Legal Marketing & PR

Blog Content Sources

By Michelle Golden

As a starting point for blog content, I always (and I do mean that as an absolute) recommend that professionals interested in blogging start going backward through their sent emails for ideas.

In combing through those sent items, you'll no doubt find answers to clients' or prospects' questions or at least responses, maybe even supported by your research, that you've provided to internal clients (your bosses) if you don't yet have direct client contact.

These are perfect future blog posts.

Simply going through the email text, do two things...

1 - sanitize the email for names and other information that would be proprietary to the asker, and

2 - at the top of the e-mail/post, provide context such as "A situation arose for a $5M retailer in an urban marketplace [frame any helpful facts PARTICULARY industry, business size, and other good keywords]...in which it would be wise to consider [put forth your suggested approach or alternatives]."

This is really very easy for you, or someone on your staff, to do. Voila. You have a blog post. And a very helpful one indeed.

Don't be tempted to pare down the context or the approach suggestions too much so that they become extremely general in nature. The real benefit and value in blogs is that they make it quite easy to address specifics. In general, accountants are leery to recommend specific approaches. This doesn't help you much when it comes to looking like an expert.

But when framing the issue very specifically, you can begin to throw out some of the nuances that would affect a final choice. That is where the real meat is in a blog post that makes it better (more valuable to the firm) than an ordinary website. Even if you don't state the "best choice" under the circumstances, your knowledge demonstrated in listing the nuances will benefit you and the firm.

Remember, too, you would naturally have a broad disclaimer on your blog that says your content is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as specific financial advice...that a reader should always consult his or her professional advisor for advice specific to their situation.

It would appear I'm not alone in the belief that this is a good way to find what I'll call "blog fodder." Hat tip to Kevin O'Keefe for pointing me to "8 Reasons Why Client Questions Make Great Blog Content" by The Blog Squad...enjoy the post...

Full post as published by Golden Practices on July 17, 2008 (boomark / email).