There’s a lot of ways to write a story. A blog is an online form of what we journalists call opinion – and it is one of the most difficult jobs in journalism. Journos are paid according to “grades” from 1 to 10 in the traditional media. Opinion is written by the 10s.
There’s no need to get stuck just writing your blog the same way every week. Pick another approach. Here are some of them:
- A feature – a story exploring a topic of interest in your industry.
- A news story – new software, a visiting expert, a competitor rises or falls.
- A case study – a detailed story about a company of interest in your industry, and the reasons for their success or failure.
- A profile – a written portrait of a celebrated character in your industry.
- A summary of a report, perhaps with expert commentary.
- An editorial – an address to the readership on a matter of importance.
- A brief – a snippet of news or information.
- A digest or round-up – several short pieces on a common theme.
- A “big number” – a surprising or unusual statistic, percentage, or dollar amount that could be the subject of dinner table chat.
- Q&A – a series of short answers to published questions.
- Obitiaries – a profile of a person who has recently died.
- Opinion – contraversial thoughts on a given topic – your own, or others.
The good news about choosing another mode to tell your story is that you don’t have to write it yourself. You might recall in a recent post, I argued that you should write your own blog – it represents your thoughts on a subject.
But for most other forms of story-telling, you don’t have to be the one to do the writing. Write a brief, outsource it, or give the job to a staff member. But remember to always do a final quality check yourself. Whether you write it or not, your content represents your brand.