From the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop - Blogging, Branding, and Social Media, Part 1

As I mentioned last week, earlier this month I had the pleasure of attending the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop.  The overall event was wonderful, with members of Erma's family on hand to read some of their personal favorites from her work and some excellent (FUNNY) guest speakers. 

From a writing standpoint, the Erma probably wasn't the best fit for me.  The focus, naturally, was on humor and I write mostly mystery and suspense, but there were a number of breakout sessions that crossed genre lines.  Three that I enjoyed were on blogging and using social media to create and promote your brand.  These were led by Debba Haupert, Anna Lefler, and Nettie Reynolds. 

I planned to do a post today on all the good tips I gathered from these three sessions but there were just too many for a single post, so this morning I'm going to focus on blogging and I'll follow up with the rest next Monday.

13 (gasp) tips on blogging from the EBWW:

Know why you're blogging.  Have a mission statement (even if it's just for yourself).

Keep your voice consistant.  Your regular followers should be able to pick out your voice in a crowd.

If you're a writer, your blog voice should be the same as your writing voice.  (More on this when we get to branding).

Have your own set of blog rules and stick to them, i.e. In my blog I always _____, but I never _____.

Maintain a common thread throughout your blog.

Coin a word or phrase that becomes your verbal logo.  (This one ties into branding, too.)

Add related magazines, web sites, etc. to your blog roll or sidebar.  Search engines check for incoming and outgoing link activity so you want as much traffic flowing through your blog as possible.

Include at least one link (if it's truly relevant) in every post.

Keep your blog roll fresh.

Embed a good quote in a graphic and add your blog link as a watermark.  People are more inclined to share pictures and wherever the graphic goes, your link with go with it.

Use numbered lists in your posts, i.e. Five tips for..., Ten reasons to ...

Use categories on your posts, in addition to tags or lables, so you can pull up all related posts in one block.

Keep an inventory of "evergreen" content - old posts that won't become dated.  Consider these your "classics" and re-use and/or promote them when appropriate. 

Okay, that's it.  How about you - got a blogging tip you'd like to share?

(Please forgive the late post this morning. Blogger and I are not playing well together today.) 

Groaner of the Day: A fellow received a mouse for his birthday and he loved it so much that he never parted with it. He took this mouse everywhere, to work, to parties, to the opera... One day, a good friend of his died and he was asked to serve as a pallbearer. Naturally, he took the mouse, which was perched on his shoulder.

On his way home from the funeral, he realized that the mouse was gone! He retraced all his moves for the day and realized the last time he had seen the mouse was just before they placed the casket in the hearse. He raced back to the funeral home and searched everywhere but the mouse was gone.

The man was filled with grief as he remembered the old adage his mother told him when he was a kid:

Never lock a gift mouse in the hearse.