17 Types of Posts / 50 Post Topics

You’ve started a company blog and/or podcast. What comes next? It’s not like someone gives you blog topics and an editorial calendar and suggests which one to post first. Well, here are 17 types of posts and 50 Blog topics marketers could write and talk about.

1. Foundation Posts

Foundation posts are the core posts that your blog should be built upon and which focus on the key subject areas that the blog is going to be talking about. They are likely to be longer than other posts, focused in the content and, more often than not, will contain tips or practical advice centred around your main topics. These are posts that you’ll want to spend a bit more time on and which people should want to refer back to and share, time and time again.

2. Expertise Sharing

No doubt a familiar type of post for small business bloggers and a key one at that. These posts will demonstrate and share information on important topics relating to your expertise, with each post focusing on a particular aspect of that topic. The subject will be of direct interest to your readers and should have primary goal of developing or reinforcing the confidence and trust that they have in your abilities.

3. Lists

Lists remain one of the most commonly referred to types of posts and hence a very good way of getting a lot of information over in a short space of time. People can dip in and out as they see fit, so these are also the type of post that often gets referred to and shared in places like Digg.

4. News Delivery / Reporting / News Breaking

Blogs are a great way of sharing news and information and, because of their immediacy, also for breaking new stories. Unfortunately, few of us are able to be on the spot when we get a scoop but we are able to share news and information that we have found with our readers. While you could simply share a link or story as is, if you want to develop your own relationship with your readers, try to add your own perspective and comments to it when you write about it.

5. Guides / Instructional

A “How to” guide is an excellent way of passing on information and creating something which has the ability to go viral. While sharing information in anecdotal form is great, sometimes you just can’t beat a clear guide that’s easy to follow from someone who has been there, done it and got the T-shirt to prove it. Think of it like instructions on putting together a piece of furniture from Ikea (hopefully with all the pieces there) and make your “How to” guides the definitive ones for your specialism.

6. LinkBaiting

A post which is designed primarily to attract attention and incite people to link to it, hence link baiting. This might be a post with contentious or provocative content aimed at getting a reaction from readers or might be one based on humour. In essence though, it’s sole goal is to provoke a reaction and generate links.

7. Surveys & Polls

Facts and figures lend weight to an argument and by using figures from a recent survey or report and then adding your own commentary, you can get your message across with up to date information to support it. Alternatively, why not run your own poll in your post and gather information from the people you really want the opinion of – your own readers.

8. Article Reply

So you’ve seen something that caught your attention on some one else’s blog or website and left a comment on it … but you want to expand on that. Great, write a post which references the original but then goes on to either develop and expand on the points it makes, or to counter them.

9. Rants

Never get abusive or personal, but if you write about something that really bugs you and you believe is worth sharing, then this can come over very powerfully in a blog. It adds to the 3D view of you, the person, and helps tell your readers something more about you. Hey, we also like a little bit of Victor Meldrew, letting off steam now and again.

10. Industry Commentary

You are going to be well placed to pass on information about what is happening in your industry and how events are likely to effect your readers and other players in it. So make sure that you become the place that people visit to get informed opinion about what’s going on by delivering posts which report on developments in your industry.

11. Conferences / Exhibitions / Seminars

A great way of getting across information and sharing with a larger audience is to take information from a conference and report back via your blog. This could be your own conference or one that you are attending as a delegate - beforehand, highlight that you will be there (and willing to meet up no doubt) and then feed back what you found interesting or particularly useful.

12. Company Specific

There may be some specific news about your company which will be of interest to your readers, perhaps new capacity, extra staff or additional clients, all of which reflect favourably on you and your business. A constant stream of these might be considered unimaginative and prove boring, but the occasional one thrown in adds to the information pool your readers have about you.

13. Press Releases

While not to everyone’s taste, a blog is also an excellent distribution method for information (using RSS, pinging etc) as well as being the platform for conversation and relationship building. Don’t use it simply as a Press Release conduit, but if you believe that it is relevant and interesting to your readers then there is no harm in putting PR information out through your blog as well.

