Telling stories tells the story

Content is the most important aspect of any blog. Pictures and stories make readers come back for more. Adding in different viewpoints and blogging in others' blogs helps send your message even further, but by far, the most important part of blogging is storytelling.

For example: last night was the perfect evening to hike Mt. Thom trail with golden sun slanting across the whole mountain side, as a man I know hurried past me and my dog Trinity up the hill. Larry said he was rushing to the top so he could turn around and run down. "I'm not so ambitious," I yelled after him, as he quickly outpaced me. I'm in recovery from a skiing injury and I've had to slow down. As I get older, it takes longer to come back from a few weeks on the couch... Reading about the sunlight, my dog, running into an acquaintance and my struggle to rebuild cardio is far more interesting than trail length and elevation gain, not that those things aren't also important.

The story is the main attraction and that's what businesses and casual bloggers need to get their heads around. Storytelling creates "intense customer loyalty," according to Terry O'Reilly, who recently spoke on marketing at the University of the Fraser Valley. I was privileged to be one of the hundreds of people who filled the student union building as Terry O'Reilly told us stories about his marketing expertise and the creative marketing adventures of others. To hear some of Terry O'Reilly's stories, check out his CBC show and podcasts.

People love to read great stories, but interesting photos draw readers into your content. Take a look at National Geographic's blog. Not only do they predictably feature fantastic photographs, but each blog entry starts with a story snippet that make you want to read more. This blog post, about Himalayan mountaineering, starts with "The most intimidating person in Himalayan mountaineering is a 92-year-old American woman with a walker." Who doesn't want to know why?

You don't have to write it all yourself. For variety and different viewpoints, have others contribute to your blog. A great example of that is Mt. Waddington's ambassador athletes. It's hard to say who wrote this post on Mt. Waddington's blog, but it's a great example of an insider who is clearly an expert at his or her sport, writing in a personal style with lots of photos. I'd come back for more of that, even though I'm a newbie skier and could never ski where this writer skis. But that's the problem with this post; there is no more of that. It seems like he or she, who is unfortunately unnamed, didn't write more than once this winter. This long blog posting would have been better broken up into smaller posts spread throughout the season. Regular blogging fosters relationships with one's audience and keeps them coming back.

Guest blogging, on Tourism Chilliwack's website, for example, is also a great idea, but it has to be kept up. Regular blog posts improve search engine rankings by keeping content fresh. Search engines tend to favour updated content. It's also good for business. People read blogs and it spurs them to learn about products and services and make purchases to support their hiking, skiing, kayaking and other outdoors adventures,