Top 5 Ways to Promote Your Blog

After successfully writing and publishing an article on your site, it becomes time to promote what you wrote. Truly, the worst strategy any person or company can implement is to write an article and post it on their site, hoping that people will find it organically. Very rarely does this sort of strategy work. So how can you and I promote our blog post(s)? The answer is simple: There are five ways to promote your blog and increase traffic. First, however let’s talk about step number one: Link your blog to all social media sites One of the best ways to promote your blog is to link your blog to all of your Social Media profiles. Doing so increases the chances that one of the over 1.7 billion people social media users will click on the link to your site. Quick tip: If unsure which social media sites will be the most effective to use, check out Nick Patel’s article on Quicksprout.com. Repost content on social sites A social media site is all about adding value to your community. With that said, many people and companies make a crucial error. They only post their article once on all their social media sites. This is a big mistake and one that should be avoided. Instead, strategically repost content on your social media channels in order to generate more traffic to your article. Re-posting does not mean posting on all of your channels at the same time, as this will come off as spam to your readers. Instead, structure the headline and description according to the social platform you are using. Quick tip: In Guy Kawasaki’s newest book, The Art of Social Media Kawasaki illustrates that re-posting allows you the opportunity to figure out which strategies work and do not work. Guest Blog In Kissmetric’s post on guest blogging, they discuss how guest writing for another blog will increase links back to your site. In addition, guest blogging for another person’s website increases your value as an expert, brings you in touch with more people in your niche market, and allows you to subtly promote your own site. Utilize LinkedIn LinkedIn is a free online platform dedicated to professionals. They hold over one million groups that are relevant to almost every industry. By joining a relevant group, you can begin uploading your post onto LinkedIn. Doing so will allow you to connect your article with readers who will find it interesting. Be social Finally, the overall best way to promote your post is to be social. By social, I mean interacting with those in your social network on a continuing basis. This also means participating in the comment section of other blogs, and talking to as many people as possible both virtually and in person. The larger your social network is, the better you’ll be at promoting your future blog posts. The main focus is that once you meet someone new, you want to exchange emails. Building up your email list will allow you to reach out to a wide variety of people every time you post a new blog article. How to Promote Your Blog Overall, there are many ways to successfully promote your blog. A quick search on Google will yield millions of results, but the key to focus on is quality instead of quantity. This means to really focus on ways to connect with relevant readers, as it’s one thing to connect with a million readers who “bounce” from your website in the first five-seconds, but it’s another to reach a million readers who genuinely enjoy what you’re writing. In all, by following the five essential steps above, you’ll be able to reach a larger cluster of people and connect with a more relevant target audience. Additional resources for learning how to promote your blog: Hubspot’s Article Google Help  

3 Reasons You Should Be Telling A Story

If I asked, “What’s your brand,” How would you respond? Perhaps you’d look around your office smiling as you cheerfully talk about the products you sell or services you provide. Either way, neither response truly captures what your brand is. The true answer of “what your brand is” lies in the stories you tell. Storytelling is an art that separates you from all the other companies in the world. In all, it’s what makes your brand unique. Why storytelling is important Recent studies show numerous benefits of telling stories. One in particular illustrated that we use feelings rather than facts when evaluating brands. In turn, these feelings have shown greater influence on consumer loyalty than trust and other brand attributes. Companies like Nike and Apple understand that the quickest way to capture feelings is through storytelling. The stories great brands create help bond the consumer to the brand, and keep customers engaged. With that being said, here’s three reasons why you should be telling a story: A memorable brand With so much noise in the world, storytelling is essential for allowing your business to be remembered. If you want to create a memorable brand, avoid the urge to only discuss facts and figures. Our brains are not able capable of understanding logic or retaining facts for very long. Instead, people are wired to understand and remember stories. In fact, stories are the best tool for both persuasion and action, according to author Charles Larson. Audience Connection Storytelling brings life to your business and brand. Brands like Nike with their “Chase Your Greatness Campaign” bring life to a brand through feelings of inspiration and excitement. Likewise, campaigns like Dove’s and Apple’s keep us engaged and feeling as though they care and understand us. This translates into higher influence and motivation for your consumers, as stories have been shown to be powerful enough to change how you and I behave. In all, effective stories that feed off of emotion allow your consumer to join you in your journey, and create a deeper connection. Uniqueness The best way to separate yourself from your competitors is to focus on what makes your company different. Coca Cola separates themselves from other soda companies by telling stories of happiness. Campaigns such as their “What is Happiness?” campaign allow us to feel a sense of joy when we purchase a Coca Cola product over a different soda. In short, the stories you tell separate you from other brands and allow your consumer to feel an emotion when they buy from you. This connection you create through stories and experiences is what keeps consumers coming back. Sell your story, not your brand Business storytelling is not a supplement to your business; the stories you tell are your business. Storytelling is arguably the future of marketing. In fact, 80% of consumers want you to tell stories. The reason being is that it will be what your employees, clients, and consumers will all remember you and your company by. So next time when someone comes to you and asks, “What’s your brand?” Remember, the answer lies within the stories you tell.