CT Biz Blogs

As I mentioned in my last post, having multiple authors in a blog can help keep the posts coming. There are several advantages to multiple author blogs, and there are some issues — I wouldn’t go so far as to say these are disadvantages, but rather, things to keep in mind.

Advantages of multiple authors

• Shared workload. The biggest advantage, to my mind, is the shared workload. In order to build and keep regular readers, you need to keep your blog fresh, with new content on a regular basis. This isn’t always easy, and having another blogger on board can help – to share the work, bounce ideas off of, complain to, or laugh with.
• More content. The main purpose of a business blog is to keep the business in readers’ minds. The more worthwhile content, the more that happens.
• More perspectives. Everyone has his or her own focus. With more than one blogger, it’s easier to avoid “holes” or gaps in the coverage of a topic. In a movie blog, for example, a blogger might have a favorite genre that he or she is more in touch with. This could cause more posts to be about that genre than others, just as an unconscious bias. Another writer can help cover the gaps.

Precautions

• Shifting tone. The voice of each blogger is going to be different, so the tone will vary from one post to another. One writer might be flippant, another more serious. Frequent readers will be clued in, but be aware that there will always be new readers (you hope) coming to your blog. If you can, find a way in the first sentence or two to orient the readers to the kind of tone this post will have – humorous, formal, sad, angry.
• Confusion about identity. Online content is typically read pretty quickly, and readers might not notice a byline. To help identify different writers, you might want to make the name stand out somehow. First, put it at the top of the post, right under the title. And, you can even include pictures, as they do in Business Review’s Blogspotting blog. This lets readers know right up front that two people are writing posts, and increases the likelihood that bylines will be noticed.This isn’t necessarily a show-stopper; one of my favorite blogs is BoingBoing. They have four writers. At first I was very confused as to who was who. I couldn’t tell who was the “I” in the post until the end, where the author’s name was placed. But the content was so interesting and plentiful that I kept coming back, and pretty soon I knew who these people were, and could tell, just from the content of the post, who was writing it. But more casual reader might give up. So unless you have a devoted and large following, consider ways to help orient the new reader.
• Consistency of message. Blogs tend to be less formal than regular web pages, and people often use them for thinking out loud and resolving issues. So even in a single-author blog, there may be contradictions between different posts. But in a multi-author blog, it can be magnified. If a discrepancy or contradiction crops up, readers will be confused about who is the actual “voice” of the company. That’s ok If it isn’t a company blog, as with BoingBoing. But if your blog represents your business, you want to make it clear who is talking and where they fit in the company.

Even bloggers who are going it alone can use some help from time to time, maybe because of looming deadlines on a project, vacation or travel, or just to spice things up a bit. In that case a blogger can bring in a “guest blogger” or even several guest bloggers to post. Lisa Haneberg, who writes the blog Management Craft, has done a great job of bring in other voices from time to time.

So not only does she give great advice on management and business issues, she’s an example of agile and clever ways to blog. Check out her posts from July 8 - 14th, such as this from Dave Pughe-Parry on cultural assumptions.

Adding other voices to your blog, by having multiple authors or the occasional guest blogger, is one content strategy to keep in mind. It can increase the posting frequency to your blog, add some spice and interest, and give you a break from the daily blog-slog.