Should You Blog?

The short answer is YES! The long answer is also yes, but with more reasons why. Blogs can be thought of as the modern day outlets for breaking news or editorials. They are also the modern day Ann Landers, Dear Abby’s, and How-To articles of the digital world. Blogs can be whatever you want them to be, but one thing they need to be is read.

Writing a blog for someone who doesn’t write can be painful, and even if you are a writer you will eventually be hit with writer’s block. You need to either work through your fears and blocks or find someone or even a group of someones who will blog for you. The message needs to get out – how you get it there is something you will need to decide and work with. What works for you today may not work tomorrow so be prepared to change your strategies.

Many retailers feel there is nothing for them to write about; yes, getting a new shipment of cleaning supplies isn’t exciting to many readers. Getting a new shipment of the hottest lure this summer is a bit more exciting – tell readers, or show them through video how to fish with the lure is mind-blowing!

Your blogs should highlight what you have to offer customers in your store. You can highlight products from time to time when something new arrives, but sharing your knowledge and expertise is where you will see the best bang for your buck. How many times have you had someone come in asking how this works, or how to do this or that? Every time this happens you have just been given a new idea for a blog. If one person is asking you about something, there are many more that are too ashamed to ask, or are not knowledgeable to even know they need to know how to do it.

Writing how to tie a knot can be daunting to even the best wordsmith. Showing through video the exact steps is not only easier, but for many of you will be faster. Video cameras are not as expensive as they used to be, and most of you have one or two in your house right now. If you need a new camera get one that records to an internal hard drive, or uses memory cards. Tapes get expensive and are less easy to transfer to the digital world like a memory card is. Do yourself a favor and read the instructions and play with it before you start posting your videos online. Your skills with the camera will improve over time so don’t expect to be George Lucas the first time out.

Once you gather a few videos post them to a YouTube account and include them in your blogs. By posting them to YouTube you will have more viewers see them and increase your business’ exposure. You can also easily bring a YouTube video into most blogging platforms. This is your chance to show your skills, or your employees’ knowledge. Remember to keep any videos short – five minutes is a long video. If you are dealing with a detailed subject, break your videos down into smaller units. A study found that people would refuse to watch an hour-long video online; ask those same folks to watch ten six-minute long videos and they had no problem. If you are using employees, have them sign a consent or waiver form before you start taping them. This is for your protection and theirs.

If you incorporate video into your blogs also include a bit of writing into your blog. The written part of the blog will help introduce what your video is about, and call out the specific gear you are highlighting. It will also help users discover your blogs when they do searches online. Search engines such as Google scour the web daily looking for key words in blog titles and in the body of the blog as well. They cannot find what your video is about if you do not write something. A short paragraph or two that is clear and includes the important words users will use to search for your blogs or videos will be more than adequate.

Blogging should be fun, for you and your customers. Don’t be too shocked when someone comes in and mentions they read a blog, or saw a video you posted. You also need to be open to some criticism as there are always critics. When you receive criticism just remember to smile and know that you did something correct because your critic took the time to read your blog or watch your video.

The subject matter you cover is something you will need to decide upon. The list of topics you can cover is immense; anything that deals with fishing is fair game. If you are looking for topics, scour the web and see what topics others are covering. Just because someone else touches on a topic doesn’t mean it is off limits. More than likely you would arrive at the same outcome but by doing the steps differently. This is what people want to see and read about, so put your spin on it.

The final word of advice is don’t be afraid to address different topics to see what people want to read or watch. Just remember to learn from what the numbers tell you people want to read about and cover more topics within that subject. Don’t only address what you want to cover.

Have you entered into the world of blogging yet, or do you want to? If so, what are your concerns or how is it going for you? Share your successes and challenges with us all on our Facebook page; be sure to also include a link on where we can all read your latest postings.