You wrote a post. Great. Now what? How do you promote your blog post? What is your social media strategy? Do you even have an infrastructure?
How are you going to tell people about it? If you can’t promote it, does it even exist?
How do I promote my blog post?
If you post a blog in a deserted internet, did it even happen?
Would you play your heart out at a piano recital with no one in the theatre? No. You wouldn’t. Yet people publish a blog post and expect a Pulitzer.
It’s true that blogging produces authority, but that’s over the long haul. You have to put in the work to gain an audience and their respect. We’re talking about influence.
[bctt tweet=”If content is your vehicle, then social media is your infrastructure.” username=”bridgetmwillard”]
The thing is that it takes years to build up your social capital and your community (social infrastructure).
So many people think social media (or blogging) will produce and instant community like Sea Monkeys. It’s not Sea Monkeys. It’s not instant. I mean, you can buy followers, but those aren’t people who will care you just wrote the blog post forever to be your crowning glory.
You Need Social Media
Start with one platform. Follow people. Share their content. Keep writing. Don’t stop doing that. Post if you want.
Go to other people’s blogs and comment on them. Some bloggers get picky about comment length or that it should add value to the conversation. I’m happy to have any interaction. But you should have fair warning.
to help get your blog and social coordinated.
If you give in social media, it will come back to you.
Build up the roads your content will travel on and you’ll reach your audience.
You know you need a blog but you’re not even sure how to start. Should you go with a free platform or buy a domain and hosting? I recommend getting your own domain name, hosting, and using WordPress. There are a lot of questions. Here are some answers.
In my view, there are two aspects of blogging: the writing and the technical.
What if I have nothing to say?
We know that one of the keys to being social is content. Too many people, including myself, think there’s nothing more to be said. Here’s an excerpt from that post.
Have you ever thought to yourself that everything meaningful has already been said? Maybe it has. I’m sure there is another blogging series or posts that are better than this one. But this is my creation and the words come out in my voice.
Believe me, you, too, have ideas. You have your own style. You have a voice. You can add value to the world. Are you worried you’ll just state the obvious? Maybe the obvious isn’t that obvious.
“Everybody’s ideas seem obvious to them. Maybe what’s obvious to me is amazing to someone else.” Derek Sivers
Just Write
You just have to do it. This is what all of my friends tell me. I tend to write in binges, much like everything else in my life.
“Yes, you can write in small increments. Yes, it will help your startup. Back when I started to exercise, I gave myself an out whenever I went to the gym. If I didn’t feel better after 15 minutes, I allowed myself to leave. During many years of exercising, I’ve only left twice. So set that timer for 15 minutes and get going! You can do it!”
Tips for Amping Up Your Writing
Get a blogging buddy
Carol Stephen is mine and she writes about it here. Some people need gym buddies, I need a blogging buddy. We brainstorm, she asks me about my drafts (in a very nice way but I know she’s like – why haven’t you clicked publish yet?), and otherwise toss around crazy ideas.
Catch Your Ideas
I write my ideas in notes on my iPhone. I can add to it later and copy and paste elsewhere. You may want a paper and pen. Whatever works for you is what works. Period. If the technology hinders the writing, it’s not helpful.
Compose In Plain Text
Formatting uses a different part of the brain. Formatting is about space and art and writing is different. If you focus on formatting you will write differently. Some people call this distraction-free writing. Every computer has a plain text editor — even your phone does. I prefer to use Google Docs to compose for clients. I also use Hemingway to check for readability. For myself, I write directly in my WordPress editor.
Proofreading is Your Best Friend
Proofread by reading your post backward and out loud. Spell check doesn’t catch grammar issues, double words, or something that doesn’t make sense. Trust your ears. Often, I read it to my husband. If I’m writing something technical, I may have him read it to make sure I’m communicating with “the regular Joe.”
Many of my friends recommend building up a backlog of posts so they can be more evenly or regularly published. Clearly, I don’t do that. But you may want to follow their advice.
What Is A Blog Post?
A blog post is an article on your blog. Blog is short for web log. Think of a ship captain writing a log. This is a log for your website.
A blog post is not an essay or thesis paper. Google may like 2,000 word posts, but will your audience? Will writing 300 to 500 words be easier for you? I find 750 words to be my sweet spot.
A good blog post educates. Inform and ask for a response. Solve a problem. Use humor (what not to do).
Just start. Make some short, some long. Do what feels good for you. You’ll get a sense of who your audience is and what the length tolerance target should be.
Find at least one photo for each post because it looks better. It should be 1200 x 628 pixels but don’t get overwhelmed. I usually take my own photos and use Canva for the graphics.
