Beginning of Wisdom

Dear BoW members,

Each of you have your own reasons for blogging on BoW. For those who blog in an effort to change people’s lives, I offer you some information I compiled from a video I discovered. I hope it’s of value to you!

These are “best practice” tips. Depending on the level of effort you’re able and willing to devote to blogging as a ministry, you may select just a handful of these to actually implement. The main point is that while blog discovery is a great feature of BoW, I wanted to arm you with tips and tactics for actively generating your own community of readers to your BoW blog.

You can watch the video here: http://wordpress.tv/2012/08/21/laura-kimball-how-to-promote-your-blog/

Assumptions:

• You manage a blog
• You want people to read your blog
• You know that it will take some work to get results
• You do not believe that if you build it, they will come
• You’ve written a blog post (or a few) and asked, “Now what?”

Blog Marketing Secrets

1. Be a real person, not a robot
2. No one knows your blog exists if you don’t tell them about it
3. Social media is a useless channel for promotion if you don’t invest time into it
4. The fastest way to a blogger’s heart is through their own blog
5. Be a blogger, not a player

Network!

General

• Your blog is your home base
• Build up a presence on social media channels to drive people to your blog
• Starting from scratch with social media:
• First
  • Choose 2 or 3 networks to focus on creating a “brand-like” presence for your blog (top 2 are Twitter and Facebook; runners up are Tumblr, Pinterest, Reddit)
  • Find 5 bloggers who are similar to you and study how they use those networks; learn best practices
• Then:
• Build your followers by following other users
• Talk to them (comment on their blog)
• Post regularly
• Share content that will appeal to your audience and is similar to what you write about
• Keep title under 120 characters
• Be visual – include an image in every post

Twitter

• Use a URL shortener (bitly.com is good) – allows you to track clicks!
• Tweet announce your blog post when you publish it (include your bitly-shortened URL)
• “The best blog post you’ll ever read http://bit.ly/Qrlhds”
• Tweet again later in the day with a different intro
• Have you read the best blog post in the world? http://bit.ly/Qrlhds
• (optional) Tweet a third time a few days later
• In case you missed it, here’s the best blog post in the world: http://bit.ly/Qrlhds
• Do not tweet about your post every hour for 8 hours straight
• 90% of your time on Twitter should be sharing links to other blogs, retweeting (RT) other users, building your following, having conversations
• If you mention someone in your post, tell them about it – they may share it!

Facebook

• Create a Facebook Page for your blog
• Share the post you made on your Blog’s Facebook Page or share a shortened link
• Give a more personal intro (appeal to the heart)
• Share on your personal Facebook (your friends are your biggest promoters)
• Share content from others that fits with your blog’s brand

Tumbler

• Good for you if:
• You use images in your blog posts
• You fall in love with Tumblr and post content on a regular basis
• You build a following
• Upload a photo: the blog post’s image
• Set click-through link to your blog (long link)
• Copy and paste the first paragraph or two as the “caption”
• Add “Read more” with a link to your blog at the bottom
• Add tags (same as in your blog post + a tag for your name + a tag for your blog’s name)

Pinterest

• Good for you if:
• You have a very visual blog or ad branded-quotes to your blog post images
• You are very active on Pinterest and invest time in building boards and followers
• Share link to your post
• Make sure it picks up your image
• Add a short intro to pique interest

Build relationships with other bloggers

• Make a list of 5-10 bloggers who are like you
• This is your dream team who will become your blog’s advocates
• Make sure they’re within reach
• Have an active blog, are conversationalists on social
• How to find your way into their hearts and get their attention
• Care about them first!
• Read and comment on their blogs regularly
• Make sure the URL attached to your comment is your blog
• Share their blog posts on your networks (Twitter, Facebook, etc) when it makes sense (don’t share every post, every day)
• Be a human, be friendly, give feedback when they ask
• Talk with them on Twitter, etc. If you’re really savvy, set up a time to chat via Skype and get to know them as people.
• Do notask them to share or comment on your blog
• If you’re doing it right, they will start on their own

In Summary

After you hit publish:

1. Shorten link (bitly.com)
2. Tailor your introduction to your post for each network – give readers “behind the scenes” info that will make them click and read
3. Share on Twitter
4. Share on Facebook
1. Personal
2. Brand page
5. Share on Tumblr
6. Share on Pinterest
7. Share on LinkedIn (same as Twitter)
8. Ping anyone you mentioned in your post
9. Share on any other networks you’re active on

Build your brand and networks every day

• Get followers by following other users
• Share interesting, valuable content on all of your channels consistently
• Model how you use social media for your blog after your 5 favorite bloggers
• Build relationships with other bloggers who will become your advocates
• Read and comment on other blogs
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