How to Read Blogs

Posted by Laura Bergells

August 7, 2006

In one month, no less than four clients have asked me to set up blogs for them.

The technology of setting up the blog is easy. I can set up a basic blog in under a half hour.

However, the strategy behind the blog and its human interaction requires much more effort!

When I am asked to set up blogs, I ask questions like, “What’s the purpose, and what is your measure for success? How many posts per month, and who will be posting? Who is the audience? How do you want your audience to responde to your blog?”

And those are just my warm-up questions!

I find that there is a growing interest in blogs and blogging, but that many people who call or write to inquire about “setting up a blog” are doing so because blogging is a hot internet marketing buzzword at the moment.

Think beyond the buzzwords. What do you want to accomplish with your blog?

One of my favorite sets of warm-up questions is “Which blogs do you currently read? Which blogs do you enjoy? What blog aggregator do you use?”

I frequently get sheepish answers — something like, “Well, I’ve never read a blog. And what’s a blog aggregator?”

Before you begin blogging, might I suggest that you actually subscribe and read a few blogs? Doesn’t that seem to make the tiniest bit of sense?

The strongest objection I have ever received to “subscribe to and read a few blogs before you start blogging” is laughable — the busy business executive actually said,

“But I don’t have time to read blogs or fool around with this aggregator stuff.”

The funny thing is, this busy PR executive subscribes to at least 4 different online news sites and faithfully visits each site every day to scan headlines and read top articles.

If she had a blog aggregator and subscribed to the RSS feed at each site, she could make one stop every day, scan all her headlines at once, and probably whack an hour out of her “busy” schedule while tapping into the power of this powerful online PR venue.

I tried explaining this to her, but she waved me off.

“Too busy,” she explained.

Unwilling to adapt to new communication technology — I wouldn’t hire her for 21st century PR.

If you find someone who is unwilling to read a blog….perhaps they simply don’t know how. Sure, they know how to read, and they know how to visit a site to read content — but that’s like reading blogs at the first-grade level.

If you want to be a serious communication professional in the 21st century, you’ve got to know how to read blogs using a blog aggregator.

Period. No excuses.

Once you start reading blogs with an aggregator, you will wonder why you balked at starting.

“Too busy” is not an excuse.

It’s actually a reason — blog aggregators can save you a tremendous amount of time.

And there are many other compelling reasons. If you don’t know what they are or how to use an aggregator, learn more about the rudiments of why and how to read blogs.

Think about it: if you don’t understand the basics of how and why to read blogs, how successful is your company blog likely to be?