How to create a professional data quality blog (Part 1 - Planning)
DQ Business Advice
We're tracking some great data quality blogs at the moment and several of you have asked how to go about creating your own blog to get yourself noticed.
In this series of articles we will look at the basic building blocks of planning, designing, launching and growing your blog.
This first article looks at your reasons for creating a blog and gives you some simple planning activities to ensure you build on a firm foundation.
How to create a professional data quality blog (Part 1 - Planning)
First Question - Why bother?
Creating a blog is actually fairly easy and herein lies a problem.
It's now actually too easy, too tempting and too damn quick to create a blog and as a result the internet is littered with blogs that were high on good intentions but are now low on content.
So before you pull the trigger and launch a blog, think about why you're doing it.
- To win business?
- Make new contacts?
- Get a better job?
- Share your knowledge?
The fact is that depending on your goals then the content, commitment and style of your blog will vary.
So, sit down, grab a pen and complete this sentence:
My goal for creating a data quality blog is .......
Over the coming weeks and months this goal will dictate the quality, content and frequency of your posts.
For example, if you're a tool vendor and you post once every few months on topics that add no value to the reader then you're actually giving out a negative message about your business.
If perhaps you're aim is to attract new employers then a blog will expose your personality for all to see. You need to think carefully about your style of language, emotion and content put into a blog as any prospective employers could check it out.
However, get it right and a blog really can boost your credibility and reputation.
It can help connect you with useful advocates and friendships in far off lands or closer to home. These people are likely to recommend your product, service or employment when opportunities arise.
It can even take you into exciting directions that are welcome and unexpected.
And don't forget a blog is essentially a website, you can actually turn it into your online CV or even business website by adding new pages and useful resources to increase the "stickiness" of your site.
But first a blog needs planning, so let's look at what things you need to consider.
Blogs are for life, not just Christmas - Plan ahead
Bursting with New Year optimism you set out your first resolution of the year - I'll create a popular blog on data quality and get myself "out there".
Great, now what will I write about...
Month one goes well, month two dries up a bit, month three - wow, should it really be this hard?
No, it shouldn't, it just needs more planning.
My advice is at this point is to first review our previous articles on data quality blogging such as 20 simple tips to spice up your data quality blog and Who are the data quality blogging heroes?
Once you've done this, spend some time over at Problogger.net, read and learn many of the techniques posted there to understand the blogging process some more and get a feel for what it will take to make this work.
If after that you still have the buzz, let's get some ideas for topics written down.
Brainstorm topics
Sit down and write as many ideas for data quality blog posts as you can.
Vary the type of post if you can but just let your imagine run riot, quantity is more important than quality at this stage.
Think of all the different elements of data quality (I find it helps to create a tree structure of the entire domain).
Look at other blogs - what are people writing about? What is popular? Who comments on particular topics? Look at LinkedIn Questions searching for data quality - what are the popular topics?
Subscribe to Google Alerts for data quality keywords, get a daily alert, this includes a Blog section so you can see what the popular data quality blogs are covering.
Gather as many ideas as you can and get them down into a spreadsheet if possible.
If after a few hours you can only dream up 4-5 ideas then this could sound alarm bells that you might not have enough content in you for the long haul.
One tip I recommend is to carry a digital USB voice recorder with you at all times, these are great for capturing ideas when you don't have access to a pen and paper.
Now categorise your ideas and identify whether any of them could become a series. Create subject categories, group the topics and see how they connect with each other.
Is there a natural sequence? Do you have a good mix for technical and business readers? Are they useful or unique?
Another tip - if you're a product vendor or service provider this can become a great process for creating articles and downloadable content on your website.
Get your team to brainstorm regularly for fresh new content ideas to avoid the stale and dreary case study type of report. Think outside the box, innovate, push, challenge - be unique. If you have loads of satisfied customers why not video a few of them or ask them to write about the road you've helped them along, this is far more interesting than a 2-page case study which is tired and predictable.
Create an editorial calendar
Once you have a reasonable list of topics, map out a very simple calendar detailing what you can write about over the coming weeks and months.
This isn't going to be a definitive list, you will always have ideas for topics that pop into your head and you can't resist publishing immediately but it will give you some confidence that you have something in the pipeline.
Aim to have at least one piece of "pillar" content each month, more frequently if time and content permits. A pillar article is a high-value piece of content that the reader will find extremely useful and will hopefully tell others about.
For some more tips on creating an editorial calendar please read this article from Problogger.net.
Next Step - Creating your blog
I find that just writing a subject or topic headline brings a post to life and generates further ideas to flesh it out and collaborate with others so follow the ideas above to ensure you have a good set of content planned and ready.
The earlier you complete this process the more confident and organised you will be for starting the next task (the fun part) which is creating and launching your blog.
In the next article of the series we will show you step-by-step how to create a professional blog using some of the free platforms available.
We'll also look at how you can dramatically improve the quality of your blog through low-cost graphics, logos, videos and widgets.
Useful Links
Reader Comments