Creating content for your company blog can be challenging — especially if you only have one or two people fueling the content.
That’s why there’s tremendous benefit to building a multi-author blog. Not only does it reduce the workload for staffers, it also broadens your company’s viewpoints and reach.
But, how do you get started? How do you build a blog team?
Here are some ideas to help you build an effective team of bloggers.
Pick a blog captain.
To get started, you need a captain to lead you. This person builds, leads and coordinates the content strategy, while also managing and motivating the team.
The blog captain keeps everyone’s eye on the ball by making sure that the team stays on track with the editorial calendar and assignments are completed.
If you have a CMO or marketing director, this would be a natural choice. But, if you don’t have a marketing person on staff, your agency partner could serve in this role.
Whether this is an in-house team member or an outsourced content marketer, make sure that someone at your company is the champion for this effort. For blogging success, there must be a top-down approach.
What to Look for When Building Your Blog Team
Once you have determined who will be leading the blogging effort, you can then begin to build your team of bloggers. Here are some key people to include.
1. Subject matter experts.
If your goal with content marketing is to become a trusted voice in your industry, then it helps to look to people with deep experience with the work you do.
These folks don’t have to be on your leadership team, but they must understand your industry and have opinions and expertise to offer.
Even if your subject matter experts don’t want to take part in the actual writing of the blog posts, they should be willing to be a resource to help guide the content.
2. Evangelists.
People who know a lot about your industry and the work you do are going to be great assets for your blog team. But, the people who will truly excel in this role are those with passion.
These folks don’t just understand your business; they are passionate promoters of it. They live and breathe the work they do and they love spreading the word and serving as an evangelist for your brand.
That passion will shine through in their blog writing, which makes for more compelling content for your brand.
Who are the most passionate promoters on your team? Look for those folks to pitch in with your blogging efforts.
3. Storytellers and entertainers.
Think about the content you love to share most. Chances are good that the content tells a captivating story that elicits emotion. That is the kind of content that people talk about.
To get it, look for the natural storytellers and entertainers on your team. Your sales and marketing team are likely a good fit here. But, don’t forget to look other places too.
Think about your maintenance guy who captivates everyone with his storytelling over lunch or your accounts receivable gal who leaves people in stitches with her hilarious jokes.
People who know how to weave together a good story or entertain people will add an amazing spark to the content you create.
These folks don’t necessarily have to be great writers. Remember, you can use photos or graphics
or video content for your blog
too.
4. Problem solvers.
Some of the most successful blogs on the planet have become that way because they have gotten really good at answering customer questions and addressing the problems people encounter most.
That’s why it helps to have people on your team who are good at identifying and solving the common questions of customers and prospects.
Look to your front line or customer service team for natural problem solvers. They work with customers every day and likely know the questions that come up the most. They also know how to locate the information clients need quickly and efficiently.
5. Digital natives.
Oftentimes, companies think having digital expertise is the most important thing to look for when building a blog team.
While that’s certainly an asset, there’s a reason why this is last on my list.
Knowledge of blogging platforms and social media tools can be taught. It’s much harder to teach the other stuff.
That said, people on your team who have expertise and interest in social media and online platforms would be an excellent resource for you. They can help teach the rest of your team on the various tools and handle the technical aspects of creating and sharing your content.
Who’s on your blog team?
Depending on your company’s culture and size, everyone on your team might be blogging. But, if you’re a larger company or just starting out with your blogging efforts, it might make sense to build and train a smaller team first.
That way, you can create a blogging rhythm and begin to build some momentum. Once you do, it becomes much easier to encourage the rest of your team to jump on board.
Have you built a blog team? If so, who have you included?
4 replies on “How to Build an Effective Blog Team”
We started our blog, Behind the Scenes at Taylor Studios, Inc, in 2008 and it’s always been a team effort. We design and build museum exhibits so there is a wide range of view points and experts in several departments. I’ve always led the efforts, but the team approach has shifted several times over the years. A once a week post from the CEO has remained consistent, however. This year, I started using a content calendar for the first time. I’ve tried other sorts of calendars in the past, but nothing seemed to work that well. We’re almost through Q1 and content creation is happening more smoothly than it ever has. We’re posting three times a week (one is still by the CEO) with focus on specific keywords. Not only are we making keywords more a priority, but we’ve narrowed in on our target market rather than writing whatever comes to mind on a particular day. Without a team approach, we wouldn’t have a blog, or maybe we would, but no one would read it! I am a strong advocate of this approach.
Wow, Kara! This is fantastic! Thanks so much for sharing your story. This is a great example of how a building blog team and implementing a content plan can make such a difference. Congrats on your efforts! Keep me posted on how it’s going – this might make for an awesome case study or story!
Hi Laura,
I’m currently helping a company of two rollout a blog in a very specialized, but not saturated market. Should be interesting 😉 I have one guy writing the posts … then we’ll edit … then we’ll create an inventory of posts and schedule a rollout. Will definitely be writing about the experience.
Craig – That’s exciting! And, I’m glad to hear you’re writing about it too. I look forward to learning from your experiences on how these implementations went. Good luck!