Blogging: 7 Effective Tips

As of January 2011 per BlogPulse  there were around 153,205,413 identified blogs on the Internet and growing on a daily basis!  Add to that, there are about 1.73 billion Internet users looking for information….you can see why blogs can be a powerful way to get your information out. 

If you aren’t blogging, yet, now is the perfect time to start.  If you are blogging, you want to make sure you are using your blog effectively.

Here are 7 effective blogging tips:

1. Position yourself as the ‘go to person’ in your arena:  Blogs should be written in conversational tones or layman’s terms, not technical terms. One of the quickest way to draw traffic to your blog or website is to answer questions that your viewers have.  Know what’s causing them pain and become their solution to that pain. If they have a problem, let them know you have the solution.  Look on your social sites, Twitter – Facebook, LinkedIn and join in the conversations.  Become their source of information. Don’t worry you’ll give too much information away.  Gain your viewers trust and their loyalty.  Draw them into you space!
2. Make your blog the hub of your social marketing:  Your blog should be the hub of your online activity.  Your information should come from your blog or link back to your blog.  Tweets, Facebook and LinkedIn posts are excellent ways to announce blog posts and link back to your blog.  On your blog, viewers can read other posts you’ve written and leave comments,  as well as see products and services you offer. 
3. Share your experiences and information with your viewers: Building relationships involves having conversations.  Sharing your experiences and information with your viewers, draws them into conversation. This doesn’t mean sharing sales messages and it doesn’t mean they need to know what you had for breakfast or what you bought in the grocery store, but it does mean you want to share what you know and what you’ve done and are doing.  Announce contests, awards, and community practice or business events you participated in. Do include some personal information in your posts.  A good rule of thumb is the old 80/20 rule.  Share 80% business and 20% personal.  As you and your viewers connect more, there will be more experiences to share.
4. Encourage interaction and feedback: While sharing your experiences and information, you always want to be asking questions or asking viewers opinions.  This helps draw them into conversation and encourages interaction and feedback from your viewers. Always end your posts with some type of ‘call to action’.  Ask viewers to share their experiences especially if they have used your products or services. Make it easy for viewers to ‘Share” your information. Remember – conversation involves two-way conversations.
5. Add your personality and personal touch:  You are unique…or put another way – ‘Younique’.  You have your way, your style, and your information.  No matter how much information is out there on your subject, only you have your knowledge and have had your experiences.  Share that information in your own personality as you communicate with your viewers.   
6. Preschedule posts: Time management can be a big factor in social marketing.  One of the simplest ways to manage your time is to use schedulers like Hootesuite, Tweetdeck, and Seesmic Each of these schedulers allow you to preschedule tweets, facebook, and blog posts. They can be scheduled anywhere from a few minutes or a couple of hours into the future to days, weeks and months into the future.  But remember, this is ‘social’ networking and even though you preschedule some posts, you still need to be on your sites daily for conversation.
7. Always link back to your website/blog: Remember to always make sure you link your posts in twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and even YouTube back to your blog.  Use keywords and tags for improving your search engine optimization (SEO). Be sure to keep your content fresh and mix it up from time to time.   

Google is the number one search engine followed by YouTube (owned by Google) and search engines love blogs because of their ever changing content.  Unlike a static website (once the information is there it doesn’t change), blog content changes with every post and reply.  So, keep on blogging…effectively!

These are just 7 effective tips for blogging.  What are some ways you can add to this list?

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