Like any aspect of marketing communications, good blogging starts with an understanding of the intended audience. The content of most B2B electronics blog posts will be focused on the electronics design engineer and somewhere along the way, we’ll be trying to convince the design engineering community that we understand their needs, wants and challenges. And that we’re in a good position to help.
So what interests engineers? Recent research suggests that 85% of electronics and computing hobbyists are professional engineers too. I know of many professional engineers whose careers stemmed from an interest in amateur radio or other aspects of electronic engineering. Today, they’re perhaps more likely to be coming into the profession via the Maker community, or having had their interests aroused by things you can do with Arduino boards or Raspberry Pi low-cost computers.
Clearly, these individuals are interested in technology in the widest sense, not just whether your widget has more bells and whistles than the offering from your competitors. They’re going to find the more innovative applications of technology interesting and memorable, and are likely to share this kind of story over their growing social networks. Ask yourself, is that likely to be the case for your latest press release?
Most of us also like to share things that amuse us, to brighten the day for others. This post on the much talked about Internet-of-Things (IoT), was one that I’ve shared with a lot of people. It’s topical and puts forward a controversial viewpoint in an amusing and witty way, like much of David Manners’ writing.
Incidentally, some research suggests that graphics and videos are more widely shared than text, so it can be good to include them. Think how dull newspapers and magazines would be if they were just plain text. But take care how ‘creative’ you get. I’ve seen plenty of infographics where effective communications would have been better served with a few bullet points of text. Here’s is simple picture that shows some of the places you can draw upon to find content for your blog and how easy it is to automatically share your post with your social media channels – all that takes is one press of the ‘Return’ key when the blogging platform is set up appropriately.
One press of the ‘Return’ key can distribute your blog post across all your social media channels
Of course, the purpose of business blogging is not purely to entertain, or to show off our writing skills. It’s to build your company’s brand, and perhaps your personal brand too, by demonstrating knowledge, thought leadership, expertise and a willingness to share all of this with your audience. It also forms part of a long-tail SEO strategy.
