Developing Blog Strategy: When and Where

TechCrunch Clearly controls "When and Where" strategically. Make sure you define a strategy.

It may seem like internet sites can be static, universal (i.e. global), and timeless. That would get us to think of content creation and publication also as static and globally uniform. But that is not always the case. Today product sites, especially blogs, are timely sources of information. They are also a good place to voice opinion and shape ideas. When assuming a static and global reach, it can be a bad assumption and can cause writers and publishers to fail (or at least lose content effectiveness.) This brings up the question of a “When” strategy. Essentially when is content going to be published, how often, and in response to what news or information. There are two key factors in timing publication of blog articles: publication frequency and timing. Blogs as information channels, either publish news or editorials on demand, when an event happens, or on a regular schedule (i.e. every morning or once a week). Blogs serving as aggregators or marketing-publishing channels usually publish on a regular basis on a daily or weekly schedule. Giving readers a steady and regular stream of articles is a sure way of establishing habits with regular readers. People with start reading your articles on a regular basis. Strategic decision on publication and promotion timing is not a simple matter of looking at Google statistics (as in search interest or advertising cost). If you have a unique blog with a new approach, you may have to test different timing techniques. “When” strategy development may take a test and adjust process. It also depends on other factors such as resources: how many original articles can you develop in a week on a steady basis? This means developing a starting strategy and adjusting as the work starts taking shape.    

Additional considerations on timing depend on a connection the writing has with real world activities. Blogs of products that end up in trade shows, are used to promote new products, trade show participation, and other related events (i.e. VIP parties). Before a trade show, a blog may become busy, and quieter once the show is over. Blogs related to financial markets, are used to notify or report on financial events before or after specific dates. Once an earning announcement, or a market statistic is published, the news is old and the blog does not need to inform the reader. Many financial blogs give a schedule of important dates. If you have a financial blog covering a specific market sector, you may want to post once a week a schedule of important dates (i.e. the earning announcements of top companies in a sector or an index).

Strategy development “Where” takes form of style and connection (linking) to related sites and pages. While the internet itself may seem universal and global, most content today is focused at a specific area of specialty. Blogs related to a geographic location, such are a tourist site for a guide in Israel (http://israel-tourguide.info/) are linked to sites or articles related to the content (in Browns' case, articles about Israeli tourism, history, and archeology). In many cases “Where” is not a geographic location. It could be a market sector such as aviation, farming (maybe global maybe regional), or even a political area which spans states or continents. When defining strategy “Where”, describe specific attributes which are important in the writing. Is specific language style useful? (British English for Realtors vs. American English?) Certain locations may be only virtual, like connections to social media sites like Linked-In groups or Facebook pages. If a specific location is not completely defined or will change, make sure that is also described. I worked with organic farmers in one sector (dairy) but then there was a need to change to organic farmers selling directly to retail. The two type of audiences were different enough to require lots of “rework” writing, which almost made a year's work not so useful in the end.