Startups Against Blogging

Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. The better ones pack their blogs early for that flight into the stratosphere.

Hubspot as an example plans for a methodical path and even break out their blogging into 4 or more parts!

Groupon started out as a blog and became the app/platform that is now common.

Blogs can be powerful, but they can also be an albatross.

The power lies in the long term view of indexed information about your company or business. The more you put into the SEO and links and unique search terms for your business, the easier you will be found. And your blogs live forever, or at least as long as you keep them online.

The albatross which people don't think about upfront is the "I need to write a blog post now/today" nagging in their head. So many more important things to do, it will wait. NO, it won't!

But one day rolls into two and then three. Before you know it, a week has passed, and then another, and your blog is like a ghost town. Where will your magical viral audience come from...if no one ever hears about you?

In no specific order these are the usual reasons startups do not blog:

• No time busy writing it or manufacturing it or building it
• No resources (hint: early on it should be from the founder because no one else has their vision or passion for the project) available to write it
• Language barrier for non-English speakers
• What platform should we use (analysis by paralysis)
• No money to hire marketer
• Poor English grammar
• No idea what to write
• We will, later on (after what?)
• That is the CEOs or marketing role
• Our product speaks for itself (I hear this one a lot)
• We pay for ads

There a tons of reasons not to do it, few of which have any merit.

Why should you be blogging and telling your story, in your words?

Some basic reasons:

• The difference between manual actions and automated ones is not obvious to people.
• You love your app, but no one uses the best part (in your eyes).
• You built the app for teachers, yet corporate HR is using it more than teachers.
• If people like what you are doing, they will read your posts (blog, newsletter, email, tweet) and give you feedback.
• Get on people's follow/email/RSS/ lists
• Content is king
• It lives online forever

You want PR, you need customers, you want people to find you and love you....but you never write, you never care, you just sit there and wait for them to come to you. Never going to happen.

Stop Tweeting, and Facebooking, and just get writing.

Are you a Catalyst?

About two weeks ago I was involved in a discussion on Twitter with someone about blogging and awareness.

He writes a blog about AIX systems which I like but rarely get to play with any more. He tweeted to me about how management doesn’t “get” his blogging nor gives him any credit for it. My answer is, this too will pass and his time will come. Writing for a few weeks or months, even in some cases years, does not produce tangible results until some catalyst brings you into the spotlight.

I tried to point out that blogging is first and foremost a personal endeavor, unless it is your primary source of income. We went back and forth a bit and discussed some posts and ideas. His blog is well written and quite technical and documented well, but probably not for your average person in business. Having worked on many systems over the years, I appreciate when people take time to fill in the blanks of what might be missing in wikis and official documentation.

After a few messages and some others following our discussion, the bloggers readers, some are my own followers perhaps, let us know they read his blog, love it and encouraged him to continue. I also encouraged him to continue, but one person is not enough. If 4-6 people can provide you encouragement, you will be on your way.

There have been times over the last 2 years especially when I wanted to pack it all in. Drop blogging and get on to do something new. Amazingly what I needed was a sabbatical from writing. Changes in my professional and personal life obviously weighed heavily at times, but so did my blog. Sitting there idle, one post a month at times, I felt like my desire to write had flown away. Regrettably, I let my blogging lapse and in turn possibly hurt my own abilities to connect with new people, potential clients and perhaps employers.

I am not likely to become a daily blogger again, that took a lot of time that is now spent on other endeavors. 

On the other hand, I foresee having some more free time, in theory, to write more often.

Everything I read, says one should write daily to get your brain accustomed to writing no mater your mood or ideas. It may not make me a better writer, but it will help on those days when I have documentation to produce.

Maybe I was trying to convince myself about my own writing when I encouraged my AIX blogger friend to keep going. Perhaps I was just trying to help someone else that does not get the value of what they write. 

The value is in the long term benefits of people trusting your skills and ideas and encouraging others to do so.

Peers help strengthen the weaker egos from failure. We all want to see others succeed and exceed all expectations. You are, and can should be, the catalyst for your kids, spouse, friends, coworkers and in some cases even competitors. 

Do, or Do Not, There is No Try

Yoda always had a way with words.

It seems my activities in the last year or so on this blog have been slacking, a sure sign I was busier at work and home. Twitter was down too, I know hard for you to believe. But for those keeping score, my Klout score is still hanging around 62-64, so maybe I was more active than I thought.

And yet I did get to do all of this:

• guest blogged over here a bit
• live tweeted, not one, not 2 but 3 Palm Beach Operas (La Cerentola, La Traviata and Salome) and doing it again for Macbeth right before heading to Orlando
• was rewarded with another year as an IBM Champion
• home schooled my kids (and still do) and it's been great
• spoke at SugarCon for the 2nd time in a row
• got to listen to and spend 1 on 1 time with the great Paul Greenberg
• attended and spoke a few times at my first ever IBM Impact 
• shot a few videos for/with IBM and fellow Champions
• spoke at MWLUG and had a great time with everyone in Indianapolis
• finally went on a trip with just my wife and no kids for the first time since the oldest was born, we went back to Israel for the first time since 2001
• paused my other blog

But I did not write any articles this year that were published, first time in a while. No books written either, although I have some in mind, both technical and fun. I will at least look into having these books published and if there is interest will start writing them.

I want to write more articles this year, well even 1 would be more than last year, so will work on this as well.

The muse just wasn't very active and I apologize, but as it appears, I have been blogging for 7 years so maybe this was a little sabbatical and now I will ramp back up.

Of course, Lotusphere Connect 2014 is coming up and I will post more on this in time.

See you in Orlando I hope and since my session is on Sunday at 10:30am no reason not to pop in, that is unless you are on the hog ride that morning.

Day 1 - Lotus Lurkers are Good

I ran into some friends from previous years that I don't get to interact with much during the year. They read my blog and those of many others but rarely comment if ever. Some call people like this lurkers.

In the Lotus world, or as it is now, Social Business world, this is a good thing. Yes it feeds the ego and ASW attitude but it also means we are doing exactly what Lotus is about. We are sharing information for others, hopefully for the right reasons. But even if you are not posting to help people per se, you prove that collaboration, KM(knowledge management) and just open sharing is valid.

So while it is always nice to know who is reading, you don't have to comment, personally I am happy to know someone reads this blog.

But when someone posts something that helps you, make sure to leave a comment saying so or reference it in your own blog post. As Kevin Spacey said during his keynote yesterday, "Send the elevator back down".

To everyone that has come up to me, and no doubt other bloggers, and said they read the blog or we helped them or just thanks for giving them hope and ideas, I thank you and enjoy Lotusphere 2011.