Understanding the mechanics of writing a blog post (especially if you’re doing this for business) is sometimes daunting. I’ve seen lots of ways to do it, and have written a few posts about that kind of thing myself. In my search to find you interesting information to improve your own efforts, I came across something else today that I wanted to share.

I found this post by David Peralty to be an interesting guide on organizing your blog posts. He breaks it down into 7 distinct steps.

1. The Idea
2. The Questions
3. The Research
4. The Post
5. The Call to Action
6. The Pretty Additions
7. The Publishing and Promotion

I don’t disagree with his methods. I do steps 1-3 slightly differently, or perhaps just a bit more organically, but the overall flow isn’t that far off from what I do. I think it’s worth your time to check it out.

Read the full post here.

Photo credit, RobinYap.com

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I believe that Patrick O’Keefe has LOTS of experience in managing online discussion forums. From reading his book, Managing Online Forums: Everything You Need to Know to Create and Run Successful Community Discussion Boards, I get the sense that he lives and breathes this. To that end, I’m going to recommend the book, should you be looking to start an online forum, or if you’ve got one and want to improve your game.

My one knock to Patrick is in the organization of the book. It feels a bit like a folk cookbook or a country almanac, if that makes sense. Now, this didn’t really throw me off badly, but for whatever reason, as I read the book, the flow kept feeling like a winding country road, where I wasn’t sure what was around the next curve. I think the chapters were probably in the right order, but the information inside could maybe use a remix. (But maybe this is just me, so you decide).

Once more, as I say at the beginning, I feel that Managing Online Forums is a worthwhile book to buy and absorb. There are TONS of great resources in there, and lots of real world examples for you to follow. This alone makes the book a great resource to have on the shelf.

I’m glad I’ve read it, and as I’m not too far off from a forum-related project myself, I’m sure I’ll refer to the book. If you want a copy for yourself, here’s a link:

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It’s important that those of us who are passionate about social media tools understand that not everything requires their use. Further, we must learn to move from expressing things in our terms when explaining these tools and their use to others. Otherwise, we end up seeming like someone with a hammer seeing everything as a nail. I find that terms cause problems when people within certain companies haven’t yet made the jump from one perspective to another. If you’re used to banner ads and hit counting, how will you understand the value of a Twitter discussion?

How are you describing what you’re learning about to others? What are some of the ways you’ve talked about social media that worked for people? Care to talk about times when you’ve talked your way into a corner? Let’s talk about HOW we bring these tools together with the people who most need them within an organization. How are you helping with that?

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Photo credit, Kyle May

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