Talents and blogging

Photo: Lakshman (CC)

To be a successful blogger, these are the talents most helpful to the job:

1. Organization: Many corporate bloggers are solo acts. As chief writer, editor, marketer, photographer, tech support professional and janitor, a blogger must keep many plates spinning. And that’s in addition to other regular duties.

2. Creativity: Anyone can crank out blog posts. Most are dull and uninspired. It takes imagination to discover interesting angles and new approaches to excite readers, fans and customers.

3. Courage: Waiting for the perfect idea encourages apathy. Securing all the approvals can kill momentum. Yes, it’s often mandatory, but we hold ourselves back even when no one else is.

4. Flexibility: Interviews fall through. Drafts go missing. A blogger deals with setbacks that journalists face, but not necessarily with all the resources of a news organization. Being improvisational can go a long way in turning that lemon into lemonade.

5. Competitiveness: The right motivation can push us to climb mountains or master ice sculpting. Sometimes, a competitive spirit can fuel a blogger’s drive to write more, edit more, rewrite more, promote more and network more.

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A successful blogger gains these talents:

1. Writing: The more I write, the better I get. Before I came to blogging, I was a reporter, columnist and editor. Blogging gave me an outlet for more topics, more formats and more experiments. I wouldn’t be the writer I am today without 7,000 posts under my belt.

2. Speed: Working online gives a blogger a sense of urgency, turning around ideas into posts more quickly. Jumping on trends, shooting out social media promotions, teaming up with partners — they all require speedy reflexes.

3. Connectedness: Reaching out to bloggers on similar topics can aid a blogger is so many ways: new ideas, different perspective, piggyback audience and more. Calling upon them as peers is a true mark of success.

4. Expertise: What better way to learn more about a subject than to blog about it every week? It requires curiosity as well as an attentiveness to customer questions and needs. Blogging makes us smarter.

5. Authority: People can recognize when someone knows their subject matter — and sniff out phonies when they don’t. A blogger can become a leading authority in their industry, and a highly visible one at that.

With blogging, we can succeed with a modest set of skills. And we can reap a whole new set of talents.