Fabian Pattberg



Tag Archives - blogging

My routine for writing a blog post

This is the situation: I am home alone with the dogs tonight, my wife is away on a business trip and I am planning to spend the evening going about my business.  I want to write a blog post but I for some reason get distracted on a regular basis. Twitter updates, Google+, sports pages, Facebook, Google Reader and so on.

This seems to have happened quite a lot over the course of the past 12 months with so much going on in my life I noticed. Being a practically minded, I therefore tried to come up with a “routine”, as I call it, for these times when I am tired from a full days work but really want to write a blog post.

I hope it will also be useful for your writing. Please be aware that is my personal routine and you most likely will go about your writing in a different way. This is routine and it works for me…… icon smile My routine for writing a blog post

The routine: 

  1. When you get home from work or any other activity before writing, make yourself some food and eat. Writing with an empty stomach does not work in my experience.
  2. Once you are finished, choose the place in your house/flat where to write. Do not make the mistake of writing in the living room with a TV, stereo, etc. If you have the possibility to go to your own room or the study, do that. Any kind of distractions will only hinder your progress and will frustrate you.
  3. Make sure you take enough water with you and most importantly, take some chocolate with you. This is the kick you need when you get tired.
  4. Once you are all set up and online turn ALL social media channels off. You need the internet connection but you definitely do not need Twitter, Google+ or Facebook meddling with your attention span.
  5. Do not think about what you want to write about too much. Writing should be fun and something you enjoy. So just start to write and I am sure everything will come together at some point.
  6. Write about something interesting you have come across recently or which is important to you. Yes, consider your audience but let the writing lead you to what you want to let your readers know.
  7. Review your post progress after 2-3 paragraphs. I usually than change most of the post and title again because I somehow ended up with a slightly different topic to what I started out with.
  8. Once the post is finished take your time to check every single word of it. It is easy to just hit the “Publish” button. Wait for a while or even walk away from the computer for a few minutes to get your mind of this blog post. Then when you get back you will possibly notice something you missed or which is not writing about. This simple action will boost your quality of the blog post immensely in my experience.
  9. Hit the “Publish” button when you are proud of what you see in front of you.

It is that easy. Enjoy and have fun writing!

Your CSR / Sustainability world in 2012: What could you do different?

A strange title I know but the purpose of this post is very simple. What could you do as a CSR / Sustainability professional in 2012 different to 2011?

I have listed three points, which I feel are very important and useful for everyone working the CSR / Sustainability field across the globe.

Point 1 : Why not strive to learn more about CSR / Sustainability?

This is what I have set myself as a goal for 2012.  I have been working in the field for a long time now but I find that I also need to read more CSR / Sustainability related literature (books & ebooks) on a regular basis. My daily routine includes reading my favourite blogs via my RSS reader but I noticed that I am not reading enough published CSR / Sustainability literature anymore. This might sound like a very simple thing to do but I have noticed that during the daily routine I usually do not give myself the time to read books that provide me with a more in-depth viewpoint or information background.

I will now brush up on CSR / Sustainability classics such as Simon Zadek’s The Civil Corporation: The New Economy of Corporate Citizenship Your CSR / Sustainability world in 2012: What could you do different? and John Elkington’s The Chrysalis Economy: How Citizen CEOs and Corporations Can Fuse Values and Value Creation Your CSR / Sustainability world in 2012: What could you do different?, just to name two very insightful CSR / Sustainability classics.

Point 2: Write more about what you do

I assure you that once you read more about CSR / Sustainability, you would want to write more about it as well. This does not mean that you have to have a full-fledged blog. Easy does it in my view. If you do not want to have a blog then why sart email conversations with friends, colleagues, etc about CSR / Sustainability topics. This is a great way to digest the information you have just read or learned in my experience.

Point 3: Communicate more via Social Media

Communicating using Social Media is an easy thing to say, I know. But why don’t you give yourself 10 minutes each day to tweet via Twitter or post interesting information on your LinkedIn page. It does not have to be more time you spend each day or every other day. If you keep up this routine, I am assuring you that you will have a lot of fun doing this and at the same time will have the opportunity to get to know lots of likeminded people from across the globe reaching out to you and the information you are sharing.
If you are looking to get started in Social Media and do not know where to start, then this posts from a few months ago should help you with that: My current Social Media dilemma.

So what are you waiting for? Start doing something different today to change your life tomorrow for the better. icon smile Your CSR / Sustainability world in 2012: What could you do different?

