
Why Startups Need to Blog (and what to talk about …) - davidedicillo
http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/27/why-startups-need-to-blog-and-what-to-talk-about/
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turoczy
The most important part of blogging for startups seemed to be completely
missing from this piece: historical record.

Startups need to blog to remember what they did and why they did (and this is
the most important part) within the context of what was happening at that
point in time.

We think we'll remember all of our brilliant moves and boneheaded mistakes.
But we won't. And sometimes it isn't even obvious why we made them, out of
context.

But a blog will provide an historical record of what we did when. So we don't
repeat the same mistakes next time. And so lessons learned are documented.

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random42
I completely concur with you. On all the points, including,

 _so lessons learned are documented._

BUT, blogging should not be misunderstood as documentation.

you do not put all your learnings in the public view.. (well, may be in the
social web 2.0 view of business, but not in a traditional business).

You create an internal repository of documents
(designs/requirements/deals/legal etc.), and go back to them, when the need
arises.

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jdp23
> you do not put all your learnings in the public view..

why not?

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shadowfox
I am not a business person. So none of this may be valid. But I can think of a
few possibilities:

* Some of the lessons learned are highly specific to your project/team. They may not translate well to other teams/projects. Such things, while valuable, may not make sense on a blog.

* Perfect transparency may be at odds with building brand confidence. Letting your customers see every one of your mistakes (in the guise of lessons learned) may work either way with regards to customer confidence.

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modoc
It also depends on your model. Our business hinges on our domain knowledge and
expertise. We share some but not all. We want to give to the community, but
still maintain a competitive advantage.

~~~
jdp23
Agreed. I wasn't arguing for absolute transparency. However it's almost always
possible to phrase your learnings in such a way that they don't reveal your
secret sauce or proprietary secrets.

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mrschwabe
Blogging is good. But blogging to an empty void is a waste.

Mark Suster made a nice post. I'd like to elaborate on his points, "What" and
"Where".

The point of a blog (in the context of making money) is to build a following
of readers; qualified prospects for your product or service - who may
ultimately buy your product or service. Ie- a distribution channel.

Yet there are other ways to build active distribution channels without needing
to engage people at yourcompany.com/blog. Particularly if you have a 'company
blog' that nobody reads...

Think laterally. You can leverage blogging, social media, and email marketing
in other ways. It doesn't have to be your 'company blog'.

I recommend planting your 'media presence' with more strategical precision. If
not at yourcompany.com/blog then at somesite.com. Where you can build a brand
and market to a niche' that has the maximum potential to reach the highest
amount of qualified prospects. And then build relationships with those
prospects to connect the bridge to your business.

Don't waste time blogging about your company if nobody is reading. Mark Suster
is a VC, he inherits followers by default - you have to try harder, think
smarter.

~~~
rmason
I think if you follow his suggestions you dramatically lower the chances that
you will be blogging to an empty void.

However not everyone can write well. It might be one of your employees and not
the founder. Or you could try a video blog or a podcast.

~~~
cdr
Anyone can learn to write well, though. A company blog is maybe not the place
to be learning, though - if you have the time, probably better to start with a
personal/non-professional blog.

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amitagrawal
Mark Suster has one of the best blogs for entrepreneurs out there and this
post is a home run no less!

He gives a nice example about Mint.com - Mint used it so heavily in the
beginning of their launch that (I read this somewhere) they made it a point to
create a blog post for every important personal finance topic. And they did
really well on that front!

One more important thing is to be consistent - I've had my share of blogging
and let me tell you consistently blogging has worked better than creating art
pieces every once in a while (except if you're pg!)

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andrew_wc_brown
Blogging is the git repos of your business. If you don't track it, you didn't
do it.

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turoczy
Well said.

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dami
Its true, startups do need to blog more.

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windsurfer
Startups need to do everything more, one could also say.

