The Importance of Adding Blogs to Your Overall Social Media Strategy

In the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing, maintaining a dynamic and engaging social media presence is crucial. Among the various tools at your disposal, blogs stand out as a powerful way to bolster your social media strategy. Here’s why incorporating blogs into your social media plan is essential for success.

1. Enhancing Brand Awareness

One of the primary benefits of blogging is the ability to increase your brand’s visibility. By regularly publishing high-quality content relevant to your audience, you position your brand as a thought leader in your industry. This not only attracts new followers but also helps to retain existing ones by consistently providing valuable information.

2. Driving Traffic to Your Website

Blogs serve as an excellent vehicle for driving traffic to your website. Each blog post you publish is an opportunity to rank in search engines and attract organic traffic. Moreover, sharing these blog posts on your social media platforms can direct your followers to your website, increasing the chances of converting them into customers.

3. Building Relationships with Your Audience

Blogs allow for a deeper connection with your audience. Unlike the fleeting nature of social media posts, blogs provide a space to delve into topics thoroughly. This in-depth content helps build trust and credibility with your audience, fostering stronger relationships. Engaging with readers through comments and social media shares further solidifies these connections.

4. Supporting Your SEO Strategy

Search engine optimization (SEO) is critical for online visibility, and blogs are a cornerstone of a strong SEO strategy. By incorporating targeted keywords, internal and external links, and high-quality content, blogs can significantly improve your search engine rankings. This enhanced visibility on search engines translates to more organic traffic and potential leads.

5. Providing Content for Social Media Platforms

Creating content for social media can be time-consuming. Blogs offer a reservoir of material that can be repurposed and shared across various social media platforms. Whether it’s pulling quotes, creating infographics, or summarizing key points, blogs provide a wealth of content to keep your social media channels active and engaging.

6. Establishing Authority and Expertise

Consistently publishing well-researched and insightful blog posts helps establish your brand as an authority in your field. When your audience views your content as credible and informative, they are more likely to trust your products or services. This authority can lead to increased engagement, loyalty, and ultimately, sales.

7. Encouraging Engagement and Interaction

Blogs are a great way to encourage interaction with your audience. By inviting readers to comment, share their opinions, or participate in discussions, you create a sense of community. This engagement is not only beneficial for building relationships but also for gaining insights into your audience’s preferences and needs.

8. Showcasing Your Brand’s Personality

Your blog is a platform where your brand’s personality can shine. Whether it’s through your writing style, the topics you choose, or the stories you share, blogs allow you to humanize your brand. This personal touch can make your brand more relatable and appealing to your audience.

Conclusion

Incorporating blogs into your social media strategy is a smart move for any brand looking to enhance its online presence. From boosting brand awareness and driving website traffic to establishing authority and fostering engagement, blogs offer a multitude of benefits. By leveraging the power of blogs, you can create a more robust and effective social media strategy that resonates with your audience and drives business growth.

8 Quick Blogger SEO Tips

When it comes to internet search engines, Google is by far the most popular choice.

Understandably, Google would like to keep it that way.

To make sure it stays on top, Google's primary objective is to provide a great user experience every time a person uses its search engine.

Which means it must deliver the best answers possible whenever someone does a query on Google Search.

You may have noticed that in the past few years, Google has been getting better and better at finding the best results for what users are searching for in the hope they will continue to use it when looking for answers.

As bloggers, we want to ensure we are providing valuable information in the hopes our content will figure on the first page of Google results and bring visitors to our website.

In this article, I will give you 8 quick blogger SEO tips that can help your blog posts climb Google's search engine ranking positions and help you reach your audience.

Blogger SEO Tip #1: Write for Your Audience

Do you want visitors to your website? Write with your audience in mind. If your blog is about vegan recipes, it might not interest your audience to hear about your shoe collections. Finding topics related to your niche that will please your reader is super important.  Especially at the beginning when you are trying to gain visibility online.

By staying on topics related to your niche, your audience will know what to expect when visiting your site and will visit regularly to see what's new on your blog.

Blogger SEO Tip #2: Use Long Tail Keywords

The best way to find subjects your readers will love is to do a keyword research (or search intent research).

It will help you find topics your audience is actually searching for.

In return, it will increase your chance of being found on Google because you know what type of information your audience is looking for and you are providing them with answers within your blog posts or articles.

Using long tail keywords with low competition will also help you get more visitors to your blog since fewer people are competing for those keywords.

For example, there is less competition for 'healthy chicken broccoli rice casserole' than 'chicken and broccoli recipe'.

Even though fewer people are searching for 'healthy chicken broccoli rice casserole', there is also less competition which will increase your chance of ranking higher on Google search results.

