When it comes to writing a blog that truly engages your readers, it’s essential to ‘keep it real’ by including your own ideas and opinions. Equally important is to back up what you say with facts and corroboration.
This not only adds weight to the points you want to make, it also allows your visitors to delve deeper into an issue if they wish to.
Using the internet for research is commonplace, and it means that interested readers can follow any links you include in your copy to find out more.
Remember though that the references you use will reflect on you and your credibility, so you should make sure any facts or statements you rely on come from a reputable source.
These will vary depending on where you are based and the target audience for your blog – for example, quoting information from sources in the US is fine if that’s where most of your readers are, but it’s no good for a UK audience who will want evidence from their own region.
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Selecting your sources
First, have a think about your topic and find an industry-leading association or trade magazine that may have an interest in the issue you want to discuss. In the UK for example, if you’re looking at telecommunications (this could be people’s online habits or the growth of the market for smartphones etc), try Ofcom as your starting point. If you’re looking at utilities, try Ofgem and so on. You’ll probably find an equivalent agency for most industries.
For consumer issues, you could take a look at Which? magazine, which often has useful information itself but also refers to reports created by other agencies.
There’s also a real treasure trove of information relating to UK business, lifestyles, demographics and all sorts of other useful bits and pieces available from the Office for National Statistics.
National broadsheet media can also be a useful source for in-depth analysis of any number of issues that may point you in the right direction.
Make sure you credit other people’s work
When you use information you’ve found on the web, remember that this is someone else’s intellectual property and you should always make sure you credit the source. This is easily done by ensuring the link is clear and opens up your source’s website in a new window – don’t embed it in your own site.
What you’re actually trying to do through your research is to add credence to your words – so an open, honest link to a trusted source is much better than plagiarising someone else’s ideas.
If you’d like some help developing an engaging blog with added value that keeps loyal readers returning, drop us a line.
