Any new business has to ask themselves: “what should we write about on our website?” More specifically, many companies find themselves saying “Let’s start a blog! Now, what should we write about?”

Use What You Have

A few months ago, Eric Delisle posted five suggestions to companies writing blogs. He pointed out that every company has at least one of the following things to offer on a company blog:

• News
• Employee Blogs
• Events
• Customer Care
• Feedback/Suggestions

But what Eric didn’t address is, does your audience care about any of these five things?

It’s Not Me, It’s You

The first rule to creating valuable content is remember: no one cares about you. No, not in an emo-cry-in-the-mirror way. I’m sure you have friends and family that care deeply for you. But your readers? Your users? Your prospective clients and customers? They don’t care.

When is the last time you found yourself wondering, “what is Best Buy up to today?”

What I want to know about Best Buy is: when are they open? Do they have any good sales going on the things I need to buy? Where are they located? If Best Buy has any other information that they think I would be interested in, it’s up to them to convince me. But I am never going to browse the Best Buy site just hoping that I can learn more about their recent event, or their company news.

What Do We Have to Offer?

That’s not to say that Eric is wrong. He’s absolutely right – every company can find news, or events, or employee blogs, or customer service, or feedback and suggestions to offer. The key is to determine which of these items are right for your audience.

To find out what’s right for your company, ask your team:

• What questions do our users tend to ask us?
• Where do our users spend their time online?
• How often are our users online?

Then analyze the responses:

• If users are asking a lot of questions about…
  • products, then starting a weekly Q&A is a great use of a blog. If they’re not asking questions, they probably won’t bother to follow a blog that provides answers.
  • related resources, then have employees take turns writing about online or offline resources available. Customers will appreciate hearing different voices and getting trusted input.
  • upcoming events, then take advantage of the opportunity to talk up the places your team will be, highlighting the customers you meet there, and giving recaps for customers who missed them.
  • the team itself, then build the relationships. Keep in mind, customers may be interested in a Steve Jobs persona, or it may be someone less real. Imagine the following Flo from Progressive might have, if she kept a blog.
• If users spend their online time…
  • watching videos, then you can play into this and offer “fun” elements on your blog.
  • joining communities and researching information, then a customer service or feedback based blog is the right call.
  • working, then they’re less likely to stumble across your blog. They’ll only find you if you are blogging about information they need – then you’ll pop up in their Google results.
  • looking for entertainment, consider what entertainment you can provide. Whether you’re creating the next Old Spice commercial, or responding to customer requests, or creating projects for them to join, you’ll want to ensure quality and consider relevance to your brand.
• If your users are online…
  • less than an hour a day, respect their time and don’t update the blog unless there’s a sale or event they must know about. Alternatively, remember that a blog is not for everyone! Maybe it’s not right for your audience.
  • most of the day, then the blog is a great spot to entertain users and connect with them. Update regularly with information that can provoke conversations and discussions.
  • on their mobile devices sporadically through the day, avoid long articles, video, and anything else that requires sitting at a desktop. Stick to quick tips and short updates.

Who’s it all for?

It amazes me how much time content creators spend worrying over what to write about, and where to get inspiration from. The inspiration is right there in front of us: we need to stop trying to “attract” users, and start speaking to them. They’re looking for someone to converse with, to answer their questions, to entertain and enlighten them. A blog is one tool to let us start conversations.