ARTICLE

HOW TO PLAN A BLOG – A PR’S GUIDE TO SAYING WHAT YOU WANT

Planning a blog for your social media sites can sometimes seem daunting, so we have put together our top tips to help make the process easier (and even fun).

Firstly, your idea should pass the ‘so what test’ – making sure there is a real reason as to ‘why’ you think a blog is needed in the first place. Once this has been settled, your blog plan can start to take shape.

Planning your blog

Planning doesn’t need to take up much time, especially if you find a method that works for you. In our opinion, it’s always useful to start with the basics:

What do I want to say?
How do I want to say it?

These questions might seem simple enough on the surface, however, if you are writing across multiple topics or even industries, things can get complicated fast.

Asking yourself ‘what’ you want to say allows you to make sure that you are including the vital information from the brief or idea that you want to get across. Our top tip is to list the key information down as bullet points to ensure that the whole idea is on the table from the start, with a convincing beginning, middle and end point.

The ‘how’ part comes in when you have settled on your topic and have your list of bullet points ready to go. This is where you ask yourself whether you want to write a thoughtful article, a funny listicle or an in-depth piece of work that will shine a light on an important part of your business.

For example, a post about your company’s achievements of the past year could take the form of a celebratory listicle. An introduction to a new member of staff could be written in the form of a light-hearted interview, and formal article-style pieces can be created for your more serious work.

Time to craft

Once you have settled on the ‘what’ and ‘how’, the planning becomes even simpler. As you have already written down your core information, completing the blog becomes a matter of filling in the gaps and ensuring that your structure and content is satisfying to the readers who visit.

Finally, it’s time to polish. We recommend stepping away from your work and coming back to it with fresh eyes to catch those clunky sentences and pesky typos. Trust us on this – your readers will thank you for it.

When you have polished your piece, it’s time to publish and share your blog with your audience, secure in the knowledge that you have said exactly what you wanted to say, in exactly the way you wanted to say it!

Want more top PR tips? Get in touch with us at hello@pearl-comms.com