Why I did not blog for two weeks

Over the past two weeks I have been extremely busy. I also did not manage to write new blog posts. Sorry to all my readers for this two week absence. But I have not been inactive that is for sure. In total I travelled around 3.000 kilometres by car and spend far too many hours sitting on a comfortable chair talking to clients. I had some great meetings but I must say I missed the daily walks with the dogs.

From now until Christmas I will aim to blog 2-3 times a week in order to get back into my normal writing routine. And this is the key in my view whenever you have a certain period where you are not blogging on a regular basis.

My blogging rule when I do not have enough time to blog

If you do not feel you have anything to add on your blog, don’t. But also do not use any easy excuses not to write when you have the chance. When you have some time on your hands, use it wisely to let your readers know what you are up and share the stories / information you have about a certain topic.

For me today, this meant that I wanted to let you, my readers, know why I have bit been blogging for two weeks. Transparency is everything in blogging. When your readers know what you are up to they will understand.

Have a good weekend everyone.

The international CSR Twitter and blogosphere

I was kindly invited by a business friend of mine to talk about the relationship of CSR, Twitter and the global blogosphere at the CSR 2.0 conference held in Warsaw today. My presentation was a short one (6 slides only) but I hugely enjoyed the opportunity to share my experience regarding Twitter and blogging in relation to CSR.

This is the presentation (shared on SlideShare):

The freedom to create

I have been blogging for 3,5 years now and enjoyed every minute of it. Not being an english native speaker did not make it easier at the start but when I actually decided to sit done and start writing it was insignificant. I am this kind of person to actually start with the task at hand and not plan extensively beforehand (I plan a bit of course!)

I only realized sometime later why I this is the case : I have the freedom to create. This is what I enjoy the most about blogging, the freedom to voice my views and share the information / resources I find. In my case these topics mostly involve Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainability.

What are you creating at the moment?

Are you writing or doing anything else that makes you happy, every day? It is not only about blogging and is about what you enjoy doing the most. Blogging brings me joy but it is not for everyone. You have the freedom to decide what to create. I would love to hear what you do to use your freedom to create.

If you are interested in starting to blog, here are some resources / tips for you to make it easier.

Have a good rest of the week everyone and enjoy creating.

Changing the life we live

I have not been blogging a lot over the past few weeks unfortunately. The reason for this inactivity is that a pretty significant life change has preoccupied me over the past weeks.

We will be moving back to Germany during the course of December. This move has been planned very carefully and both my wife and myself are really looking forward to this new challenge in 2011.key Changing the life we live

So will anything change here on my blog?

The clear answer is NO. Quite the opposite really. This blog has seen a huge rise in popularity and in terms of visitors during the course of 2010. During 2011 I will continue to blog on a regular basis about CSR, Sustainability and Social Media. And I have immensely enjoyed picking up the pace with more regular and in-depth CSR / Sustainability blog posts during 2010 and I will not stop with this in 2011.

The move back to my home country will actually be a good move in terms of my business as well. I will continue to expand my websites and still work as a consultant for my regular and new clients. All in all will this be a really good next step in our view.

So in effect only two major elements will change: 1) The location from where I am doing my work and 2) the level of support we can give to and receive from our families back in Germany.

2010 has been a very eventful year, personally and professionally. All events and consequences this year showed us that we needed to change something in our life. And this is what we are doing…..changing our life’s for the better. One small and bigger step at a time.

How has 2010 changed your life? Have you or will you change something important as a consequence of events in 2010?

Picture Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/legends2k/3381713103

Exciting news – Now blogging for The Guardian and more!

If you are interested in Sustainability / CSR and browse the web to find interesting articles on these topics, then you most certainly will have have come across articles from The Guardian Newspaper. Ever since we moved to the UK  8 years ago I have been a big fan of The Guardian, so when they approached me several weeks ago and asked whether I would be interested in contributing some blog entries every now and then for their newly launched Sustainable Business section of their website I jumped at the chance.

 Exciting news   Now blogging for The Guardian and more!  This is such honor for me and I am really happy to be able to contribute.

Next to blogging I am happy to report that we have also reached an agreement to share content between The Guardian Sustainable Business website and my SustainabilityForum.com.

SustainabilityForum.com is now officially a content partner in the Sustainable Business Editorial Network.

So stay tuned for some interesting blogs from my side and great editorials from SustainabilityForum.com on The Guardian Sustainable Business website! icon smile Exciting news   Now blogging for The Guardian and more!

