Communication Is Essential For A Successful Blogging Team

The most obvious aspect of a successful blog is exceptional, timely, relevant content. Your readers visit your blog or read your RSS feed because they are interested in the quality articles you post on a presumably regular basis. However, content production is not the only feature of a successful blog, especially when a team of writers is generating the blog content. One of the often under looked yet essential facets of team blogging is communication. Failure for the team to effectively and regularly communicate can lead to the destruction of a thriving venture.

Executing a single writer blog is pretty straightforward. You make your own hours, set your own standards and make your own decisions – there is no outside influence and nobody other than yourself to satisfy. Running a blogging team is dramatically different, especially if the team is in disparate locations throughout the city, state, country or world.

As the title suggests, communication among the blogging team is an essential ingredient for success. You can more quality content than the NY Times could ever dream, but if the team is not communicating regularly then chances are the blog is not executing. Contrary to what [jealous] mainstream journalists may lead you to believe, successful blogging is not bred through chaos – a certain degree of structure is a necessary evil.

Lack of communication is a virus for just about any team endeavor. Unlike most teams, a team in varying geographical locations can execute a successful blog. The team should be fully capable of operating without needing to meet face-to-face daily. However, for this to work, it is vital for the team to consistently communicate. Failure to do so may lead to the following:

• Contempt. Members of the team, especially those who are pulling more than their weight, may begin to feel disdain for the team members perceived to be contributing less than required. While there may be a valid reason for a drop in production, the lack of communication breeds contempt, infecting the team like an unknown, unseen virus, ultimately destroying any chance of success.
• Paranoia. Humans are easily paranoid. Our imagination will fill the void with the absolute most negative thoughts when required. Lack of communication is like swiss cheese of the brain – the holes created as result of no communication will be shored up with paranoid delusions we perceive to be truth, no matter how illogical. Like contempt, paranoia is yet another virus which aims right at the heart of productivity.
• Confusion. This is the most obvious of the three. Lack of communication clearly leads to confusion because each team member has no idea what the other team member is up to. This has the potential to create a number of unforeseen problems which can ultimately break productivity and destroy team unity.

The list could go on forever. If you have ever enjoyed the opportunity to work in a real-world business then you should already have a good idea why communication is necessary. Those experiences translate identically over to the blogging realm, especially team blogging more than any other blogging venture.

So what do you do if your team is spread across the globe? To that I answer this – communicate! You are in the business of blogging, which is communication, so put those skills to use with your team of highly trained bloggers. Here are some examples of tools which facilitate communication among a blogging team:

• Instant Messaging or IRC. At the very least, the team members should be able to approach one another via instant messaging, if for no other reason than to be able to shoot quick messages to each other. There is really no excuse for not being able to quickly and easily get in touch with other team members, so IM and IRC facilitate this perfectly.
• Mailing List. Setup a private mailing list for all team members so that when you send one email to listname@domain.com, every team member receives the email. All team members should check email regularly anyhow, so this is not much of an extra burden adding excessive overhead to everyone’s day.
• Team Forum. There are hundreds of free, open-source forum tools available. If you are a WordPress blogger, check out bbPress because it integrates directly with the WordPress user authentication system. A forum provides a central facility which can hold all team conversations, accessed via the web, so there really is no excuse for not checking in on a daily basis. Add in forum RSS feeds and nobody on the team should be missing key communication.

The best approach is probably a combination of the above tools and more. Whatever you ultimately choose, it is imperative the team communicates. Not once a week, but regularly. In real life you would not want to show up for work and remain quiet for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Imagine the frustration!

Remember, communication is as important, possibly even more so, than producing quality content. Morale is vital, and if your team communication has dipped below water level then you have some work ahead of you because you can rest assured that team morale is suffering tremendously.

Stay ahead of this virus and inoculate your team from any potential infections far before they become problematic, potentially destroying all your hard work.

The tips outlined in this article, as well as those in the series on blogging tips, such as Finding Your Blogging Voice, Do You Have A Blogging Workflow and Blogging Tips for Bloggers with Full-Time Jobs are invaluable tools if you desire to build a successful blogging team.