Social Media Basics. Blog at Your Own Risk or Benefit—It’s Your Choice.
Posted on 26 July 2011 - 08:40 PM by Navigation Advertising | (0) Comments
When embarking on a Social Media Campaign one of our first recommendations is a strong blogging campaign. Many of our clients are intimidated at the prospect of setting up a blogging campaign, but with just a few easy rules and principles we take the intimidation factor out of blogging and help them improve their web traffic, goodwill and awareness.
BLOGGING. In the next few paragraphs we hope to provide helpful information to those of you that are considering blogging or may have started and given up so that you blog and blog often. Blogging is simply posting your thoughts, feeling, insights, perceptions or demands online in an official “blog”. The term “blog” is derived from combing the two words “web” and “log”. There are over 156 million individual blogs in existence around the world with subjects ranging from baking to political activism. Some folks also include graphics, pictures, illustrations, audio files and video files. Why are blogs vital to good Search Engine Optimization? The main reason is that search engines such as Google seek to display websites that contain fresh, relevant content and blogs are tailor made for presenting new, relevant content to a website’s audience.
RULES AND PRINCIPLES. Why the intimidation factor? Sometimes it’s because someone believes they can’t come up with enough content, sometimes they believe they’ll develop too much or sometimes they are simply intimidated by exposing themselves to the world in a published venue. Whatever the intimidation factor may be, we always encourage our clients to follow a few simple rules when blogging.
1. Use the five W’s format, i.e., write about who, what, when, where and why.
2. Structure your blog by telling them what you are going to tell them in the intro, tell them in the body copy, then tell them again in the summary. This writing structure makes sure your audience gets it and it doesn’t let you chase rabbit trails.
3. Keep it simple. Start with simple bullet points then go back and fill in the content.
4. Make sure your blog asks questions which often prompts readers to react rather than just read. Engage them with hypothetical situations, not just a rhetoric.
5. Provide helpful info which creates goodwill and will causes the reader to not just return but refer others. This info can be directly related to your business or cause or it can simply be helpful information about events, the weather or advice.
6. Blog often—at least once a month and preferably several times a month. We’re guilty of failing to blog as often as we should due to work load, but that’s to our own detriment and we pledge to blog more often.
7. And lastly, be careful not to commit slander, libel or say something you’d be ashamed to tell your mother. While a little controversy never hurt anyone, always remember people are watching and we all must remember to be smart when blogging.
KEYWORDS. Now, since we’ve discussed a few blogging rules and principles let’s talk about the most important aspect of blogging in relation to growing your business. Keyword rich content is vital to your blogs success. That is, add in keywords that you believe the type of person you want to attract to your blog will search for in a search engine such as Google. For instance if I own an air conditioning repair company in Murfreesboro, TN it would make sense for me to use words such as “Murfreesboro”, “air conditioning”, “repair”, “service”, “Tennessee”, “Rutherford County”, “HVAC”, etc., because it’s very likely that someone in need of a air conditioning repair in mid-July in Murfreesboro, TN will use words such as “air conditioning repair murfreeesboro, tn”
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER. What are some of the subjects you could blog about that would be helpful to your targeted audience or would drive search engine traffic to your website? How often do you read blogs? Would you like more traffic on your website without paying for expensive tv commercials or newspaper ads?
SUMMARY. Blogging is fun, fruitful and often free. If you’re intimidated by blogging we can help get your started or we can build, maintain and update your blog for you. Call or email us to discuss the process of building a successful social media campaign for your company or cause.