20 simple tips to spice up your data quality blog
Personal Development
We recently carried out a round up of the many data quality blogs available on the internet and now actively follow their progress in our Data Quality Blogs section.
We were contacted by one Data Quality Pro member who has decided to act on our advice and improve their blog but they posed a very important question - "How can I publish regular, fresh content that will keep people coming back to our blog?"
In this article we look at the wide variety of blog post types and give you some great tips on how to inject some spice back into your data quality blog.
Variety is the spice of life (and blogging)
One of the big issues we saw in the previous research we carried out on data quality blogging (click here) is that a lot of the posts are fairly one-dimensional.
For example, a blogger may publish blog posts that focus perhaps on comments from other bloggers. Whilst this is great for rewarding other bloggers with links (a valuable commodity in blogging circles) it actually drives people away from your blog and doesn't give you the chance to build a regular readership and community.
So what can you do?
Well, you may remember that we advised you to check out some great free blogging resources, most notably Problogger.
Problogger lists the different types of blog post here and in this article we focus on how data quality bloggers can use this as a framework for spicing up the content and variation in their own data quality blog.
The Instruction Post
This gives the reader a set of instructions that delivers an end result. They are consistently the highest traffic generating blog posts so need to feature regularly on your blog.
For example, our recent instructional post, (Data Profiling for Beginners), received 3 times the traffic of its nearest rival (The Data Quality Analyst Skills Employers Are Looking For) this week.
The data profiling tutorial took about 2 days to write but it will be here to stay for a very long time generating traffic and new visitors to the community so think about how you can instruct visitors to your blog in a data quality technique they could benefit from. (If it's good we'll link to it and send you some more traffic).
The Information Post
One of the most common posts out there, just think Wikipedia.
People use the internet predominantly to search for answers to questions, if you provide those answers in an informational post then you will get regular traffic.
Still not convinced of how effective this can be?
Type "data profiling for beginners" into Google and you'll quickly see how effective it can be when you give information on a specific pain point.
The Review Post
When people are looking to buy a product or service they scan the internet for reviews.
People like Vincent McBurney make great use of reviews and consistently gets comments and regular viewers to his blog.
Check out this post on Old ETL tools vs New ETL tools as an example but the rest of his blog is littered with examples.
The key to a review is not to sit on the fence, create a debate and get your community engaged (or enraged) enough to comment. Remember that any comment is better than no comment. Do people always agree with Vincent? No of course not but they keep coming back and that is important.
The List Post
People are busy, they typically scan a web page for a few seconds, if something grabs them they stay.
Any eMarketer will tell you that your headline is the most important part of your web copy so by creating a list blog you attract attention and give something of value to the reader in a simple package that can be easily read.
Here are some examples:
- The 6 Misconceptions of Data Migration
- 8 Reasons Why Lists are Good for Getting Traffic to your Blog
- 20 ways to add spice to your data quality blog ;-)
And don't forget, if you have too much information in your list you can always break it up into a series of posts (see below).
The Interview Post
Why not give your customers the opportunity to talk in an interview? Ask they why they decided to act on data quality, what are their experiences so far, what would they have done differently?
If you're a data quality vendor I can assure that your customers are not as interested as you think they are in hearing about how fantastic your product is compared to your competitors or what event you will be presenting at or what great new features are in your next release or...
What they really want to know is things like how they can prevent the same mistakes others have made so try and spice up your blog by adding the human element on a regular basis, it creates a much stronger connection with your community.
The Case Study Post
Most case studies tend to be extremely dry and boring so try and be different.
How many times have you read a case study that went along the lines...
"Customer x bought our product, it transformed the business in 2 days, saved the company $8,000,000 in the first week and the customer has now been knighted for services to industry".
Most of us know that data quality is not plain sailing, things don't always go according to plan, hurdles, challenges and setbacks are common - this is what really interests people, a healthy dose of reality so by injecting some honesty into your case studies people will come back for more.
Be humble once in while, admit where a project has struggled, explain why and what you would have differently with hindsight.
The Profile Post
We have started doing a number of profile posts recently, looking at how people have got to the top in their profession, how they run their data quality consultancy etc.
These appear to be very popular judging by the traffic figures so profiling leading experts you have access to is another simple way to add a bit of variety and human interest to your blog.
See Andy Brooks, Wayne Wiggins, Bryn Davies for examples.
The Link Post
One of the most popular, if you have nothing to say you can always link to someone who has!
Link posts work best when you add your own comments like this example from Beth Breidenbach on SOA security.
We go to extremes on Data Quality Pro by creating databases of links to data quality materials via our DQ QuickLink tool but you can do the same in your blog posts by linking to blogs you like to read, useful tools you have found, articles and whitepapers, data quality practitioners you would recommend - the opportunities here are endless.
The Problem Post
What are the problems your clients or your business are experiencing with data quality?
Perhaps you have witnessed a data quality problem and have recently resolved it?
These are no doubt the same problems others are facing so why not blog about them.
If you look at the IQ Trainwrecks blog by Daragh O'Brien of the IAIDQ you will see a wide variety of data quality problems listed and this is no doubt a contributing factor to the high comments per blog rating we recorded in our Data Quality Blog analysis tool.
Steve Sarfsfield of Trillium fame also gives a good example here.
A recent post by our resident business development expert, Richard White, focuses on a problem many data quality professionals face which is introducing themselves and their service. Notice how he gives answers to each problem throughout the post: Do you have a problem explaining what you do?
