Small Business Blogging: Get your Blog Seen and Shared
Everyone struggles with writing blog posts. Everyone. Even bloggers. One simple way to get valuable content onto your blog is to partner with other bloggers and cross-post articles. That's why I asked Cath Beaton -- a website developer doing great things in Australia -- if she would let me add this great post to my blog. Click here to see the post in its original glory.
Having the ability to write an engaging blog post is one thing, but getting it seen is not as easy. Blogging, and your blogging strategy, are two elements that go hand in hand. Trust us; you can’t have one without the other.
Your blogging strategy might already include social media sharing, but there are some great tools (you may not be utilising), as well as social platforms, that can really boost your shares, visits and downloads – and the good news is, they are easy to join and implement! Here are our top 7 ways to get your blog seen and shared.
1) Start a conversation with your peers
When our clients get started with their first blog, they often underestimate how difficult it can be to get a conversation started. But here’s a little tip – the best way to get people talking about and on your blog, is to start building your presence on other peoples. Here’s a great article from Problogger outlining the how and why.
And, if you are up to the challenge, start bookmarking your fav blogs and join their conversations – perhaps they might join in on yours.
2) Add buttons & counters
Adding social media buttons to your blog has never been easier, especially if you’re using WordPress. Your social media icon widget is customisable so you can add the icons you want, while making it super easy for your readers to like, share, and tweet about your work. This is the fastest way to see your consumer audience grow.
If you’re so excited about this cool feature that you just can’t wait to add it to your blog, follow this link to get a list of 30 Best WordPress Social Sharing Plugins For 2015 and get your own media icons widget happening right now
3) SEO your images
Stats show that a blog without images, no matter how valuable the content, is far less engaging and much less likely to be shared than those with images. In fact, blogs and articles with images are 50% more likely to be shared. But it doesn’t end there, if you’re including images in your blog, optimising them by adding alternative text (alt text) to them using key words is a great way to increase SEO.
These 2 articles should set you right:
How to optimise your images for better SEO in WordPress
SEO Image optimisation
4) Get on LinkedIn
The idea behind this is to participate in a community where your audience already gathers. This is a place for professionals to share, grow and connect. By building a presence for your business on LinkedIn you have given yourself the power to create, attract and engage.
Additionally, joining LinkedIn groups can really expand your resources pool. It’s also a place to connect with like-minded people who will no doubt appreciate and share your writings. For small businesses and entrepreneurs in particular, here’s a list of 15 LinkedIn Groups Every Entrepreneur Should Belong To.
5) Don’t underestimate Google+ Community
Google+ community is designed for sharing and networking. Here you can find a community where you can share your work with your peers, and you can even create your very own community for your brand – allowing you to facilitate conversations while highlighting and drawing attention to your work. Here like-minded Google+ members can also provide you with direct feedback to help your business grow.
6) Share the love on Instagram and/or Pinterest
Here’s where you use images to tell a story, get arty, get typographical and all that jazz. Don’t be fooled, this is not just a place for selfies and hipsters. Rather, for many small businesses out there, now is a great time to jump on the Instagram bandwagon. This platform has now taken over Facebook in terms of engagement and marketing power, so don’t underestimate what this photo-based network can do for brand exposure.
Pinterest is also a fabulous way to gain traction for your blog. Combining branded graphics with direct links back to your wesite can increase the amount of people you reach. Make sure you use amazing imagery on all your blog posts and pin them to your boards with a description back to your site.
Here’s a great guide on how to make Pinterest marketing work for you and another one on making your pins count for eCommerce.
7) Get SEO friendly
Taking advantage of this massive traffic opportunity is of tremendous value to bloggers, and with search engines creating such an enormous opportunity for traffic, it’s a no brainer. Unfortunately for many, SEO sounds terrifying, but be assured, it’s not! SEO is infact very easy to incorporate into writing, and it doesn’t have to compromise your content.
If you’re starting at the beginning, this Beginners Guide to on-site SEO might be right up your alley.