Blogs, or weblogs, can be a useful tool to effectively communicate about important issues in your field of interest. They can also be a potential landmine if you aren’t careful.

Play Nice
Think about future clients and employers reading your blog. If you are using satire or other forms of humor, have someone whose opinion you respect read over it before you publish it. Make sure the humor translates well.

Involve others
Go to other blogs in your field and leave comments. If you don’t agree, be respectful. Ask questions. Invite guests to blog on your site on occasion.

Remember Your Brand
Just as you need to manage your social networks, being intentional about blog writing is just as critical. If you are positioning yourself as the expert on the Icelandic economy or the next expert Hamster trainer, then be strategic and professional. Don’t trash others in your blog, but provide useful and relevant information. Update frequently so you appear on search engines.

Tags
Important feature about blogs. Being good at tagging you blog will generate more traffic and create repeat visits. Should explain what this is and why it works.

Legal issues
Always reference your sources either by providing a link to the source or, if unavailable, providing sufficient bibliographical information to make the source of your information clear. US Copyright laws are still catching up with the web, but this is no excuse to freely ‘borrow’ another’s material. News blogs generally avoid violating the law by taking the content offered by a viable news source and creating an original item, along with providing a link back to the original source. Such a procedure should be your rule of thumb when blogging.

More Communication and Technology Articles
Learn more about Speech & Communication
Watch Speech Videos