The x versus y Post
If you take a look at any of the technology forums you see these kind of debates played out every day but you can also address issues other than technology.
Why not critique different data quality methodologies or published works?
Larry English versus David Loshin? Akrady Maydanchik versus Danette McGilvray?
By drawing some personal conclusions you instantly create a divide in the community as some will favour one approach over an other. A great divide is important for generating commentary so don't hold back!
The Rant Post
Passion is the spice of life and putting it in your blog can help you create a more human element. If you've experienced a frustrating experience due to poor data quality, don't just complain to your partner and friends, get blogging about it!
Daragh O'Brien gives us a good example with his Dell Hell experience.
The Inspirational Post
The opposite to a rant is to tell a story of how someone successfully implemented a data quality strategy and explore how it changed their business or them personally.
For example, when I recently spoke with Stephanie Fetchen from Tele-Tech about how they improved customer service and profits through effective data quality improvement, without any major spend on tools, you can't help but be inspired by the journey they took and the lessons they learned.
The Research Post
These can take more effort than other posts but if you have a moderate customer base or large network already then a short survey on important topics can help gather information others may value.
For example, our research into the top 3 reasons people felt their organisation failed to implement data quality initiatives was carried out on Linkedin Answers so you can deliver these kind of surveys with less cost than you might envisage.
There are also numerous data quality forums where you can post questions, here are some examples you can access instantly for free but if you know of any others then please add them in the comments section below:
The Collation Post
This post focuses on a particular topic and gathers a range of content to help the reader understand more.
Need some ideas? Check out Google Keywords for Data Quality - click here.
This will give you all the data quality keywords people are interested in finding information on. Pick the high traffic topics and create collation posts that give the reader information in one condensed post by drawing on your own opinion and that of other experts.
On Data Quality Pro and Data Migration Pro for example many of the most popular pages visited are:
- Data Migration Technology finder, collation of all Data Migration and Data Integration Vendors
- Data Migration Knowledge finder - collation of publicly available data migration articles and content
- DQ QuickLink - collation of hundreds of data quality articles, podcasts and tutorials
- Data Quality Tool Finder - collation of all known data quality tools
- Data Quality blogs - collation of all known data quality bloggers
- DQ event manager - collation of all DQ events in the coming year
- DQ Bookshop - collation of all known and recommended data quality books
The reason is obvious, anything that saves people time by helping them get answers in one location is guaranteed to get them coming back for more.
One thing I've seen vendors do in other industries is to list their competitors, great idea.
This makes searching for all the products in particular sector easier for their prospects. This is a fantastic concept because it saves legwork for the reader and as long as you're confident your solution will deliver then you've immediately created a connection with the prospect. Do the opposite of your competitors, tell them all about the products out there, what the options are and support the buying decision, don't hinder it.
The Prediction Post
What lies beyond the horizon for data quality?
Add your thoughts and predictions to generate some debate, it may just give you some ideas for future product features!
The Debate Post
One of the most popular ways of getting people engaged but if you look at a lot of the data quality blogs this blog type doesn't feature all that often.
A blog is not a one-way street for pushing information at your readers. Create commentary by posting debates on contentious or popular data quality subjects.
The Hypothetical Post
Not a very common one this but think about a potential future situation or event and hypotheize on it to spark some debate and engagement from your readers.
The Award/Prize/Quiz Post
These are great posts because they can be spread virally and dont require that much effort to create.
For example, our recent inaugural prize draw features free CD's, books and a ticket to the DM&IQ event in November has attracted much interest so think about ways your organisation can promote interest in your blog by creating a quiz, award or prize.
These are just a selection of different types of blog posts, there are no doubt many more.
You can get a feel for how to deliver these types of posts by regularly visiting sites like Problogger.com and Copyblogger.com. I would also recommend you purchase the Problogger book on becoming a professional blogger, some excellent advice in there also.
We will continue to promote all of the data quality bloggers out there on our Data Quality Blog tracker and from November '08 we will be collating the best posts of the month and posting links to them on Data Quality Pro for the benefit of all our visitors and members.
Did you find this information useful? What other types of blog post do you like to read?
Please add your comments below.
Reader Comments (5)
Nicely done! My biggest challenge is just sitting down to write. There's soooo many good topics out there for folks to contribute to. It's just a matter of sitting down and starting.
Thanks for creating this site, and for pointing us to such a good variety of DQ blogs.
Hi there Beth, thanks for dropping by.
I agree time is a killer when you've got life, family and the day job to contend with.
I find one thing useful is to plan the month ahead with a simple editorial calendar.
Aim to get 1-3 posts a week out and then use the above post types as a guide for what you will deliver during the month.
Of course you can react and link or comment on recent events but this way you can chip away at your posts throughout the month.
That way it doesn't feel like such an overwhelming chore.
I'll shortly release a taxonomy of data quality so that people can identify the different branches of data quality to post on.
Cheers again Beth.
The word 'Inpsirational' cannot be found in Webster's Dictionary. The word 'inspirational' can be found. If you want to discuss data quality in an article, using a spell checker is a good way to insure it. After having read the article, it occurred to me that the misspelling was, possibly, deliberately done to find out how many people in the 'data quality' community would find it.
The article has great content. Having been formerly a university assistant professor I read and appreciate great content, but wanted to alert you to this single blemish.
Don - thanks.
Quality control (ie. me) failed on this one, duly noted and fixed.
Dylan, I work in the marketing communications industry and have for some time. This post is extremely insightful as a best practice guide for any blog, relating it to data quality makes it an absolute must read.
Thanks!