Imagine this, you are sat in a meeting room with one of the firm’s partners. You turn to them and ask “Can you give me an example of a way to help build my professional brand?”. An answer that you will unavoidably hear from them time and again is to... Write. A. Blog.
Blogs are a fantastic way of demonstrating your understanding of a topic as well as your ability to present information in a concise, interesting and well thought out manner. Whether you want to talk about your role in the firm, cover new developments in your industry or simply chat about what living in your city is like. Blog writing is an invaluable and permanent way of building your professional brand that you can publicly refer back to time and again.
KEEP IT SHORT
A blog should both look and be no more than a 2/3 minute read (i.e. 500/600 odd words). Otherwise, even on opening the blog page, your readers will judge it to be too long to be worth the read.
Short sentences and headings should also be used where possible. They make a blog easier to read. Give the reader a chance to pause. As well as demonstrate the thorough nature of your understanding of a topic. This is also a useful skill to bear in mind when writing both reports and emails to clients.
Your blog should have a snappy title. This will sometimes be the first and only part of your blog the reader sees when deciding whether or not to read it. Therefore a good hook will help to draw the reader in and keep them there long enough for your content to win them over.
Photos are also a great way to keep your reader interested. A picture is (allegedly) worth a thousand words. So adding 2/3 photos will help both emphasise what your topic is on and draw the reader towards your blog in the first place.
Do not be afraid to underline, embolden and use punctuation (!?!?) in your blog to get your point across. This will help to keep your reader interested and emphasise that what they are reading is important!
KEEP IT SIMPLE
Keep the language you use basic and easy to read. Avoid using confusing synonyms for phrases that can otherwise be explained in simple English. This will ensure your reader understands what you are trying to say and prevents you from coming across as pretentious or lacking in knowledge on the subject. A good way to make sure you are on the right track is to imagine explaining the ideas behind your blog out loud. Would you have used that confusing phrase face-to-face? If not, then take it out!
Keep it simple by not going off topic. If you have said you are going to write a blog on what life is like living in San Francisco then do not spend half of the blog talking about your childhood in New York! Whilst the latter may be interesting, it is not what the reader came to your blog page for and may cause them to lose interest part of the way through.
Lastly, try to use the rule of three. People tend to be better convinced and influenced when given three reasons to believe in a topic. Therefore, using this simple technique will help your blog appear more concise, well thought out and professional (see what I did there).
I hope the above three tips prove useful. Should you wish to practice your blog writing skills and have it published on the NGIN blog page, then please drop us an email with your blog idea to info@nginlondon.com
And remember to keep it…
…short, interesting and simple!
By Matthew R Williams