Wondering What to Blog About? How About The Obvious.

It all comes down to that age old question: What should I write about? Of course these days many of us are asking ourselves, “What should I blog about?” instead.

I no longer have to explain at length trying to convince professionals to blog but I do frequently have to advise on content. It seems there is a collective misperception that everyone feels they have nothing worthy of sharing about what they do for a living and therefore can’t blog. If you’ve decided you’re going to start writing content I suggest with writing about what’s obvious to you.  The reason being is that what’s obvious to you is not necessarily obvious to someone else.  In fact, the obvious is probably something you learned way back when and have been doing for a while.  The things is, there are people out there today that are starting to learn the same thing right now. Or perhaps the obvious is the daily struggles of work-life, a customer support story, things your company does successfully, why you got into business or chose a given position in the first place.  It’s obvious to you but it makes good reading to everyone else.

Here are 7 ideas if you’re wondering what to blog about on your next company post:

• Tell a story about a customer experience.

• Blog about one thing you do on a consistent basis. Why do you continue to do this consistently?

• How about a story about something you learned from a mentor or boss?  Perhaps you’ve learned something from someone you manage or an intern?

• Maybe you work in an unusual industry.  What’s a day in the life like?  Stories like these can be particularly interesting.  In fact many TV networks have made popular TV series off this very premise: “Deadliest Catch,” “Ax Men,” “Ghost Hunters,”  to name a few.

• Write about the evolution of your logo or brand. Look-backs are always fun to write about and read.

• If you have someone who manages your company blog have each department choose a person to write a blog post about what they do everyday.

• If you work in the sporting good or outdoor industry you’re in the lucky position to have amazing user generated photos outside in scenic settings.  Visual blog posts work great and are often more share-worthy so they work well when you promote it across all of your social media. This morning I clicked on a tweet from Outside Magazine titled, “Behind the ski scenes of Aspen.” It was an interesting photo gallery of the things that go on behind the scenes such as X-Games announcer snowboarding, stylists preparing ski models for a photo shoot etc.

Sometimes it might take a little time to think about what you do on a daily basis and putting a name or label on what that particular activity is because it is so obvious you don’t even think about it anymore. But once you figure it out the content should come to you relatively easy.

I recommend reading “How to Tell Your Company’s Story” on Entrepreneur Magazine. I agree with what they write about tone and storytelling. I usually tell my bloggers to write like you’re explaining to a friend that has very little knowledge of your business.

If you have some great examples of company blogs or techniques you’ve used to determine what to blog about; please leave a comment and a link if ya got one.