Blogging: Don’t Underestimate the Need for Editing Your Blog Posts

Just the other day I was driving on dark country roads and one of the only stations to come up on the radio was one that was smack dab in the middle of a show in progress: The John Tesh Radio Show. Before I could switch the station, however, a topic John was covering caught my interest: “Mommy Blogs Can Become a Source of Trauma for Your Kids.”

The topic of mommy bloggers wasn’t what specifically caught my attention, though. Rather, it was something that was said during the actual news bit about blogging in general. Unfortunately, the tid bit of interest is not found on the article itself but some PR or journalist person was asked about why they thought mommy blogs had this kind of traumatic potential … and the PR person said that personal blogs such as mommy blogs do not normally go through any kind of editorial phase or activity as part of the writing process.

How true this is … and it makes perfect sense because if it is a personal blog, then typically personal publishing via a blog post does usually bypass formal editorial processes.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be true for business blogging. Big business or small business — no matter; it is highly recommended to have some kind of editorial process in place before you post anything onto your commercially-purposed blog. I often see many businesses (of all shapes and sizes) fail or not execute the editorial aspects of blogging as well as they could and should.

Here are some quick tips for implementing an editorial process of some kind for your business blog:

1. At minimum, have someone knowledgeable about your industry or business internally within your team review any and all blog posts authored. What you are looking for is someone who can identify details that either need clarification or further explanation. Despite our best blogging efforts, a clean pair of savvy eyes can help to identify areas of a blog post that need more detail to help customers, clients or prospects better understand the information being shared.
2. Have a second, outside-looking-in person review your blogging material as well, if possible. This person can be  super helpful in their input because unlike the individual described in #1 above, this person is entirely removed from your business so their feedback is often more objective and their perspective is more “global” than it is “your-brand-centric.” This resource can shed an original light on topics, ideas or suggestions you wouldn’t have otherwise considered and, as such, will aid you as you shape and mold your final blog post output.
3. Designate a fact-finding or info-accuracy checker. Whenever possible, have someone on your team that can review and double-check any and all references, links to third-party sites, statistics or data you may cite in your blog post. What you are looking for is for someone to make sure that the information you are citing is indeed accurate and timely. Yes, you could possibly do this yourself but often I find it helpful to have that team member assist in fact-finding missions because when you are authoring a blog post, as can happen when you author any piece of content, you are sometimes too close to the material and can’t see your own mistakes or errors.

Large companies have far more formal processes and various phases of editing that take place not just for marketing or branding needs but often for legal reasons as well. Small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs) may not be in need of hefty editorial activities but still will greatly benefit from some form of editing before blog posts are published.

While personal blogs may get away with little if no editing, blog posts written for business purposes absolutely need to be scrutinized more heavily. Ultimately, what you want to avoid via the act of editing is everything from simple typos all the way up to misinformation, lack of accuracy or misguiding readers accidentally. And let’s not forget that editing blog content can also help to reduce the chances for any messaging to be misinterpreted as offensive or inappropriate.

What other ways of editing blog content can you think of and/or do you practice??