Review of the GE Global Research blog

I did a post several weeks ago about the quality of company blogs. It turned out to be a very popular post and it got even more interesting when a representative from GE Global Research also commented. She (Katelyn Buress, Communications Specialist) commented on the fact that I included their blog in the ‘Not so sure about category’. Blogs in this category in my opinion had some some aspects missing to be truly recommendable blogs.

Since then GE Global Research and I have been exchanging ideas and concluded that it would be very useful for GE Global Research and you, my readers, to discuss their blog here once I posted my suggestions on how the blog of GE Global Research could be improved. I am providing my feedback in written and video form. The video is at the bottom of this post.

ge blog review Review of the GE Global Research blogHow GE Global Research describe their blog:
“The intention of Edison’s Desk is to be the place where GE Global Research technologists discuss the latest in technology, innovation, science, and engineering. The blog is meant to be engaging, dynamic, and interactive; we are welcome and appreciative of any feedback or input as to the content or style of the site. We’ve got some incredible scientists and engineers with broad interests and technical expertise blogging on Edison’s Desk. We’d love your input what content interests you and ways we can improve the site all together.” – Katelyn Buress, Communications Specialist, GE Global Research

GE Global Research is very keen on feedback from you. So please feel free to put forward your suggestions in the form of comments at the bottom of this post.

My overall impression:
This blog is a good blog in its current form but there is something missing in my opinion. It mainly needs some work to be truly engaging and interactive. Here are some of the detailed changes I would recommend.

Suggestions for improvement

Overall RSS feed
I am missing a possibility to subscribe to all posts via the website-wide RSS feed. I can not find it anywhere other then in my browser address field. So why not provide a RSS button or some other form of visualization for everyone to subscribe to the website wide RSS feed.

Online Community engagement
This blog is a great platform and GE picked up my blog review very quickly. This means that they are scanning the social media sphere for any feedback. This is a good move but what I am missing on the blog is some kind of association with social media sites in order to show your online community engagement. This would personally provide me with the reassurance that you are openly communicating with your stakeholders.

Interactivity on the site
The community engagement criticism is also part of this point – the lack of interactivity on the GE Global Research blog. Why not use more plugins or sidebar elements that show your YouTube Channel for example? Or some kind of a Twitter feed? Anything that might show that you are actively engaging with the reader.

Other GE blogs
How about providing links to other GE blogs? There are many more GE blogs out there and all form part of the overall GE business. I would really like to visit some other GE blogs just to get more information on other parts of GE. A place somewhere on the blog would be an ideal addition to the overall user experience.

I have also recorded a brief video walk-through of the blog talking about these comments.

Here is the video walk-through:

So what do you think about the blog? What would you do differently or advise GE Global Research to do?

Sustainability blogging at its best

Blogging on Sustainability topics is not as easy as it might sound. I am calling myself a blogger but I can honestly say that writing high quality blog posts is an art by itself.

greensmith Sustainability blogging at its bestTodays post is another recommended website category post about one person that really knows how to write excellent Sustainability related blog posts and more. His name is Paul Smith and run the blog called the “GreenSmith Consulting Blog”.

Paul has been around in the Sustainability blogging field for a long time and in my opinion is one of the most interest and engaging bloggers in the Sustainability field at the moment. Next to his own blog Paul writes for Triple Pundit on a regular basis and is a guest writer for the Elephant Journal.

This is how Paul describes his blog:
“The GreenSmith Consulting blog is an exploration of the best of what’s happening in sustainable business, and what’s to come. Startups of note are frequently featured, as are tools and technology to make doing the important work you do, be done more easily. Guest contributors have taken on a variety of subjects, from greenwashing to localization.”

Next to being a great writer Paul is also a really nice guy (which is a very nice combination).

So why not visit his blog today or connect with him via some other channels. Here are some to choose from:

A Great Week and More Bloggers for SustainabilityForum.com Wanted!

writers A Great Week and More Bloggers for SustainabilityForum.com Wanted!This week has been a great week for me. I finished my big project, finally had the time to start posting on my blog again and started to kick of my SustainabilityForum.com relaunch. All in all a very good week.

The next few weeks will be very interesting as I am finishing of the new site (bugs, etc.) and I am recruiting more writers for the blogging area of the SustainabilityForum.com. The complete new website will then be live in about 1-2 weeks time I hope.

Bloggers Wanted

So if you love blogging on Sustainability topics then why not get in touch and  you could in no time be one of the regular SustainabilityForum.com bloggers with hundreds of people reading your opinion and thoughts about Sustainability topics.

I already have a lot of interesting people contributing but I am always looking for more people to join our writers team.

So if you are interested please get in touch filling out the contact form here: Contact Me

Picture Credit: Michael Hurst