Today and tomorrow, Jim and I will finish up our three-week series on content creation through blogging. You’ll find links to our previous posts at the end of this one.
Unless your blog is your personal diary, what’s the point of all this planning and content creation if no one is reading? Most writers create content with the intent of it being read. The beauty of blogging is that more writers have the opportunity to be published and read. However, just putting it out there isn’t enough.
Social media promotion
Jim and I use various social media outlets to promote our three content vehicles. While we use them in different ways (Jim schedules tweets – shudder), we have found these networks to be the most effective way to get our blogs read on a regular basis. Social media is also a great amplifier when others share your posts to their own friends and followers.
Sharing blog posts on social media takes a certain amount of strategy too though. When we blog for ColorMetrix, the posts are shared on the company’s branded networks (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+). However, SheHe Media only has a branded Google+ page so the posts are generally shared through our personal accounts on other networks.
I can offer up two pieces of advice for sharing posts on social media networks:
- If you are sharing the same post on several platforms, remember that your audience is different from network to network and tailor your teaser for the post to fit that audience.
- Social media sharing only works if you’ve taken the time to cultivate your community. If no one is listening on a particular network, your chances of getting your blog read through that network are pretty slim.
Comment on the comments
What’s even better than getting them reading is getting them discussing. Often, Jim and I will end blog posts with open-ended questions to encourage comments on our blog posts. I never see the end of one of my posts as the end of the discussion. Blogs can be just as interactive as other social media networks if you allow – and respond – to comments.
I do my best to respond to every comment on posts for which I am responsible. When your job is more than content creation (and mine certainly is), it can be difficult to keep track of the comments; especially when you blog on different sites. One trick that has helped me is to set up each site to notify me with an alert or email when a new comment has been posted. I don’t cherish the extra emails but if it means that I will be more likely to be aware of the comments, I am game.
One benefit to regular interaction on your blog is that you gain consistent readers over time. If someone took the time to read my post and comment on it, I want to acknowledge that.
Track stats and listen to your readers
If you follow Jim and me on Twitter, you’ve probably seen our friendly competitive banter about whose post received more views on a particular day. While a little competition is always fun, I like to track stats on our sites to get a snapshot of what people are interested in reading.
My favorite WordPress plugin for tracking stats is JetPack. It’s free and shows you breakdowns of your site stats in a variety of ways. It will even show you how people are getting to your site (which can help you determine how you share your posts in the future).
So now that my strategy has been laid out on the table, what do you do as a blogger to get people reading, engaging and coming back? (Do you see what I just did there?)
Previous posts in our Content Creation series on blogging:
- Our planning process as bloggers (Shelby)
- Ideas and topics (Jim)
- How I work to be a better writer and editor (Shelby)
- Picking your time to write and edit (Jim)
