In Tech PR: Are You Blogging, Blabbing or Bragging?
Is there a right or wrong way to blog? Not when it’s personal. But in tech — an arena driven by engineering and science, which in turn proceed from factual evidence and rules — people expect more. By this definition, a key shortcoming of many tech “blogs” is that they’re not blogs, at all. They’re “blabs” or “brags.”
Good tech blogs:
- Always have a point
- State the point succinctly and simply in the opening lines
- Make the point relative to a specific audience
- Adapt it to the medium — text, audio and video have different requirements
- Impart practical, actionable value
Those are the rules. When you blog — whether in text, podcast or video — follow these rules scientifically. When done, review your work against this checklist: Did you make your point up front? Was it concise and simple? Did it fit the medium? Will people care? And why will they care — Did you say something useful?
Blabs and brags are self-explanatory, but herewith some examples in case any remain in doubt.
Blabbing
Blabs are long, pointless rambles, often strewn with arcane tech terms the author assumes others understand. The worst such I ever encountered: a 30-minute podcast on business intelligence and predictive analytics. The topic was fine — one I happen to love. But the author ruined his podcast by spewing acronyms and reciting long lists of tech specs. By the time he’d reached item #4 on a list, I’d long forgotten #1 and #2. What killed me most: I recognized the text as something I myself had composed, for a marketing brochure. He was reading it verbatim. Worked fine in the original as a physical hand-out with text, charts & diagrams, but in audio it tortured the ear.
Bragging
There are all manner of “brags,” each insufferable in its own way. The more obvious are those that make no effort to disguise their self-serving nature. Rather than impress, they bore and alienate. Classics:
- “I’m speaking at XYZ Conference today — don’t miss it!”
- “We won an award for best widget.”
- “We displayed our brilliance/prowess by winning ABC client.”
- “We proved our indispensable value by partnering with Excelsior Corp.”
- “We set an industry benchmark by launching our proprietary standards.”
The less obvious (and more sinister) are those that latch onto a major trend/issue/problem to lure the audience, then cleverly “reverse engineer” the company’s own product or service as the solution — without honestly acknowledging that they’re selling vs. informing. It’s just a brag.
Nobody’s fooled. Even my toddler grandchildren know the difference between receiving a toy for free vs. getting one with strings attached.
Some brags may work as news, where we expect a company to tout its brilliance and success. They’re not blogs. In a way, blogs are the 21st century equivalent of a newspaper advice column. They are, or should be, designed to help.
What About Timing?
Is there a best day or time to post a blog? Maybe so, but I don’t know (or much care at the moment) to know what it is, as evidenced by my posting this blog on a Sunday morning.
I hear/read this sort of thing all the time: “For best results in driving traffic to your site, post on a Tuesday at 9am,” or whenever. And maybe that’s so and I’ll be proven wrong in the next five minutes, hours or days — when you show me the rules for the right time to post. Until then, I’ll continue to time blogs on the principle that when you endeavor to say, speak or show something of genuine value, it’s timeless. When people need it, they’ll find it. That’s a fact, not a blab or brag.
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