The nature of bloggers

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I’ve been blogging for several months now, and have noticed a consistent and pervasive theme in blogging, with a few notable exceptions. Specifically the nature of bloggers who are approaching the concept on a professional rather than a personal level; it is overwhelmingly geared around technology–feeds and speeds, bits and bytes. What I don’t see very often is high-level business blogging, with the occasional exception of people like Jonathan Schwartz or Dave Kellog. After weeks of polite goading I have managed to get one of my friends to jump in, Dick Reed, the CEO of JustMedia. Why aren’t more people like Dick doing this?

This is not only an opportunity to make your voice heard(and let’s face it, there aren’t too many shy CEOs around), but this can also raise you and your company’s profile and even generate sales leads. What are the key considerations for blogging succesfully? Here are a few simple suggestions (there’s lots of complex ones, but I’ll stick to the simple ones for now).

1) Get one. Google offers this for free, as do lots of other blogging services. The software is just sitting out there, waiting for you.

2) You have to do it. It doesn’t have to be a big time sink, but you have to keep a steady flow of postings if you want this to work

3) Get involved in the ecosystem. You need to post responses to other people’s blogs, and they will do the same for you.

4) Stay in the loop. Get onto Google Alerts, pick the topic(s) you find interesting, and subscribe. Most of the alerts are blog postings, so it’s a great way to find like-minded people with opinions.

5) Get noticed. There’s a lot of blog service sites out there, the best known is Technorati. Go there, register, and jump through their hoops. It’s worth the effort.

So why aren’t more CEOs doing this? Too busy, not technical enough, don’t understand the concept, etc. This is a great tool for techies, and it can become an even better tool for the guys at the top of the pile, if they are willing to make the effort. And a big congratulations to Dick for making the leap.