Blogger SEO Tip #3: Optimize Your Blog Post Images

Optimizing your images will help Google understand what your blog post is about.

To do so, make sure to include your keyword(s) in the:

Image file name (healthy-chicken-broccoli-rice-casserole.jpg)

Alt text (healthy chicken broccoli rice casserole)

Title tag (healthy chicken broccoli rice casserole)

Also, reduce the images size.

It can significantly improve your blog loading page speed which is an important Google ranking factor. I use TinyPNG to quickly reduce the size of all my blog post image files.

Blogger SEO Tip #4: Add Related Links to Your Blog Post

Whenever possible, link to other articles on your blog that are relevant to your blog posts. It will provide more information to your audience and keep them longer on your site which signals Google that you have good relevant information on your blog.

Blogger SEO Tip #5: Add Your Keyword to the Url, Page Title and Meta Description

The most important tip is to write content that is relevant to your audience.

Secondly, is to let Google know what your blog post is all about. We already talked about optimizing your images, but there are other places you can add keyword(s) to help Google understand the information that is included in your post.

These relevant places are:

URL (www.yourdomainname.com/healthy-chicken-broccoli-rice-casserole)

Page title (Best healthy chicken broccoli rice casserole recipe)

Meta Description (Try our easy to make healthy chicken broccoli rice casserole recipe tonight, your family will love it!)

Blogger SEO Tip #6: Insert Keyword(S) Throughout Your Content

You should also sprinkle your keyword(s) throughout your content as well.

But be careful to only insert them in a natural easy to read way.

Remember that you are writing first and foremost for your audience, not Google and that's the way Google wants it as well.

Keep your keyword density to no more than 3-5% of your total blog post content.

Blogger SEO Tip #7: Add External Links

It's always a good idea to add a few relevant links to authority sites related to your topic. It signals Google that your post must contain great information and give again a good idea about your topic.

Blogger SEO Tip #8: Blog Consistently

Google wants to see activity on your blog and website to ensure that it's giving info to its users that is relevant.

If you decided to blog once a week, try as much as possible to keep up your weekly blogging to show Google that you are active and update your website regularly.

If you wrote a great blog post that is relevant to a Google query, but you haven't written an article for the past six months or haven't been active on your website, Google might decide to rank someone's blog post that has been blogging more regularly than you.

That you choose to blog once a week or twice a month, make sure that you keep up with your scheduling plan.

Ranking high on Google first page of result takes works and doesn't happen overnight.  

Especially if you are new to blogging, you can expect it to take six months to a year to rank high on Google with a well-optimized blog post.

But don't get discouraged! If you published regularly and follow the tips above you will eventually start seeing your blog posts on Google's first page top results!

Thank you to our newest team member, Nicole Pilon of Pilon VA Solutions for providing her SEO expertise with us! If you’re in need of a little blog support - just give us a call! 

How to Generate Awesome Content Ideas

Once you’ve established your Ideal Client Profile and know inside and out WHO it is that you’re targeting and talking to online, you may be stuck wondering ‘now what?’

If this is you, don’t fret! Let’s talk about how to drum up awesome content ideas.

Have a plan + stay inspired

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail - Benjamin Franklin

It’s super crucial to have a plan in place for your online content and it’s equally important to stay inspired.

Here are some tips to help you stay inspired while creating your online marketing content ideas:

1. Create lists of brand crushes:

   Those brands online that you follow that you absolutely love - there’s a reason you love them. You resonate with their brand for a reason. Make a list of these accounts and watch what they do online. This will help keep you inspired!

2. Keep a running list of your own ideas:

   If you’re anything like me, you may have random inspirational thoughts at very strange times of the day (or night!). Try to keep a list of your inspired thoughts to come back to when it’s time to drum out some new online content. If you’re on fly - use your phone and text yourself or use your phone’s Notes app.

3. Train your brain to capture postable moments ‘behind the scenes’:

This doesn’t come naturally for some, and quite naturally for others. But, like everything else, it takes practice. When you’re attending an event, networking or otherwise, at a client meeting, working offsite and enjoying a lovely latte, meeting with your team members - whatever it may be - get in the habit of capturing those moments and posting them online. People love seeing the ‘you’ behind your brand. It keeps things real!

4. Study your brand crushes + competitors:

What do you love about their content? What don’t you love? What types of posts get the most engagement? Do a little detective work - find out what’s working for them and what’s not. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel with your content.

