Blogging That Works!
There’s so much talk about blogging, what you should do, must do and never do – who can a wanna-be-blogger believe? We tackled this topic this week on Marketing Chat. My first guest, Doc Robyn has a written blog and a video blog. Her main reason for blogging is to help bring in new business. The blogs allow prospective clients to get closer and learn more about her, and the video blog lets them get a sample of her speaking style. Her video blogs are just two minutes long (nothing intimidating about 120 seconds, right?). How does she decide what to write about? She uses friends, family, the news and her clients as her guide, pulling topics from this collective pool.
My second guest, Steve Royek is a professor of journalism and marketing expert, who teaches his students at Burlington County College how to blog. Here’s some basic things you should know:
1. Keep it Professional. Maintain a professional look and appearance, just as you would any other written piece that represents you or your business.
2. The 3 C’s. The three C’s of blog writing:
be correct – have truthful content;
be consistent – use the same voice, and blog on a regular basis
be comprehensive – make your blog worth reading
3. Love Your Topic. Choose a topic that you are passionate about; remember, you’ll be writing about it alot! And if you love it, it will show in your work, and others will pick up on that.
4. Remember the SEO. Make sure your blog post includes keywords that people may use to find your topic – and weave them throughout your post. Google and the other search engines really like this, and you will get higher SEO rankings because of it.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a true post of mine if I didn’t include a few things to NOT do in your blog:
1. Starting A Blog for the Wrong Reasons. Don’t expect to make money anytime soon – or ever for that matter. Do it because you love it.
2. Fail to Introduce Yourself. If someone is visiting your blog and they like what they are reading, they are going to want to learn more about you. Let them know: who you are, what your blog is about, why you are qualified to talk about this topic, and what to expect.
3. Copying Old News
4. Talking to Yourself. A blog is a two-way conversation. There needs to be a comment section.
5. Posting When You Feel Like It. Readers who like you want to know what they can expect – so whether you are a daily, weekly or monthly blogger, choose a schedule and stick with it.
6. Expect the Audience to Come to You. The hardest part is getting followers to notice you. A great way to promote yourself is to find other blogs in your niche and leave comments on them.
7. Underestimating/Overestimating the Importance of SEO. Look at the blogs that are making money, and you’ll see they’re using SEO. So if you ignore using SEO tactics, you’re going to be behind all the others pretty quickly. On the contrary, there are bloggers who pay no mind to SEO, they just write the way they choose – and may be on top for a short period too – but as Google changes their SEO rules, you might be on page 3 tomorrow. So a compromise is in order – optimize your blog for Google, but write for your readers.
Many thanks to my guests and blogs that contributed to this show. Remember, if you like what you’re reading, join me on LinkedIn where you can get blog notifications each week (mine is a weekly post!) or sign up for my e-newsletter (bi-monthly!)
To hear this segment in its entirety, go to: Marketing Chat with Nancy Sipera, Blogging That Works!
Sources:
www.socialmediarevolver.com
Doc Robyn’s Blog, Stop the Drama Now
Steve Royek & Associates
