Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and other social media platforms are all unique and important in their own right; however, the central hub of information for your business should spawn from your website or blog. Websites and/or blogs can be thought of as the ‘headquarters’ for all of your devised messages (being both written and visual). Social media sites are tools or ‘vehicles’ to help direct traffic back to your blog. Blogs and websites not only allow you to showcase in-depth, personalized content, but also aid in development of your unique ‘look’ or interface. While social media is ever changing; your blog will remain consistent and solid (even if other sites start to adapt or become obsolete). When relying on only social media sites for business development, you are playing a risky game. Though you may earn thousands of followers on Twitter or Facebook, you do not own the rights to the list of followers. If for some reason these accounts shut down, you may lose all of your fan-base revenue. Therefore, it is critical to develop a strong personal website, and drive traffic through social media.
The long-term goal of a blog is to create solid (personal) relationships with potential customers, growing a community of members with similar values and interests. The tone of each message/post should be kept very ‘light-hearted’ and not overly educational. Posts can be informative, but should also be entertaining. This is a fine line to balance. You want to attract the interest of your customers through pertinent content but also earn their respect with high quality knowledge. Being that ‘engagement’ is key, messages and posts should strive for a conversational tone. The blog should be written in a manner that invites readers to join in the conversation. Responding to readers’ comments will show these potential customers that you value their interests and opinions. Conversations can be continued by leaving comments on other similar blogs, increasing your blog’s visibility and traffic.
Additionally, while content relevancy is critical, the importance of strong visuals and imagery should not go unnoted. Images not only add spark and flavor to a blog, but can also indirectly fuel potential customers to visit the site. Web users often enlist in image search options offered by sites like Google. Simply naming the images used on a blog will result in a mild level of search engine optimization and may end up boosting traffic to the site.
Blogging Summary:
• Define/set goals
- Short term: Write conversational posts and encourage engagement
- Long term: Boost product sales through earned influence
• Identify the audience
• Be consistent with the tone/message
- Consistency is key in developing a ‘brand voice’
- Establishes your professionalism
- Meets audience’s expectations, resulting in reader loyalty
• Don’t be static
- Update as often as possible (once per week)
- Be useful and timely (posts can correlate with the seasons)
- Vary post topics, yet keep a cohesive tone
• Foster interactivity
- Be welcoming and conversational
- Encourage readers to leave comments
- Respond to questions and opinions
• Be visible
- Success relies heavily on an interlace of social networking
- Use social media sites to drive traffic to the blog
- Experiment with different media outlets
