Why Blog?

How to Start.....and Finish that Article Know your audience is the best advice I was given when I started as a trainee journalist a thousand years ago. My first job was on a local newspaper in Warwickshire. The audience were the people who lived in the town the newspaper served. Woe betide you if you spelt any names wrong or misquoted the leading lights. They generally were on drinking terms with the editor and you would soon find yourself hauled into his office for a dressing down. These may seem minor misdemeanours compared with the fake news scandals of today. But to the people of that town, getting it right was important, and so it should be. Now anyone can write. You don’t have to be a journalist to get published. There is a wide variety of ways to share your expertise and your stories without having to go through the media. Blog writing and thought leadership articles give everyone a chance to get their opinions out there. The problem is it is a crowded market place...

I don’t know where the phrase “You Can’t Put Lipstick on a Pig” originated, but for animal lovers out there, including myself, I want to reassure you I have never tried. Unfortunately that can’t be said for some businesses, organisations and even PR and Marketing agencies. Their unsuccessful attempts to make something ugly look more attractive – which is what the saying means – only succeed in alienating the media. Pitching, what one of my former news editors called a “pile of p**h,” will not make you very popular. Your organisation or agency will be seen as someone who doesn’t understand the news/features agenda. That is the last thing you want…trust me I’m a journalist! So this creates a dilemma. You are a business/PR/marketing agency and your client believes they have a great story or a great idea for a feature. They truly believe it and you want to believe it too. But you don’t. You know “pigs will fly” before a news desk uses the story. Yes there is a pig theme going on here. W...

If like me you've had occasional twinges of guilt about blogging, or rather your lack of it, you are not alone. I've started them with huge enthusiasm. Written two or three then got busy, bored or just downright bolshie as it became another thing to do on my to do list. Of course as a journalist and PR communications specialist I know how important blogs are......after all I get paid to write them for other people. But somehow, at the end of the working day, I don't want to do them myself. I feel a bit like a builder (but without the tattoos, large muscles and penchant for bacon sandwiches and brown sauce). They work on someone else's project all day but still haven't fixed the creaking cupboard door in the kitchen at their own home. So I asked myself the question. Do I really need to blog? Can I get away with it? The hard answer is no. While writing for other people I can raise their profile and add the relevant keywords for SEO by putting together blogs which ...