Part of running an effective business marketing campaign on social media is creating content that gets read and shared.
Isn’t that right?
This extends beyond your basic posts; you also need to offer a blog for your audience to delve deeper into your brand.
Just having a blog is not enough, however; you need to also know how to get traffic to your blog and make it happen.
Why have a business blog?
Ideally published on your website, a blog is simply an easy-to-use tool for connecting with your customers and fans, allowing you to directly share timely and relevant information that relates to your brand, business, product or industry. It is among the most valuable of engagement tools between a business and consumers.
FAST FACT: According to a survey by HubSpot, 60 per cent of businesses that regularly post a blog acquire more active, paying customers by doing so.
It provides the perfect content for sharing on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and via email marketing newsletters. Furthermore, a blog provides fuel for SEO purposes and gets your business website noticed by search engines for the right reasons, and hence seen by internet users.
Most importantly, blogging helps give a voice to your business. It provides a platform for talking about news, market trends, coming attractions, and events.
You can inform, interest, and captivate your audience via your blog and turn more people onto your brand.
You can share your niche expertise and show yourself to be an authority in your area of business.
This increases consumer trust in your business and your brand, and impacts positively on customer loyalty and lead generation.
Your blog also keeps you accountable. By knowing that you need to provide fresh, unique content on a weekly, fortnightly, or monthly basis, you will be more focused on your content marketing, your social posts, your target audience, and, if you do it right, you’ll be forced to do some research of your own – so you learn while you are informing your audience.
It’s a win-win situation!
How to get traffic to your blog
So you are publishing a blog for your business. It will preferably be located on your business webpage, easy to find from your main menu.
You have worked hard know your content is good – but how do you get it seen? And better yet, shared?
Social media was made for this very purpose.
There is no better forum for sharing your blog than via your social media profiles, and when things work according to plan, your articles won’t just be read (and enjoyed) and shared by others; it will also generate clicks back to your website.
First and foremost, you need to look at the content of your blog. Is it unique? Does it offer real value? Is it a helpful resource? Is it interesting and informative?
Is it all about you?
A gentle warning: If it is all about you, you might find yourself in trouble. There is no place for ego and self-serving in a blog you wish to see grow – you need to make it primarily about your audience, not yourself.
Absolutely share your personal experiences where appropriate, but don’t be too “me me me” – your audience will become weary of this very quickly.
You need to see your blog as a tool to provide a resource to others, not a stage for self promotion.
When you get the message you’re delivering just right, then make use of your social profiles to share it – with a snippet and a clickable link directly back to your blog page on your website.
Include links in the copy to relevant landing pages on your website. Invite your audience to like, comment, and share if they enjoy it or find it useful.
13 top tips for a sharable blog and high traffic
- Share your blog more than once. Unless it’s content that relates to a particular “upcoming” event, you can share your blog numerous times – in a week, a month, and again a few months later.
It’s the social content gift that keeps giving! Your traffic can double or triple (or more) simply based on this practice. Just don’t bombard audiences too often with the same article – and present it slightly differently each time you share it.
- Target your content. You need to provide targeted blog content to audiences who are most likely to share it. Include high quality images (always cite sources), infographics, and a range of types of posts to provide ongoing interest and keep your audience wanting more (but not necessarily always anticipating exactly what to expect).
- Write what you know. Find your own voice. Write what you are passionate about. Write what you are willing to research. Write what you would want to read.
- Consider sharing blog content from other bloggers – and partner with them to have them share your content in kind. This obviously won’t be your direct competitors, but people in an industry or in a business that complements yours without directly competing with it.
- Consider SEO when writing your blog. Include relevant target keywords (if you have an active SEO campaign, use the keywords your SEO team is targeting) but be careful of keyword stuffing. Include metas (title, description, and keywords/tag) when you upload your blog for publication.
- Provide great overall content on social media – with no more than twenty to thirty percent of your posts being direct marketing. Great content will keep followers and they will be more inclined to click to read your blog, and even explore your website to discover more. Take inspiration from others – just remember to ensure every single blog article you write is one hundred percent unique and not plagiarised in any way. (Use a tool like Copyscape to check for plagiarism).
- Check every single article … for punctuation, grammar, and syntax before you publish it. Your blog represents your brand identity – make sure it is compliant with this and that the writing is high in quality.
- Post consistently – whether it is weekly, fortnightly, or monthly, you need to be a consistent presence. Think of topics ahead of time and spend plenty of time planning what you are going to write.
- Be willing … to accept guest posts from other bloggers and be available to guest blog on others’ sites.
- Interact with commenters. Not only on your blog and on its share posts.
- Enable email and newsfeed subscriptions. This is super important!
- Poll your audience – what do they want to hear about from you?
- Don’t forget to share your posts on social media! Also promote it on your homepage and your email signature.
If you find it difficult to create blog posts, come up with topics or material, or writing is not your forte, all is not lost!
You can outsource your blog writing. There are plenty of great writers out there – you just need to find the right fit for your content material and your target audience.
Yes, you will need to pay for it and the better writers will cost more than others, but look at your blog as an investment in your business and its future growth. Great blog posts will be valued, read, and re-shared, sometimes for years into the future.
Your blog is a marketing investment that is incredibly cost effective.
Posts are, in general, long term assets for your business which build brand awareness, promote your products and services, and showcase your expertise.
It is also very inspiring as a business owner to create and deliver a blog – and once you start, inspiration will come from many unexpected places!
You just need to make sure your hard work is not in vain – so do what you need to do to make sure your blog is seen and shared on social media.
Why not tell your story on LinkedIn … it’s our favourite social media platform because we know how good the return on investment is for your time and energy.
Have you heard about our 4-week LinkedIn course? It’s free!
Not only do we share a bunch of valuable, relative and useful info on our blogs, but we’ve got a free LinkedIn eCourse to help you get the most out of this platform especially for B2B enterprises.
If LinkedIn is your preferred social media channel, take a look at this course to raise your profile, generate leads and boost your business – so LinkedIn can start working for you.
