If you are considering starting a blog for you or business, knowing your focus is paramount to your success. Ask yourself these questions before you begin.

1. What do you want to give people? A successful blog is not about self-promotion. It’s about creating and sharing content that others benefit from. Example:  Guy Kawaski’s blog is titled How to Change the World. What HOW TO is your focus?
2. Who do you want to reach out to? Identify your audience. What do they need? What do they want? Then reconsider your answer to question #1. Does your audience seek/want/need the type of information that you are sharing? If not, you need to find a new focus.
3. How can you create a niche? Think about what you have to offer through your blog, then take a look at what other, similar blogs are like. What will be different about yours that will make it a blog that people want to read instead of another?
4. After you have identified what you have to offer, the next BIG question is … How is it going to benefit you? How is your blog going to drive customers and/or build your reputation? Your blog isn’t about you, but it still has to serve your online marketing goals.

Social media is the power of word-of-mouth using modern technology. Through tools such as blogging, Twitter and Facebook, social media allows for messages to go viral and spread from one person to another via the Internet, exponentially. Social media is about building community and sharing information. Businesses’ out-right promotion and hard-selling tactics fail to travel in social media; they miss the point of listening to and communicating with the community.

Twitter: What are you doing right now? Users create posts of 140 characters or less about what they are doing, seeing and thinking and build a follower base. Following is a one-way street: You can follow anyone (whether you know them personally or not), but they don’t have to follow you. Only your followers view your “tweet” when you post it, but it can be re-tweeted, which allows other people to showcase your message to their followers and so on. Messages are short, sweet and short-lived but still powerful because of their potential for viral distribution.

Facebook: Who are you? Users create profiles for personal use. Businesses create fan pages. When a Facebook user becomes a fan of a business, that fan status is listed on his or her profile page and becomes an element of their online personality. Facebook gives users and businesses the ability to showcase photos, videos and links and allows other users to take a look at what their friends are up to and where they’ve been — a greater slice of life than Twitter shows. People search for those they know on Facebook and then request “friend” status. Once you become a friend, both parties can see and exchange information.

LinkedIn: What’s happening with your career? LinkedIn, a social networking site that focuses on the professional aspects of your life, is all about business. Create a network of colleagues, request introductions through people you know, post your current projects and join professional groups. Relationships are built through contacts, which adds credibility to the network. LinkedIn groups also allow you to reach outside your circle and join in conversations that pertain to your industry and professional interests.

Jennifer Bondurant is the editor of Jefferson City Magazine and the founder of CatchPhrase Communications, a public relations and marketing firm.

Last Friday I traveled to Riverside, Mo., outside of Kansas City, to visit the Argosy Casino and conduct research on casinos that offer a destination experience – more than gaming. The Argosy Casino and hotel offer a Mediterranean theme that combines earthy hues,  a huge stained glass dome, faux baskets and terra cotta pots blooming with artificial greenery along with the shooting sprays from the entrance fountain, screens functioning as electronic billboards, bright lights and the literal bells and whistles that mark it a modern casino.

The decor is enough to tell you have arrived, but the company doesn’t stop with the physical decoration to make sure guests know the Argosy is a unique experience. According to Ameet Patel, general manager, the casino wants its players to feel at home. Staff with up to 14 years of experience ensure that the regulars are known by name. The front desk staff calls 5 minutes after check in to make sure the room is satisfactory and to find out if you need anything.

Sure, they follow a script, but they don’t sound like they are following a script – and that makes a huge difference. When I walked into the casino floor, one of the attendants said, “You win today, okay?” And I believed he meant it. I didn’t win, but it was nice to know he cared. : )

The Argosy in Kansas City promotes a company culture that cares about the experience its guests and players have. It’s a corporate brand, but it lets its individual casinos make decisions about how to best serve its specific area and customers. The Argosy staff at every level appeared to support its culture of caring about the guest’s experience and regarded each guest as an individual who deserved attention. The result? A winning casino and hotel experience.

Look for my article on Missouri’s casino destinations in the winter issue of Show-Me Missouri Magazine.