In case your company is contemplating a jump into social internet marketing, beginning with a blog may seem just like a sensible first step. Writing a blog post is not really done on the fly (hopefully) unlike a tweet or perhaps a response to a Facebook post. You are in a far more controlled environment. If you want, though do not recommend it, you can begin out with moderated comments so that you can get accustomed to the idea of two-way communication.

Blog posts allow you to showcase some of your expertise together with your company’s “voice” or personality, too. We might not argue with any of those points, but we might caution against simply running into the blogosphere with no full understanding of what exactly is considered inappropriate blogging behavior. A few weeks ago we talked slightly about blog etiquette. Today we will talk about some mistakes we’ve seen which you definitely want to avoid.

5 Mistakes That Bloggers Must Avoid

1. Do not use your blog site to create news releases

We see this frequently on company blogs, unfortunately. In some cases you are able to tell that the copy for your news release was simply copied and pasted in to the site. We understand the logic behind this plan. It is relevant content, it’s recently been written (and proofread), and likely good keywords that will assist boost SEO. However, people usually do not (usually) visit blog sites so that they can discover what you want to sell them. People visit blogs so which they can get an answer to an essential question. Posting a news release for your blog shows a lack of understanding about how exactly the blogosphere works and may incline people to think your business is lazy or lacks important knowledge about how to any blog effectively. Don’t let that occur!

2. Do not forget to give proper attribution to resources

The world of blogging is extremely competitive, and companies are understandably protective of the content. At the same time, blogging is simply one of many tasks you have on a day and in a rushed state you might miss to put that hyperlink in the source you referenced. This can cause a large amount of problems for you and your company because you might be accused of plagiarism. Whether you building on another person’s concept or quoting them directly, check and make sure you might have given them proper credit. If you are not sure formal credit should be given, do it simply to be safe.

3. Don’t make use of a misleading headline

Oddly, I have seen this particular plan more with experienced bloggers than with new bloggers, however it is still worth a cautionary note. The headline of the blog post is sort of like a handshake. You might be greeting your reader and setting an expectation for what she or he is going to be reading about. Suddenly shifting your focus or relocating an unexpected direction can feel as if a betrayal of trust to your reader, particularly if your headline leads them to believe will have them getting information but what they get is really a hard sell. We have seen blog head lines that seemed interesting just to discover it was really a pitch for any book the blogger was selling. “Bait and switch” is not a great blogging strategy.

4. Don’t presume your readership will be using a computer

Increasingly, individuals are accessing blogs using smart phones. If your blog is placed up on WordPress you can add a plug-in which will ensure your blog is mobile-friendly. Even with that setup, it is a good idea to access your site the way your readers will. Subscribe to your personal posts and see how they come through. Make certain everything is easy to read. Perhaps this may also encourage you to have a “read more” tag on posts which are longer than about 500 words so that people on the smart phone can choose to continue scrolling.

5. Don’t occurs business blog to “call out” other brands or individuals

If you are an individual blogger not linked with a specific organization, your blog posts are your personal, and although people may disagree together with your approach, you are free to use it how you can. If that means that you would like to berate people or “call out” companies, that’s your own prerogative. Everything is a little different if you are blogging for your company, however. Like a company, if you “call out” others or people it may make you seem unprofessional or just like you don’t have anything better to do. Moreover, these kinds of exchanges can get out of hand fairly quickly, making a bad PR situation that might be hard to fix. We don’t see a valid reason to risk it.

Those are our 5 “Do not do” tips for blogging. What could you add?