14. Guest Post

Ok, perhaps a slightly different angle here, but why not get someone else in to write a post for your blog. Your readers get additional great information on a subject, you can get extra publicity as the guest writer will probably reference it from their own blog and it will add to your reputation in the process. Perhaps a reciprocal arrangement with a number of different authors? [BTW - if you’re looking for guest bloggers, drop me a line!  ]

15. Links Post

There’s always going to be information that you have unearthed during the course of the week that you’d like to share and is useful to your readers, but which doesn’t suit a full post on its own. So create a post with a series of links to articles, information sources, new stories etc. with just a short one line commentary on each.

16. Reviews

Might be of a book or white paper, or perhaps of a service or product which is relevant to your readers – give your own opinion on it and then open it to the floor and get your readers’ opinions as well.

17. Video or Podcast

It’s becoming ever easier to integrate either podcasts or videos clips into your posts and they are also a great way to offer something a little extra to your readers. Ideally make them your own but you can of course embed videos from sites like YouTube that you believe would be beneficial. If you put commentary around them (and a transcript for your own) then you’ll take the SEO on the post up a notch as well.

Of course, a post doesn’t need to fall into just a single category – this one, for example, is clearly a list post but I would like to think also falls into the area of expertise sharing. At the end of the day, focus on what will appeal to your readers (you could always ask then what they are looking for!?) but hopefully you’ll find some ideas here to be going on with!

And now, 50 specific post topics:

1. Tips and advice how to best use our products
2. Here’s how to solve your problem related to…
3. Complete installation instructions
4. What would you like to see in next year’s catalogue?
5. Our favourite projects over the coming months
6. Some tricks that might keep you from needing support
7. Reveal a mistake you made and the lessons you learned
8. We want to talk. How should we contact you? Where?
9. Five tips for getting more from your…
10. The best way to recommend an improvement to our product or service
11. Photos from our community meetup
12. What goes into our decision process
13. A tour of the plant, and a day in the life of your product
14. What it’s like to work for our company
15. We support these causes, and here’s why
16. Have you met our president ?
17. The next two years: how we grow with you
18. We want to come to work with you (and learn how we can help)!
19. Giving back to the community: our plan
20. What we worry about over the coming year
21. Here a story you want believe…
22. Can you recommend a better process for… ?
23. Befriend us on social networks…
24. Please suggest a worthy non-profit organization
25. We’re sorry, and here’s how we’ll handle things next time
26. How is the economy affecting us, and may be you
27. Here’s a list of the top…
28. Here how our industry is coping with…
29. Fourteen ways to customize your…
30. Here’s an issue affecting our industry, and here’s how you can get involved
31. Customer Profile – Mr. X
32. We have to comment on this article (or post)
33. What we think is unique about us. Do you agree?
34. Communities in your neighbourhood, and several on the Web
35. Your blog posts: Mr. Y suggests ways we could improve…
36. Other sources of relevant information in our industry
37. Meet our favourite customer service reps for the month of…
38. A survey… to better serve you
39. Vendors that serve us so we can help you
40. You often talk to our receptionist – get to know her better
41. Five promises we’ve kept over the last few years
42. The meaning of our slogan
43. Take a look at our new office in Toronto
44. Save energy and money with…
45. Growing up but staying fun
46. Here’s a post from a guest
47. This new service is a money saver
48. Where do we want to be in five years
49. Here’s a detailed case study about…
50. …

Remember the 4 Es… you have to:
- Educate your readers generously
- Entertain them
- Engage them (influence them to participate), and
- above all, Enrich their lives by saving them time, energy and/or money.

Do you have any suggestions to complete our list?

Source: in part from this Chris Brogan’s post and Better Business Blogging.

Related content:
Content Marketing - What is it? Why use it?
3 Options to Set up Content Marketing
What Should You Talk About?

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	Simon Hénault   LinkedIn Profile
	To offer your clients useful and engaging Web content, and increase your visibility, your credibility and your sales.

Publié dans : MARKETING PAR CONTENU / CONTENT MARKETING
Tags : Content Marketing, Marketing par contenu