5. Organize your posts into categories:

Again, remember - we don’t need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to creating online content. Publish a variety of posts + get organized. Here are some examples:

1. Blog posts

2. Questions

3. Other people’s content (share a blog post)

4. Inspiring content (quotes)

5. Tips + Tricks

6. Contests + Giveaways

7. Promos

8. Behind the Scenes

9. FB lives

I’ve seen it time and time again with clients (and myself!), if we fail to stay inspired, we are less likely to stay consistent with our online content scheduling and posting.

Try some of these techniques and let me know how you stay inspired!

Creating Content That Connects

Do you ever feel frustrated with the task of creating your social media content? If you answered yes, you’re not alone! I hear this time and time again when speaking to people about their social media - that they just don’t know what to post - and, if they are posting, that their posts are just not getting any traction.

I’d like to share a few content secrets with you over the next few weeks in hopes to help you not only create great content that generates conversations for you online, but also helps keep you focused, on track and organized.

Secret No 1

Know Your Audience

Knowing who your ideal client is, is paramount in your online space. You need to know who you are targeting so your messaging can relate to them - and, you need to know them intimately! You need to know what resonates with them. What are they looking for in terms of value? Once you create content that resonates with them, they will like, comment and share that content with other like-minded people who may very likely also become your follower online as well.

You will find that once you create this resonance with your following - your ideal clients - you will create that ‘know like and trust’ factor. Then, when the time comes to sell a product, service or program, creating those marketing messages your ideal clients respond to won’t be as much of a struggle. You will be creating solutions that help solve their problems!

How do I determine who my Ideal Client is?

• Ask your clients

• Send out a survey

• Create a client avatar

Clarity comes from engagement, not from thought - Marie Forleo

Here’s how to craft awesome content:

Let’s do a little more digging to find out more about our ideal client:

1. What is their biggest challenge as it pertains to your product, service or program?

2. What is your ideal solution to overcome those challenges?

3. How can your biz solve that problem?

4. What topics about your industry are they interested in learning more about?

5. How are they currently using social media?

6. What age, occupation and gender are they?

Answering these questions will help guide your social media content strategy.

Why should I care about this and how will I implement this in the real world?

When you have a crystal clear client profile, you will notice patterns in your content and responses to posts. You can then make any necessary small changes in your content as needed so that your ideal client will resonate with them.

Here’s an example: Your Ideal Client is a high level entrepreneur or executive with no time to spare. By creating small bite-size pieces of content this person can consume on the fly will be content they can really resonate with.

Another example: If you’re targeting moms of younger children you will likely need to post your social content in the early mornings or later in the evenings when you know the mom will more likely be online and not with her kids as she would be during the day.

Do you have an Ideal Client Profile? It really is the foundation of building a solid online presence. If you’re like me and love templates and guides, here is an Ideal Client worksheet you can print off and fill in to help you get clear. Your overall social strategy will thank you.

Next week I’ll share secret #2 with you - ‘Awesome Content Ideas Won’t Just Come to You’

How To Use Your Instagram Nametag

Who remembers QR codes? They carry a wide variety of applications, one of which has just been made use of by Instagram through the introduction of Nametags.

Instagram has in literal sense, revolutionized the way we use social media. What was initially meant to be a medium solely for the purpose of entertainment has now proved its popularity in the online marketing platform. Long gone are the days when one had to spell their Instagram usernames out loud in order to make someone follow them. No longer do you need to repeatedly ask whether the person’s username included a “b” for ball or a “d” for dog! All you need to do is scan a person’s Nametag on Instagram in order to follow them on social media using these few easy steps:

Find your Nametag!

Here’s how:

1.       Open your Instagram app on your phone.

2.       Go to the search icon found on the bottom of your screen

3.       Click on the dotted box found on the top right corner of your screen

4.       Click “Go to Your Nametag” on the bottom of your screen 

Customize it a little

You can make a few changes to the way your Nametag looks (but only a few)

• You can change the background image or colour by clicking on the option at the top of your Nametag screen

• You can display emoji’s on your Nametag by clicking on the word - a list of emojis will pop up. Simply select one you like.

• And of course, you can even add a selfie! Take a selfie using any of the props provided. You can change the props simply by clicking on the screen.

Now that you have created your Nametag, it’s time to share it with others. Here’s how you can do just that:

• Show your Nametag screen to someone in person for them to scan it

• Take a screen shot in your phone and then share it online wherever you are able to post an image such as Facebook, Twitter, your email signature…

In order to scan someone else’s Nametag, all you need to do is repeat the above mentioned steps, scan their Nametag code and hit “follow” or “view profile”

If you’re not following me on Instagram, you can do so by scanning my Nametage here :)

Have fun with it, and let me know how you make out!