I think that after 6 years and some ungodly amount of posts later, blogging is just a part of who I am now. So I found this article about 10 Tips for Hospital Blogging quite interesting.
[1] Define your hospitals goals
[2] Know your audience
[3] Be Consistent
[4] Be Persistent
[5] Be Inviting
[6] Be Visible
[7] Take Risks
[8] Ask for Help
[9] Keep Learning
[10] Be True to your Hospital
Definitely an interesting list. I think the first two points are a real challenge and you should be careful worrying too much about your specific goals and your audience when you’re starting to blog. Part of the blogging experience is learning new things that you didn’t expect to learn. Plus, you will learn who your audience is over time. Of course, you can make general goals of wanting to learn about your audience, etc.
I think the rest of the points hit 3 areas that I believe are essential to blogging: consistency/persistence, learning, and authenticity.
The hardest part of blogging is doing it consistently. I call it the content beast for a reason. Not because it’s a bad thing, but because the beast is always hungry. It takes real consistency to always feed it. The beauty is that the internet will reward your persistence in surprising ways.
The internet and blogging is moving so quickly that there’s always something else to learn. Don’t think that you need to know everything to start. Just start doing it and you will learn an amazing amount a long the way. Interesting that consistent persistence matters with learning too.
The best blogs have an authentic voice. I believe the key for this is having someone passionate about your blogging topic. The passion will show through and you will create an authentic connection with those interested in what you’re writing about.
More and more as I look at products, companies, etc I look to see if they have a blog. I find a blog is a great way to get a feel for who and what a company represents. It humanizes the relationship in a really great way.
