Tag : blogging

It Takes a Village to Raise a Blog

6May

Like many businesses, you have been trying your hand at social media.  You have been building your LIKES on Facebook, your connections on LinkedIn and your Followers on Pinterest and Twitter.  You have been putting out updates on a regular basis: either quotes, statements, sharing pictures or video, or sharing articles that you think your audience would enjoy.  Sounds like a great strategy, right?

But why aren’t more people coming to your website?

You have been doing everything right.  You have been engaging, you have been getting liked, followed, commented and Retweeted.

But why aren’t more people coming to the site?

Because you are not directing them to your original content, written and posted by you, on your own website!

Social media marketing gives you the prime opportunity to not only brand yourself as an expert and generate more visibility for your brand in less time than many other marketing channels, but it also enables you to influence the buying decision of your consumers.

What your potential customers are looking for on social media are helpful hints that will help to enhance their professional and personal lives.  Who knows how to do this better than you?  Your business fits a need and your expert opinion will help satiate this in your potential and current customer base.

And this brings me to the power of blogs and why you need to have one.

Your blog will contain information pertinent to your business and address topics that are related and of interest to your target market.  For example, if you are an assisted living facility, your blog could be focused around topics that would interest the person searching for a facility such as yours.  You can obviously write about upcoming events and announcements, but go a bit further.  Write about aging topics such as dementia and caregiving.  Write about healthy food choices for seniors.

Are you a tax attorney?  Write about new tax laws and how they affect your target client.  Write about how a family of four can easily manage their monthly budget.  Write about investment opportunities that people can explore.

I think you get my drift.

Now, write an update on social media and share the link to this article.  And…don’t do it just once.  Share the article every so often.  Ask your connections to share the article.

Now you may say “OK, I’ve done one….but where’s the traffic?”

Unfortunately posting and sharing one blog is NOT a strategy.  You have to regularly write, post and share these.   If you are looking for a strong content marketing strategy, I suggest writing at least one blog a day or 4-5 per week.

Immediately I’m sure this turns off many businesses.  But the plain fact is that there is enough content within your industry to generate meaningful posts on a regular basis.  Also, imagine the SEO implications of having keyword packed content being added to your website almost daily.  This is a HUGE powerhouse and a wonderful value of having regular blogs done.

The second turn off I’m sure is double barreled: “I don’t know where to start and am not that strong of a writer.”

With every problem there is a solution.  If the water main broke in your building, would you fix it?  If there were more sales orders coming in than you could handle, wouldn’t you hire support staff?

If the design of the blog and the writing are out of your wheel house, find someone to help you get the ball rolling.  There are designers and copywriters out there that can get right down to the brass tax of your message and formulate blogs seemingly overnight.

Next objection: but no one knows my business like me.

True.  But think about how many books out there, best-sellers, are nearly written 90%-100% without the “author” being involved.  This is the skill of a solid copywriter with experience.

My point is that if you are trying to make the most out of your social media campaign, a blog is really the cornerstone of success.  Beyond social, it is also a powerhouse when trying to enhance the SEO capabilities of your website.

If this is out of your area of expertise, talk with someone who has experience with blogging and writing.  They will be able to point you in the right direction.  The bottom line is that sometimes it takes a village to raise a blog.

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Are You Tired of Trying to Figure Out What a Blog Tour Is? If So…You’ll Love This

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1Jan

In the online marketing arena, my peers and I tend to get sucked into using lingo that can sometimes be a bit too “exclusive”. Much like other industries where the terminology can not only be off-putting, but can cut you right out of the conversation, the online community can be a bit tricky sometimes to navigate.

For me, I really hate it. I think there is nothing worse than reading an article with the goal of getting actionable tips….and then finding yourself Googling ten of the terms in the article in order to make sense of it? Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve been guilty of this in the past as well. That’s why I try to be as clear and to the point as possible. Our time is precious, so let’s just get to it, right?

This brings me to “Blog Tours”. I’ve seen this broadcasted far and wide, but never really saw an explanation that I thought hit the nail on the head.

Basically, toss the “cool” terminology out the window and think of this as a “blog comment” strategy. I’m sure you have gone onto a blog (or even a website) and read an article that at the end allows you to put in your comments. A simple idea, but it packs a punch!

Commenting on blogs is a wonderful way to build more links to your online point of sale, or your company website. In terms of SEO (search engine optimization) – it is definitely a golden child.

But how do you do this? Here’s my rules of blog commenting:

If you are using blog commenting for SEO purposes, before you even take time to read the article, scroll to the bottom of the page to make sure that there is a place for you to key in your website when you comment. If this is not here….there is no way to link you (unless you register to the blog or community which can be time consuming).

If you have to comment via Facebook, it will not pack the SEO punch that you are looking for.  Again, having a spot to key in your website is the best option.

Once you’ve decided to comment on a post, first read the full article to see that it’s message is in line with your brand. You can disagree, but make sure that your comment is not vulgar in any way.

Think of the next three ideas as a “compliment sandwich”. Begin your comment by agreeing with a few points made in the author’s article.

The second part of your comment (the ‘meat’ of your activity here) should be you sharing your expertise. If you agree with the whole article, maybe share a quick story of something that has happened to you in this arena.

Round off your comment with a note of thanks for the article or something similar.  ou don’t want to sound too canned, so make sure to make it personal.

Then after you post your comment (or sometimes before) there is a button you can push to have all future comments sent to you via email. Click this, as you want to see how people react to your comment as well as have the opportunity to jump back in if needed.

It’s that simple. I suggest to help you FIND these blogs (which is the most time-consuming effort), use a site like StumbleUpon, Zite, Scoop.it, Trap.it, AOL Editions, or even Google Currents to find random blogs within your company’s niche category. This site is easy to use and very straightforward. You can also use sites such as Alltop or even a simple Google search for keywords.

My final piece of advice is to make sure you do this on a consistent basis. If you comment on one blog a month, the SEO impact will be non-existent. I say shoot for two comments a day and keep up with it. After a week you will get in the groove and it will become second nature. Also there is a wonderful side-effect that I’ve found in searching around the web – you might learn something new!

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