Vipa Solutions

Making time to blog, you would think blogging would be fun, and it is, until you run out of things to write about.  Take for example, this Vipa Solutions blog.  My co-workers and I were charged with the task of upkeeping the company blog, each person assigned a topic to talk about, and the intention was that everyone would blog maybe once a week.  The absence of a post for this blog for the last few weeks until now is a great example of what not to do, and I do apologize for any inconvenience our readers may have had, the idea of  the strenuous exercize of  my creative writing muscles  it would take to write something appealing to readers was not appealing to me, but that will be the last of excuses, and now on to the point.

Company blogs can be good, when they are used, for many things.  They add a personal side to a corporate office, they let the viewers know what they are working on or helpful tips for their businesses. Blogging although fun becomes a task dreaded by many especially after a week or two hiatus from writing.  But, it doesn't have to be a painful or anxiety ridden task and literally anyone can write a blog, as long as you know how to write, reading helps too. 

The lesson this week as indicated by the title, is to make time for blogging.  When you make time to write a blog you are doing 5 things right:

1. Writing as a skill, comes easier as you practice and in turn when you don't write for awhile, you become rusty again and will need to work up to your prime abilities through practice.  Ultimately this helps your communication skills.

2.  Making time to blog whether each day, week or two weeks gives your readers an idea as to when they can check out the blog for the next post instead of just sporadically posting. 

3. When you make time to write the blog, you are prepared, ideas come easier and you know that you have time because you scheduled the time

4. Ideas come easier when you know you have to write a blog each day/week. 

5. Blogging in general, generates interest by the people who already know you, but the people who don't know you may look to the blog to get an inside glimpse to the company, this could be one of the first impressions an outsider makes and gives a more in depth and personal view of your company.  It also gives the reader a look at your writing style and creativity which, for those aspiring writers, can give you some practice and a free audience.

When written and maintained correctly, blogs can become a great tool for your company and an entertaining and knowledgeable base for clients and even outsiders who may then become prospective clients.

Here are some tips to get you started and keep you going:

• Establish the purpose of your blog and who will write the blog, then make sure those things happen.
• When you are null and void on ideas look in the following areas to spark your creativity: industry news, industry blogs, company news and also think about tips/items you may want to convey to your clients. 
• When in doubt, have someone else read the blog first
• Unless you are a rockstar at writing, you will probably need to check your work and re-work it a little.  Always check your work for typos and misspellations, general gramatical errors, also- no one likes an unprofessional blogger who: TyPeS LiKe tHiS, OR THIS THE ENTIRE TIME or doesn't capitalize a proper noun.  When in doubt read it again, then have someone else read it.
• Starting a blog and not commiting to it will not get you any followers, so make blogging a regular practice, keep it relevant and be confident of your abilities.
• Asking for user feedback is always a great way to get feedback.  When you ask, you receive.  See example of this below:

Need Help?
The Vipa Team would love to answer your questions about setting up a blog for your company and give you some tips on how and what to write. 

 <JE

Its that time of year, the snow will not stop falling no matter how much you pray to the weather gods and all of the sudden you feel restless, gaining (or losing) weight for what seems like no reason and crying at re-runs of movies like You've Got Mail or even Harry Potter.   Chocolate seems to be consumed by the pounds at the office and people have more than one snack a day to console their illusory discontent with life due to a little thing called 'the weather' which torments and misconstrues our lives during depressing prairie winters in ways which sometimes even go unknown. 

While you go plodding about daily life in work and play, did you ever wonder about who or for that matter what you are affecting with your surly winter ways of life? Think of the websites people!  All alone and left to their own devices while you figure out taxes, audits and what thing you will do next to waste more time, your precious website sits, its content jumbled and tacky with misspellations, and broken links.  And the saddest sight of social media going unsocialized and rank with neglect.  What can it do?  Nothing, it doesn't fix itself.

People and companies everywhere promised themselves come January 1st they would shape up and do things better.  Maybe a promise should have been made to the websites as well, after all, businesses do owe some responsibility to the sole thing that represents them on the web.  Like pets and children, these babies do not just do well sitting around and being ignored, usually after awhile things start to go wrong no matter how perfect the look or act.  Give your website a once over for over asthetics, written content and all the little details as well.  Talk with your team about what goals and improvements you would like for your website and make a plan of action. 

Has it been since the dawn of the internet when you made your website with basic HTML that you looked at your website?  It's probably a wreck and starving to death for pretty images, flash and social media to feed into your company's soul (and overall profits).  Pets cannot go without water (trust me, I accidentaly killed a pet toad when I was younger) and websites cannot go without attention to detail and routine maintenance and upkeep to make it up to date with the world around it.  Help your website fit in, or even better- stand out by adding new and improved features like blogs, twitter posts, news, movies and portals and it will become a happy site once again!

New Year Resolutions
Yes, its that time of year again where we all make promises to do better in the New Year. Grumbles and Sighs can be heard throughout America as well all vow to loose the holiday weight, listen to our spouses/parents, and stop smoking. I've taken the time to highlight a few of the goals that we are setting for the next year. Unlike some people's personal goals, these goals are things we actually believe we can achieve to better our company and its relationships with clients and partners.

Lose the extra weight- We are well on our way to make things easier and more efficient for everyone
Listen to Others- We are starting some new campaigns in which our clients and partners get to have some say while we will listen!
Be More Creative- New ideas and new features are coming your way soon, and they will keep coming.
Be More Sociable- Who's got social media? We do, and we plan to use it on our website and help you use it on yours.
Learn Something New- Everyday we plan to look into new ways to expand our business by learning and living it.
Help Others- This one will be easy, we already help others, in more ways than one.

•  Be involved in the community: community websites and participating in events
•  Support Calls: We will be here to help you before you need it.

< JE