A few weeks ago I was featured in a video for the American Small Business Institute here in Austin, Texas. During this interview, I had an incredible opportunity to speak with the vice chancellor of the Wizard Academy, Daniel Whittington, about creating blog content rapidly. This is incredibly important for small business and startups who may believe there are no blogging options for them. Trust me, there are options for every business, and I cover the easiest ways this interview…

Welcome to the American Small Business Institute. This week I’ve got Syre Klenke back with us. Now, Syre and I were talking about how several times we’ve mentioned ways to create content for you website and business on blogs or video. We’ve talked at length about that actually, but a lot of the solutions involved bringing in other companies to handle things for you or even to bring on staff to handle those things for you. So now we are trying to talk about a way you can start creating website and blog content when your primary weaknesses are that you don’t want to spend money on staff, you don’t want to hire outside people, but you also don’t feel like you have enough time or that you don’t see yourself as a writer. I think we hit on something, so what was our idea here?

Curating your blog, rather than coming up with your own content all of the time. This is something you can do if you want to start blogging. It is also something you can do if you are running out of time. For example, if you have a really busy month and you just can’t get that blog out. This gives you an opportunity to still make content that will help with SEO, and just to keep people who do follow your website and social media active with what is going on in your business.

The idea behind that would be, instead of writing your own blog, if you found a blog you like on a topic that relates to your business you can go ahead and actually use it. I don’t mean to not “copy and paste it,” that would be plagiarism

This is important! If you want to start curating your blog, there are rules to curating that don’t apply to writing a blog. So the number one rule is… don’t plagiarize.

So how do you do it correctly? Say that you are roaming around and you find and article that is consistent with the brand you are building for yourself. How do you curate that article into your own blog?

Typically, I would start by talking the title of the blog and putting that up there. I wouldn’t change the name of the blog post, because you want to make sure the original author of the blog post remains happy with the curation. Since you want to entice the reader to read more, I would recommend taking a paragraph to explain what the blog is about, how it relate to your business, or the topic that you are covering.

So keep in mind, that is the only thing that you have to write! That’s the only writing you have to do in curating. Here is what I found and here is why I thought you might like it.

Exactly! I’d say use no less than 50 words, 100 words is probably a safe zone. However, you definitely need to find a way to relate it to your business, because even though they are going away from your website, mentally they can connect the dots and later end up back on your webpage.

So I mean come on, 50 words! You accidentally just texted that to your family in the last 30 minutes, right? So after you put what you think, how much of the actual article would you put in there?

You could add the intro, but I wouldn’t put too much more than that. Then add a link to the bottom of it, or a “read more” button.

Basically, you start with your thoughts. Then you put the intro and then you say, “if you want to find out more about this, go read it on their actual blog since they are the one who actually wrote this.

Now, does it have to be about your business?

It doesn’t have to be about your business. I definitely think there is entertainment value in having a blog. Some of my favorite bloggers, such as Tim Miles, post stuff that is motivational, stuff that’s funny, and sometimes he’ll even posts about his family. I know some of the other bloggers I enjoy following do the same thing. So I definitely think there is value in entertainment and even occasionally having funny blogs.

I actually have a client that I help with their blog content and we did a blog post that was a little sarcastic. It went with his business, but it differently had a unique twist to it.

That’s a key sentence that she just said. So if you are going to start curating things, and it’s not related to the industry that you are in and you want to diverge a little bit, you better make sure it is in character with your business itself. The whole point of this blog is to develop content that promotes who you are, what you stand for, and what your business culture is. The worst thing you can do is bring your own personal vibe if it happens not to be the vibe as the company itself. That’s called someone needing to get fired!

So you can share things, but only when they’ve been consistent with things you had been posting and you know you stand for?

Yeah, I mean it can definitely be a culture thing! For example, if there is a part of your business culture that you want to highlight, write about it! It doesn’t necessarily have to be about any business services or products that you have. That can be really big too! I used to work with a company that manufactured water filtration systems who did a lot of “Public Service Announcement” (PSA) style blogs. These articles covered issues like the Flint Water Crisis, where it didn’t relate 100% directly to all of their customers, but it was something people were interested in. They used it as an opportunity to highlight how they were giving back to the community.

Perfect! Well, thank you, Syre. I appreciate it. See you guys next week!

This was my fourth time being interviewed by the American Small Business Institute and I can’t wait to be featured in more!  If you are interested in learning more about blogging and ways that you can start off small, feel free to contact me. For more information about the American Small Business Institute and the amazing things they are doing for small companies around the globe, visit their website today.