Easy. But I have also used photos from a Creative Commons Flickr search. Don’t steal images. You could really get yourself in some serious legal trouble. Training yourself to look for shots that might be good for blog posts also sparks ideas. Win-Win.
What Do You Need to Blog?
You’ll need a computer and an internet connection for sure. You can’t always choose your provider but Consumer Advocate analyzed the best by region in the US. They chose AT&T for my current area and I love the Fiber connection. It’s also significantly cheaper in Texas as opposed to California.
Some blog platforms allow you to write or edit mobile phone or tablet (like Medium) but that can be really frustrating. You can get a Chromebook for a very good price (not an affiliate link) on Amazon.
My SEO friends Pam Aungst and Oscar Gonzalez say your blog should be on your own website (domain name). If you don’t have a website, you can buy a domain and hosting for reasonable prices. I am using NameCheap for domain names and Rocket.net for hosting.
However, people don’t always have the budget for a website and hosting. Don’t let that stop you.
Think of a Name
It might be you “Bridget Willard” or your Persona — “You, too, Can Be a Guru” used to be mine. Think of a tagline, graphics, and/or photos that will represent your new brand.
All of this can be changed, but in order to get a username, blog name, and/or domain name. Create a list of choices because the first or second choices may be taken already.
Find a Blogging Platform
I started with wordpress.com. I had my blog there from 2011 until April of 2015. It’s free and easy. Create a username, blog name, choose a theme, and publish. There are other blogging services but I’m not a fan of them all.
Start an Editorial Calendar
Most content marketing experts suggest having some kind of idea of what you will post and how often. Google Sheets is just fine. I also block out time for writing on Fridays.. Co-schedule is another popular option, too. I’m not a fan.
Grab a pice of paper. Write down some ideas. Choose a publishing day (Tuesday, for example). Plot them on a paper calendar. The holidays may inspire your posts. For example, if you are a home economics major you may have an idea for “Valentine decorations.” That would be perfect the first week of February and a “Valentine Breakfast” menu for the second. Holidays can give you a lot of idea fodder. It’s okay to exploit that. I mean, that’s half of Pinterest’s pins.
Learn Basic HTML
You may want to take a class or go through the tutorial at w3schools.com. This will help you overcome the fear of the tiny bit of code required for blogging (links, images, etc.).
Just do it!
No one can do it for you. Well, you can hire people. But you know what I mean.
Instead of posting the exact same content, try varying the image and copy to speak to the platform’s audience best.
One of the best examples, brings me back to my childhood. If you’re old enough to remember the Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters show from 1980, you’ll know what I’m referring to. Otherwise, Google it.
Barbara and her two sisters would do musical numbers and their costumes for each set were similar enough to look coordinated but customized enough for the body type and personality of the wearer. Kudos to the costume designer.
Opening number shows my point exactly.
Take several photos from different angles, use them in collages, add text, embellish according to the platform.
This is how we should approach sharing similar (not the same) content on social media.
But I also refer you to this:
“” by Gary Vaynerchuk on Inc Magazine
Write For the Platform, Not Your Convenience
Every platform has a distinct culture. Write your post for that. If you crosspost, you run into quite a few dangers.
Here’s an example of how I posted on Instagram, Twitter, and our Facebook Page photos from a 1989 project. One is a simple tweet, one is a cover of the magazine, and the Facebook Page post is similar to Twitter but without hashtags.
Are you talking to the same people over and over and over again?
Do you only spend time on Twitter in your “mentions” column?
We all have days where we’re trying to just get by and, believe me, I’m the one who says you can maintain your account in five minutes a day, but that’s not going to help you grow.
What’s your favorite social media platform? Or do you believe that like with children, you shouldn’t have favorites? If you spend any time getting to know me you will soon discover that Twitter is my favorite by far.
Speaking of favorites, I’m often asked why I favorite a tweet (or accused of favoriting my own tweets in order to artificially inflate my ranking on some system I’ve never heard of but whatever).
Here is my official, un-official brain-dump on why I use the favoriting tool.
Bookmarking
As I told R3 Social Media, I learned to “bookmark” tweets by favoriting them from @BrianDaltonCRE. Once I have read the link in the tweet and know for sure I don’t need to refer back to it, I unfavorite it.
I often check Twitter while watching T.V., for example. I’m not going to stop the show to watch a cat video, but since my friend tweeted it, I want to watch it later.
Another reason I bookmark (favorite a tweet) is if I see a tweet in the stream and it has a link. The link seems interesting, so for sure I want to read it later. It’s too hard to find those tweets later when you do have 20 minutes or so, at the end of the day, to read them.