I have been part of a fantastic group of women in business for a couple of years now. It is run by a lady called Lynnda and it’s recently rebranded as The Sparkling Business Club. I have found being a member of the group highly beneficial, not in terms of having found sales prospects, but in finding like-minded business women where we can bounce ideas, and have the occasional rant! You can learn more about the Sparkling Business Club at http://www.thesparklingbusinessclub.com/
This post is part of a series –
How to do Social Media for Business
On the 18th June, I was the speaker at one of our regular Monday meetings. The topic was blogging for business. It’s something I know a lot about – I’ve been blogging in the arena of family travel for several years, and have written numerous blog posts on several topics for other projects and clients. I have a reasonably good understanding of SEO and I know from both ends how guest posting and influencer marketing works.
If you were at the meeting, thanks for coming and for listening. Here are some of the notes from the talk.
Why should I consider blogging to promote my business?
Blogging……
- Improves your position on Google (other search engines are available)
- helps you connect with your fans
- Allows you to show your expertise and knowledge – become an authority in your field
- Creates a community around your business
I recently found this infographic on the Red Website blog, which outlines 10 reasons to blog (even if no-one reads it)
Credit to: https://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2018/06/04/why-blog-infographic/
What forms of business blogging are there?
- You can have a blog on your own website
- or a blog which is separate to your website
- or use someone else’s blog
- Someone can write on your blog
- you can get someone to blog for you on their blog – this is called Influencer marketing
What can I blog about?
- New products and services
- fun things from the company – new starters etc
- Industry thought pieces
- Lists – “5 things you should know about……..”
- Interviews with industry notables
- Educational pieces – “How to…..”
What’s best practice for a blog post?
A ‘good’ blog post should have………
- 300 – 500 words as a minimum
- Some good outgoing links to high-authority sites
- Some internal links to keep people on your site and add authority to previous blog posts or pages
- A call to action at an appropriate point
- An author box to add personal credibility
- Good quality pics with credits as appropriate
- Embedded video
- Spelling and grammar!
- Share buttons
- A Pinterest friendly graphic
If you want to do a guest post on someone else’s blog you should always ask yourself……
- What value am I adding for the blog owner?
- What value am I adding for myself?
If you’re offering space on your blog to someone else you need to consider……
- What value can this guest blogger bring to my site?
- What is the blogger getting in return for their work?
Influencer Marketing
Getting an established industry influencer to talk about you on their own blog comes under the umbrella of Influencer Marketing. Influencer marketing is using someone who already has influence to promote you, such as a popular blogger, Instagrammer, or YouTube-er
You will likely have to pay but it could be money well spent. For blogging, this would be paying for them to write a blog post to promote you which they put on their blog and/or share with their social media followers. Worth thinking about if you have a budget and want faster results.
Read more on my post about working with influencers
For being super helpful at this month’s meeting I got the Sparkling Business Club Star of the Month award!
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