The heart and soul of social media and the foundation for influential business marketing is blogging. Don’t have a blog yet? Then you’re missing out on your chance to leave your indelible footprint in digital space. A blog is your company’s media channel where your brand is created, expanded upon and recreated. Every other form of social media points to a blog post somewhere. Here’s what you need to do to launch a blog that inspires conversations, comments, and followers:
Compelling content is just the beginning.
And, it’s no easy task. The creation of compelling content requires the art of writing and the art of SEO (more about SEO in the next paragraph). People talk about, subscribe to, comment on, and read blogs that offer useful, compelling content. Think about when you enjoy reading and when you don’t. A professional blog content writer pulls rather than pushes the reader. Her writing style entrances the brain, piques curiosity, and draws the reader into the story. This is what you need your blog posts to do – to pull not push – so your readers willingly learn more about your business. Not everyone is a gifted writer who knows how to create compelling content. Nevertheless; every business needs a great blog which is why hiring someone who diligently practices the art of writing is one of the best marketing investments a business can make. Whether you write your own posts or hire someone to help you, compelling content is a non-negotiable ingredient in every successful blog recipe.
Marketing and SEO are required!
SEO is actually part of marketing and now a required skill for all marketers. SEO stands for search engine optimization. When it comes to blogging, using good SEO strategies result in a blog post that is attractive to the search engines. How is this done? Your blog content writer must be adept at the creative integration of keywords and phrases into your blog article and title. Competent and creative use of CMS options further allow the writer to tag and optimize your posts. In order for your blog post to be found in search by your demographic, this creative use of keywords and phrases must be directed to the long tail. After a blog post is written, it must be seeded or shared so that it generates backlinks. These backlinks improve your blog’s rank making it even more visible to your demographic. When hiring a blog content provider, remember, a qualified candidate is a gifted writer who integrates sound SEO practices into compelling content, maximizes the SEO options on your blog platform, and uses social media conversations to seed/share the content she creates for you. Expect to pay at least $75 an hour for this kind of expertise.
Don’t blog on someone else’s platform.
You need to hire a professional to set up your blog rather than participate in Blogger or other blogging platforms. Why? Because all of those coveted keywords and phrases your demographic uses to search for what you write about will be associated with Blogger (or the other platforms) instead of you and your business. Poor SEO for you, good SEO for them. Another tip: If your blog is part of your business web site, use a subdomain that reads like: blog-name.YourWebsite.com.
Blog set-up makes a difference.
Too often Central PA and MD clients come to me lamenting their blog posts get no pageviews, receive no comments, and are not showing up in search. Often, this is because their blog was not set-up properly. They had a friend set-up their blog at a discount. Their brother’s sister in law just started a social media marketing business. Competent, professional blog set-up requires a seasoned professional whose own business blog is successful. Your blog set-up matters. It determines how well you will be found in search, how secure your blog is, and how others may share your posts. Use common sense when hiring your blog design company. If their blog gets the kind of results you want to see on yours, then you know who to hire.
Extend Your Brand.
Extending your visual brand in your blog design is a no brainer; the hard part is finding a designer capable of pulling your print and web brand into a CMS like WordPress. Great blog design creatively extends your brand generating interest and labeling your blog as top notch. It’s your design which makes the first impression. Make sure your design is creative, professional, and extends your brand by hiring a professional blog designer when you’re ready for a successful blog.
More about the author
Catherine Lockey, successful business blogger for Cyclone Marketing, is now accepting a limited number of blog content creation customers. Hiring Catherine Lockey to blog for your business means:
- Your blog posts are professionally written for you and published in your name.
- Your blog posts are filled with compelling content combined with sound SEO strategies maximizing your exposure on the internet.
- Your blog post will support a marketing campaign using a creative call to action and leverage social media to market that call to action.
- You receive a list of suggested changes to be made to your blog platform to maximize your blog’s SEO.
- You receive analytic data about each post so you see your return on investment (ROI).
- Your blog posts are seeded/shared with your and Catherine Lockey’s social media networks.
If you would like to be one of the select few to contract Catherine Lockey to blog for you, email her at cl@oz2designs.com.
great post! thank you for all of this info.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Surly E, oz2designs. oz2designs said: Blogging for Business: How to Create Your Own Media Channel http://bit.ly/bSHhVZ via @AddToAny [...]
Thanks for updating me on Social Media terms and explanations I can follow!
Great article. I plan to follow your suggestions. I’m in the process of developing content and strategies now.
Hi Catherine, that for providing a great post. We actually have our blog ( http://www.360womenshealth.com)on a different server and under a different name then our website ( http://www.360menopause.com ) which has proven to be helpful when linking back to the main site. As you stated using your keywords with hyperlinks is also great. Also, interviewing experts in the field and having them link back to you is another idea. Thanks
Thanks for an informative and timely post Catherine. There is no doubt that blogging has proven to be advantageous for our business. Looking forward to your next post.
Thanks for the information. Happy 4th.
I couldn’t agree more about blogging on someone else’s platform. To me, it’s a huge missed opportunity to build your own brand. Seeing somone hosting with blogger.com or wordpress.com irks me almost as much as when I see someone who owns their own domain name and then sends email using something like AOL or Yahoo!
Thanks for the tips. I just moved from Blogger to WordPress. I have a love/hate relationship going with my blog and host right now.
Now that I’ve been with WordPress for a few days, I’m really enjoying the differences. Blogging on my own platform is so much better.
I’m so glad this post is a help to so many people. Blogging truly is a multifaceted art form as well as a the alpha of internet marketing tools. Blog on!
[...] A search engine optimized blog is a marketing essential. Blogging is the number one – yes – number one way to get found on Google and drive traff… Google loves blogs because they are fresh and filled with links. Your blog is not just a repeat [...]
[...] A search engine optimized blog is a marketing essential. Blogging is the number one – yes – number one way to get found on Google and drive traffic to yo… Google loves blogs because they are fresh and filled with links. Your blog is not just a repeat [...]
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