By Karen Rynes, Director of Marketing

Happy New Year!  My resolutions this year include the usual suspects...lose a few pounds, exercise more, spend more time with friends, read more -- which is no easy feat with a 12-month old baby who is on the verge of walking & is getting into EVERYTHING!

My resolutions also include a pledge to listen more & learn from what I hear.

As I've said before, blogging is conversational -- it's about people & relationships.  One of the important aspects of business blogging is not only posting to your company blog and sharing your own knowledge or observations, but to listen & respond to what others are saying about you & your industry.

Mike Sansone, on his Converstations blog, posted a great list of tools back in September to help you "eavesdrop" on the conversations happening in the blogosphere.  A couple of items to note from his list are:

1. Use a Feed Aggregator, such as GreatNews or NewsGator, to monitor RSS feeds
2. Set up free Technorati blog searches using your own keywords & tags
3. For the full list go here

Thanks for coming back to check out my Social Media Series this year!  In case you missed it during the holiday craziness, my Dec. 18th post touched on a really thought-provoking subject:  Should companies control what you blog about and/or require confidentiality agreements...even for personal blogging?  What do you think?  I'd love to hear (see...I'm listening!) and learn from your thoughts & opinions on this sure-to-be-controversial topic.

Also, you can review ALL the segments in my ongoing series here.  You'll find that while some of these posts are a couple of months old, they're still current as they communicate best practices.  And, if you haven't read them yet...they're new to you!

By Karen Rynes, Director of Marketing

Despite the fact that I am working for what is considered to be a start-up, new technology enterprise, I still feel like a dinosaur in the web 2.0 world. Without giving away my exact age (a lady never does!), I am one of the generation who actually attended college in the early 80’s without the use of a computer – much less having my own!

Those were days of using a typewriter to do your term papers or signing up & waiting your turn to use the word processor in the computer lab. I’ve tried to block it out, but I still remember those good old days taking the Basic and COBOL programming courses (required for my business degree) complete with flow charting & punch cards.

Fast forward to 2006 and here I am as Marketing Director working with a team who is integrating new technology and tools into our communication efforts. As with the rest of the world, much of social media is new to us…especially blogging. In an effort to get myself up-to-speed and in the swing of using all these great new tools and technologies—like blogging, social networking and podcasting—I’m launching a multi-part series of best practices that will air here weekly, each Monday.

One of the best practices in business and blogging is what is called “full disclosure”. In fact, transparency is not only valued in the blogosphere, it’s expected. On that note, I fully disclose this: my series is intended to help YOU learn as much as it is to help my company and me…so we’ll all be learning together!

The #1 question our company’s staff, and me, had at the outset of blogging is: How do I write a good post? In order to answer this I’ve done some research and compiled 10 tips, this week I’m focused on the first 5, namely:

1. Focus!: While blogs are more informal than a newspaper article, business blogs aren’t a personal diary so you need to keep your reader in mind—keep focused and stay on topic. Many blogs are dedicated to one specific topic while others explore a range of topics in a given industry or field. Whatever your preference, just remember to stay on topic and keep your focus.
2. Have a GREAT title: You know how newspapers and magazines use attention-getting headlines to encourage readership? Your title should let the reader know the value they’ll receive from reading your piece. You could create a descriptive headline (e.g. “Social Media Series”) or one that explains the benefit readers will receive (e.g. “Better Your Blog Writing!). For this post, I opted to use a headline that married both the description and the value.
3. Add personality: Share interesting and valuable information with your readers but add some of your own personality. After all, everyone has their own personality and writing style.
4. Bullets are helpful: Whenever you’re listing information, like statistics or even this list I’m doing here, use bullets. It’s a great way to keep your post organized and “neat” for your readers.
5. Don’t go on…and on: There really are no rules as to how long your post should be, it depends on the subject you’re writing on and the information you need to communicate. The best “rule of thumb” here is to provide the information and, when appropriate, your views and then to end thereafter. Hey, we’re all busy people and there are a LOT of blogs to read!

So, in an effort to follow my own advice above about not blathering on for too long, I’ll end here and continue this by posting the final 5 tips next Monday. In the meantime, if you have any great tips, posts or articles, please share them through the comments so all readers can benefit. Happy writing!

P.S.: Here is a great "blog writing mantra" by Mike Sansone as well as "Ten Tips on writing a successful blog" by Robin Good here.