to be long! If you post several times a week, keep articles to under 250 words. If you post 2-3 per month, then the blog posts should be longer and meatier to cover the content.
- Provide accurate content. Blog posts with false information is no good! Of course, make sure the content is up-to-date and in line with current trending topics. Make sure any data that is detailed is 100% accurate.
- Find the original source of any facts you include. Don't quote someone or offer a statistic without fact-checking. Research a few different channels to assure the facts line up across various sources. Also, be sure to give credit to the source in the blog post itself.
- Create downloadable content. Give longevity and more usefulness to your blog post by adding in a link to a white paper related to the topic or include a hyperlink to fellow colleagues’ content.
- Keep comments open or not? Decide in advance if you’re going to have a comment section for readers to use. If you do have comments, be sure to respond to them quickly and consistently. If not, have someone else help you out.
- Analyze your hits. Check out the stats and find out when you have the most visitors—the time of day and day of the week. Of course, when you see the most visits, that is the ideal time to post. Mondays aren't great. Thursdays are best. Try to shoot for posting in the early morning, so that triggered emails can hit subscribers’ inboxes and RSS feeds.
The good news is that publishing your thoughts and ideas is easier than ever! The virtual world has given everyone a platform to share their knowledge and expertise. With engaging content and thoughtful writing, you might just be able to start … or grow your blog by following these tips.
Hear more about topics like this from Becky Pike Pluth by subscribing to her podcast.
