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Storyboards are visual aids generally used when creating a movie. They lay out the major action within different scenes of the film and make a movie look like a graphic novel while in its pre-production stage. This helps the director and cinematographer plan out the various shots needed to make an interesting and well thought out film that is unified in its presentation and has scenes that work only to push the movie forward.

So what does that have to do with a blog? Have you ever thought of your blog as a graphic novel or movie, with each post as its own scene within the overall ‘movie’?  Or even thought of each post as its own mini film in a series of shorts? You can easily do so by drawing out some rudimentary panels (representing your individual posts or categories) on a whiteboard and adding to it occasionally. It doesn’t have to be very complex and you don’t have to be an artist to achieve the desired effect.  There are some very compelling reasons to do this including:

Storyboards can keep a blog focused: If you have a business blog then you have a single, unified purpose for blogging. But within that purpose there are a lot of small, offshooting topics that may seem unrelated to the umbrella purpose. If you storyboard your blog, you can figure out how to keep all topics united and relatable to others so that you present a collective experience to your readers rather than a frenetic disarray of opposing themes.

A storyboard can help flesh out the climactic point of each post: If you are attempting to effect social change, professional growth or other compelling movement with your blog, then you need an exciting climax within each post that gets your readers moving and works to the collective message. By storyboarding your individual posts as well as your overall blog you can help to figure out the most compelling points for the climax and you can plan the post-by-post build-up to them so that they will have the most impact possible and not just get lost in the overall noise of the blog.

Storyboards can help your blog posts work together to move the blog forward: Your blog is going to grow professionally as you do. With a storyboard, you can make sure that all your posts work toward that growth in a sensible way that makes it easy for your readers to not only witness the growth but to also enjoy it with you. Your storyboard can help you map out the best time and way to create these posts to accomplish your goal.

A storyboard can help you explore different angles of your post: Sometimes, looking at something in a different way than you are used to helps you see your point of view and others differently. When you create a storyboard for your blog or posts it can help you anticipate criticisms that others may have and help you refute other points of view within each post in an efficient way.

Remember, your storyboard doesn’t have to be stick figure drawings relating to your posts, it can simply be a visual resource to direct your blog. This can consist of something as simple as a flowchart. As long as you have a changeable visual element directing your blog you will have better control, clearer communication and more consistency.

Facebook is the currently the darling of all social media sites. Now that MySpace has been branded “low-class,” Facebook has surged in popularity, and the member status updates help the site function like one big conversation. But Facebook is not a tool to be used lightly. The status updates you post are little insights into your day and your mind, and posting the wrong one is just…wrong.  So here’s a helpful guide to assist you in avoiding annoying me…er…committing a Facebook faux pas.

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1. Never post about what you are eating for breakfast, snack, lunch, dinner, dessert or any other meal. Remember when your teacher caught you sneaking food during school and asked you if you had enough to share with the rest of the class? Well, she (or he) did that because it is rude to flaunt your tasty cookies, soups, meats, cheeses and other divine edibles in front of people who don’t have access to them. Some of you like to really rub our noses in your happy palate and upload a picture of your food—that is really taking it too far. I don’t know about you but, because of these updates, I spend about 90% of my day hungry for crap I can’t even get.

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2. Never post about the games you are playing. The other day, I was struck and saddened by a friend of mine who I assumed had been laid off. I assumed this because she posted a status update asking for laundry supplies. Fearing the worst, I was about to start a relief fund for her when a few hours later I saw she had updated her status to say, “Thanks” to all the members who had given her supplies and that now she needed help fighting the Russian Mafia. It took me a while to try and understand how my friend, who is an accountant, could have gone from reconciling columns of numbers to fighting the Russian mafia. As I reassessed my life, wondering how there could be so much I didn’t know about her, she posted another update that begged for help with, “a bunch of illegal transaction records” in New York. This was it. Now she’d gone too far. Over the course of 8 hours my friend had progressed from law-abiding accountant, to pauper, to Russian crime fighter, to New York crime-committer. It turns out she was actually posting these updates as part of some online Mafia game she was playing. Unbeknownst to her, I went on a massive emotional roller coaster over her game. Not cool. Not cool at all. If you are using Facebook for professional contacts, this type of update is even worse.

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3. Stop making everyone feel guilty. Just about everyone has some cause that really means something to them. Whether it’s prostate cancer, diabetes or curing Alzheimer’s there is probably a pre-written status update that you can paste into your page to show everyone how much you care. The problem with this pre-written message is that it always includes this manipulative, guilt-inducing clause to try and get your friends to post the same message — “93% won’t Copy and Paste this, will YOU make this your status for at least ……one hour?” Way to make them hate your cause, manipulator.

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4. Don’t talk about the underwear you are wearing… no matter what. One day this week, I was confused as I read my friends’ seemingly cryptic updates about colors. I spent the day reading updates like, “Purple with leather straps,” and “White with lace.” I thought everyone was just posting nonsensical color and material combinations until I found that some genius told women to post the color of their bra for breast cancer awareness. While this helped me better understand my mother’s brazen, “None! Let the puppies breath!” update, it did little to help me understand WHY people were doing it. After all, is there anyone who isn’t aware of breast cancer? And since there was no donation accompanying these updates, who exactly did they help?

Remember, your Facebook updates are supposed to be insights into your day that either friends or other professionals will enjoy reading. Talk about what’s going on in your life, what you are excited about, what you are concerned about, and what you are working on. They can be fun, funny and clever, deep and meaningful, or run-of-the-mill. Oh, and if your kids are on Facebook, never, ever, ever, ever talk about your underwear.