In December 2006, Time magazine announced that the person of the year wasn’t the usual politician, scientist or artist but rather it was you.  For Time, the story of the year was “…about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before.” 

The achievement of this accolade is directly attributable to the recent explosion in the number of social networking tools and technologies available.  Wikipedia, YouTube and MySpace as well as Podcasting have all been immensely successful, but perhaps the most important technology is the Blog.  “Blog” is a contraction of “web logs” and refers to the web based chronological publication of personal thoughts, often with photographs, film and sound.  Whilst a blog can be used as an online diary, more often than not it is something you write in the hope that others will read it and will feel compelled to share their experiences with you and your blog network.  Successful blogs rely on the ‘stickyness’ of their brand to ensure readers call again.  And again.  And it’s not just limited to personal networks.  In the USA in particular, large corporations are taking advantage of the new technologies to engage and energise staff.  But be aware - in the new streetsmart ‘technospeak’, corporate blogs are often referred to as dark blogs!

Despite huge growth rates in the States and Europe business, blogging in the UK has been surprisingly sluggish.  At the recent UK blog awards there wasn’t even a category included for business blogs.  If this is truly representative numbers, then we are missing out big time.  I believe that blogging has the potential to make a significant difference to the success of UK business and in HR in particular.  Internal communications, product development, information management, knowledge sharing, problem solving, and career tactics are all obvious focus areas in the corporate world.  In my experience blogs can be particularly powerful in the generation of new ideas and in enabling staff development. 

So, you decide to go ahead and set up a blog.  But, if you build it, will they come?  And after they’ve read it, will they come back?

The Blog Rules – Building a ‘sticky’ brand

• Give freely – Tell people what you think and share freely.  Giving useful information will keep them coming back for more.
• Be appreciative – reference materials and ideas that you use and wherever possible provide links or references to them.  This will pay you back especially if you post comments on other blogs. [not clear if this is using ur own stuff or attributing to others]
• Be modest – whilst it’s ok to write personal blogs if your aim is to develop your brand (corporate or personal) one of your objectives must be to attract others. Whilst what you had for lunch may be of interest to you if you’re looking for hits think what you can do for others rather than for yourself. [don’t get how this last sentence connects with ‘be modest’]
• Take your time – the number of visitors you will attract will increase over time but you need to be patient.  Your blog won’t necessarily be an overnight success. 
• Take time to practice how and what you post so that when people eventually find it they will stick with you. 
• Be respectful – People don’t have buckets of time to read your blog so keep it short, use appropriate graphics and post only what you believe will help or interest others.
• Be bold – have a point of view.  If you don’t get arguments on your blog and critics about your opinions then you are probably not producing interesting enough content to attract visitors.
• Be enthusiastic – my favourite rule.  Post with Oomph.  People can tell how passionate you are about what you are blogging and are therefore more likely to use and revisit your blog.

My own blog, McArthur’s Rant (http://mcarthursrant.blogspot.com/), has become something of an obsession.  Whilst I started off thinking only friends and family would be interested, I quickly started taking it much more seriously when I saw that people from over 40 countries were reading my rantings.  I’m now working on my first ever Podcast series “Thoughts are Things – the power of visualisation”.. So my final tip on the subject of blogs – you will get out what you put in, and then some – but don’t get addicted!

Scott McArthur
Executive Consultant, Atos Consulting

Blogs I recommend:
http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com
http://www.knowhr.com/blog
http://guerillahr.blogspot.com
http://systematichr.com

Also read my blog on HR Circles:
http://www.changeboard.com/hrcircles/blogs/hrlearning