Writing blog is not the difficult part in blogging, but rather getting viewers is. Writing hundreds of blog posts but not attracting any viewers is mere waste of time. The viewership of blogs determines the popularity of the page and in turn the website. With social media platforms it has become easier to connect with people having similar thoughts. Few tips that will help in gaining new readers are given below:
Blog content or the URL of the blog post can be shared in the Facebook status or can be embedded on the profile wall. It is also possible to create a fan page for the blog and continue to update the same. The blog URL can be directly posted on the friend’s Facebook profile wall to keep them updated on new posts. When a write-up about other brands is posted, it is better to tag them in the post. Creating a Like button on the blog post is also essential to allow viewers to share the URL, influencing other facebook users to follow. It is also required to tell readers to click on the button if they find the content impressive. Further, apart from posting the URL on follower’s walls a lot of other things can be done to connect with followers like creating discussion boards, communities and so on.
The title and link of the blog post can be tweeted along with some relevant hash tags on the twitter profile page. Hash tag is useful in the profile page being displayed in twitter search result made by other tweeters. When the tweets are completed, it is good to do a quick search on the keyword to find others who are speaking on the same theme. Looking for questions on the same subject and trying to be the first person to answer can help in diverting traffic to your blog. Finding out people interested in conversation might help in growing the traffic.
Google+
The traditional way to start promoting is to place the URL of the blog posts in the profile. It supports the same functionality as Twitter to add hash tags to the posts. By searching for other authors who are discussing on the same topic and mentioning them in the tags will be beneficial. Their posts can be quoted in the tags as inspirational material. This information might attract the readers to visit the blog to go through the information.
The URL of the blog post can be updated in the LinkedIn account and the same can be added in the publication tab. Based on interest the prospective readers, employers and employees will go through the link. It is good to install BlogLink application tool in the account.
Online Communities
Searching and connecting with online communities having similar interests is good. The blog posts must not be blatantly promotional and rather, must engage with the rest of the communities. Otherwise, the blog will be categorized as a spam.
Email is still being used as a popular way to send information. By creating an e-newsletter or adding a self-updating RSS feed (like wise stamp) to the email signature is good to keep people interested in the blog updates. Alternatively, it is also possible to offer subscriptions via email on the blog.
Triberr was created specifically for bloggers to promote each other. Bloggers use it by creating tribes of fellow bloggers who are writing for a similar niche audience. The tribe members provide Triberr with access to their Twitter account and an RSS feed URL for their blog. The site creates a stream of formatted tweets promoting all tribe members blog posts that, upon approval by each member, are scheduled for posting on their Twitter account. The posts are staggered no less than one hour apart.
Pinterest is a social sharing network website that allows a user to collect and share images, links in a bulletin board format. The links can be collected on visually pleasing boards, which the user can categorize based on interest and liking. Pinterest only works as an image-based link sharing tool and hence, images posted on the blog can be used here.
The most important part of the social media marketing campaign is strategy, and it is good to remember that all social media users are hyper-sensitive to sales and marketing. By engaging users in a one to one manner, and striving to bring value regardless of whether doing so seems to directly benefit the brand or not will help in being authentic. Tricks and active sales will be counter-productive and if the trust can be developed with users, they will welcome the brand into their communities.
Compiled by Abhilash Cherian, Senior Research Analyst (Social Media) with DART.
