Sometimes being practical is the key to offering sound and useful advice. At BroadSuite we seek to help companies be found, seen and heard online. In this guest post by Kenna Griffin a sizable dose of really valuable advice is delivered. What is even better is that it is simple to understand and easy to execute. If you aren’t familiar with her work as a professor, journalist and media communications thought leader, definitely check her out! So Kenna, thanks for the great contribution and I’ll let you take it from here…
Your blog is not a field of dreams. You can’t just build it and wait for the people to come. If you try that approach, my guess is that you’re going to be waiting for a long time with little or no results.
Part of the job of having a blog is to promote its content. Unfortunately, there’s no magic method of blog promotion that guarantees any post you write will go viral. There are, however, many different forms of promotion you can mix and match to ensure your blog posts are read. You may even identify the right mixture of promotional tools to generate a satisfying readership level.
Here are 17 tips for successful blog promotion:
1. Write good content
Quality content is your blog’s best promotion. It doesn’t matter how well you promote your blog if readers don’t find what they want or need when they visit the site.
For more about blog content, read The Four-Part Formula for Blog Writing and 26 Types of Blog Posts and 8 tips for Writing List Posts.
2. Write amazing titles
The title determines whether the reader even clicks on a blog post. Without a great title, your promotions will fall flat because the title typically is used to promote the post.
For more about writing blog titles, read 23 Tips for Writing Click Worthy Blog Titles.
3. Stick to a schedule
It doesn’t matter how much you write, as long as you’re consistent. My advice is to start with a single day of the week. Once you keep that schedule consistently, you can build from there.
4. Include your blog URL
Include your blog URL everywhere you can, including in your email auto signature, on your business cards and in your social media profiles.
5. Write guest posts
Posting for other successful bloggers will grow your traffic by sending links back to your site and building your professional reputation.
6. Comment on other blogs
Comment on other blogs, adding intelligently to the conversation in a way that builds your professional reputation. Use the bloggers’ commenting systems, which typically link back to your most recent posts.
7. Use social
Promote your posts on social media. Consider what social medium works best for the type of content you’re posting and is most attractive to your audience.
8. Use bookmarking sites
Add your content to bookmarking sites like Technorati, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit.
9. Remember older posts
Write content that will serve you long term. Don’t forget to promote evergreen posts.
10. Make posts sharable
People like sharing information that resonates with them, but they want it to be easy to do so. Make sure simple sharing buttons are displayed prominently on your site.
11. Allow email subscriptions
Add a method of subscribing to your blog via email, then promote those occasionally via social media.
12. Use links
Internal and external links build your search ranking and, perhaps more importantly, draw attention to your posts from the bloggers to whom you link. Be sure to link to bloggers who add to your site’s credibility and professionalism.
For more about linking, read Link Building Best Practices for Journalists and Bloggers.
13. Name drop
Raise your hand if you would read a post that you know mentions you? Exactly! It’s a guaranteed reader. If you mention someone in a post, let him or her know. I usually tag the person in a tweet.
14. Shorten URLs
Shortening your URL encourages sharing by leaving more room for commenting and context on social mediums with word limits.
15. Provide an RSS Feed
This allows your audience to include your site in their regular reading list.
16. Engage
Engage with others who share your interests. This results in you sharing one another’s content.
The most important tip I can give you about blog promotion is:
17. Be patient
Community building takes time and work. It’s unlikely that your blog will have a huge following overnight. Most don’t, but if you are persistent and work to build your audience, the readership you desire will come.
What are you tips for blog promotion? What works for you?
Daniel Newman is the co-founder of V3*Broadsuite and is an experienced C-level executive, serving as a strategy consultant for small and mid-sized businesses. He’s also an insight/analyst partner to four Fortune 50 enterprises and previously served as the co-founder and CEO of EC3, a hosted IT and communications services provider. Prior to that, he served as the CEO of United Visual, Inc. in Chicago Illinois.
He is a widely published writer who contributes weekly to Forbes, Entrepreneur, Huffington Post and industry publications such as Commercial Integrator, Sound & Communication and Corporate Tech Decisions. He’s also author of three best-selling business books including The New Rules of Customer Engagement, The Millennial CEO, and just recently Evolve: Marketing (^as we know it) is Doomed.
Daniel has established a reputation as a leading thinker in topics such as Social, Big Data, Cloud and Mobile. He has been named to many top influencer lists in all of these areas, including recognition by the Huffington Post as one of the 100 business and leadership accounts to follow on Twitter. He is also an adjunct professor of management at North Central College.
