Have your own voice – your own stamp on the world is one of the most important things any business owner can do to differentiate themselves.
Wondering why you feel like you are spinning your wheels with Facebook? If so, one of the number one questions I ask is, “what type of content are you creating?”
Created content – whether it is a written or video blog is one of the best things a business and a brand can do to tell the story of their brand, to showcase the culture of the company and to connect with their audience.
However, blogs don’t come with built-in audiences. Once you start creating content you may wonder, “is anyone reading this?” And often, for most people starting off in blogging it can feel that way.
So how do you get people to read and share your content?
Here are a few things that make a huge difference in getting more traction with your blog.
- Get aggressive with Twitter. Twitter moves fast. What you post today is often forgotten (or not seen) tomorrow. Tweet each of your blog posts multiple times. Use a tool like HootSuite to schedule them over the course of a few days or weeks depending on the topic.
- Make sure people aren’t leaving your site unnecessarily. Set all links to “open in a new window” so that visitors won’t have to leave your site to view them.
- The Amazon ‘trick’. Another way to keep readers on your site is to end each post with something to the effect of “See additional posts like this” and then include two to three links of other relevant blog posts on your site.
- Ask for the share. If you have highlighted people or businesses within your blog post, make sure to email the link to them and ask them to share it with their network. This is especially key if you are interviewing someone on your blog!
- Divide and conquer. If it’s appropriate, you may consider breaking up one large chunk of information into several posts, grouping relevant information together in each.
- Advertise. Posts that are specific to a particular audience group are ideal to run as ads on Facebook. These are not boosted posts, but rather Facebook ads that run in the Newsfeed on Desktop and Mobile sites as well as on the right-hand side of Facebook and on Facebook’s partner mobile sites.
- Call to action. Finally, seasonal posts are timely and can really boost your audience. You might consider adding a call to action at the end of the blog post – perhaps “post a picture of your Thanksgiving meal on my Facebook page for the chance to win a Starbucks card” or something to that effect.
While creating a vibrant blog community requires a little investment of time and creativity, it’ll be worth it when you see it paying off!
Additional sources that may be relevant to you: (See what I did? Re-read #3 above if you missed it) 🙂
- Top 10 content curation resources
- Top ways to optimize your blog on LinkedIn
- 5 quick and easy blog ideas
Are you a blogger? I’d love to see your blog – post a link to it below or or my Facebook Page here!
P.S. If you’d like a free copy of my content grid to help jump-start your content strategy, make sure you’ve signed up to be on my email list!
