I am fresh off of a trip from IKEA where I purchased a selection of put-it-together-yourself furniture! I am sure that there is an IKEA in Madrid, but there will be not time to visit while you are at SAP TechEd Madrid! I digress .... Now, many of my friends and other shoppers avoid IKEA for the simple reason of not knowing how to put their product line together! Full disclosure, I ran IKEA's direct, loyalty, catalog and email marketing for the US for a few years. However, it's not as if we all received furniture assembly on-boarding training. I jumped into the IKEA self-assembly state of mind and embraced the simple instructions that are included with each piece of furniture. I now LOVE the IKEA concept and now, after 5 years of being away from the big yellow and blue box store. I have lost the fear of walking into the store and now leverage my knowledge to expertly decorate my home!
So, how does this story relate to TechEd or SCN blogging? Well, I just received a tweet from an SAP colleague that is headed to Madrid who noted that he had a hard time making time to blog! I maintain that blogging is easy if you have a simple way in ... a play from a blogging play book, if you will. There will be so many opportunities to share you insight, knowledge and ideas before during and after TechEd and I want you each to have a simple way of jumping in! I have a total of 3 'blogging plays" of them that make it very easy to blog. I'd like to share these with you to make it easy for you to show the world the expert that you are and what is on your mind about your SAP TechEd Madrid experiences!
First, the average reader consumes content is short bursts, so we want to aim for a 2-minute read, which is typically 500 words or so. So, my blueprint for your blogging process is a 5-step, 500-word blog.
- Step 1. Set your story up in first 100 words. You want to start to tell your story in the first 100 words. Set up your story within a story. I typically do not jump right into the "business". Rather, I find my angle and then set up the "lesson". For example, you may want to share a conversation you had with a colleague on while on the way to Madrid.
- Step 2. Explain your idea in next 100 words. Take the time to articulate your ONE IDEA in this section. You want to explain why this blog is about. As an example, tell use about your one big take-away from the keynote session!
- Step 3. Blog relevance in next 100 words. Explain why this idea that you articulated is relevant to the reader. This is the WIIFM moment! This is where your expertise of explaining HANA, for instance to your follower or customer base.
- Step 4. Offer your advice in 3 or 5 bullets in penultimate 100 words. Bullets are the best way to clearly community your advice, key take-aways, etc.This is the easy part of the blog! What were your 3 key take-aways from the session you attended? Put there right here!
- Step 5. Recap blog in last 100 words. Take these last 100 words to recap your idea, the benefits of your advice and include the call to action! Tie it all together here and finish telling your story that you set up in the beginning!
So, blogging for SAP TechEd Madrid really is as easy assembling IKEA furniture if you follow the instructions. Jump in and let the world know what you learned in a blog on SCN, since we call can't be there. Follow this easy way in to blogging and you will feel comfortable with it and will then always find the time to share!
Director, NA Social Media Marketing
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