How to blog series

Content Is King

When building an online presence for a business, people quickly think of a website, social networks like Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, and Google+ — all of which, when put together, can seem overwhelming. Add in a blog to the mix and often people will flinch. It’s reasonable that growth-focused businesses might worry about the commitment and time that a blog could represent.

Still, whenever I’m invited to help a business connect to their customers and grow their community, a blog is always central to the content strategy. Content attracts, informs, demonstrates, and establishes value. There’s a reason online professionals say, “Content is king.”

Don’t Build Your Business Castle on Another Guy’s Land

Big Stock: Neuschwanstein castle

All of the social sites might seem to replace the role of a blog. Twitter allows us to connect, converse, reconnect, faster and easier. Facebook and Google+ allow us to be social with our customers. LinkedIn is the Chamber of Commerce online. Instagram and Pinterest give us a chance to share what we see and like.

But if you want to the search engines working for you, a blog is a cornerstone to reaching those goals.

Have you read the terms of service on those social sites where you’re putting your advice, your expertise, your unique content? Would you keep your address book, your contact lists, your communication records inside another guy’s business?

It’s hard to have a true presence, if everything you say is on social sites. How to people know which place you call home? Where do you put your serious thoughts? What home holds your business body of work?

Your business blog content is the cornerstone of your business online. Well thought and well presented content is easiest, fastest, and most meaningful way to share your expertise. Helpful (not hypeful) insights, how-tos, and information that’s relevant to your customer’s lives is an invitation to get to know your business beliefs, values, and business sense. Content like that attracts people you want to work with, and give search engines valuable pages to index. Those indexed pages advertise you whenever people search for the solutions you write.

Don’t put something as valuable and attractive as content on another guy’s url.

If youâre going to build and share online content, own the url where you house it. Instead of writing a post on a social site write it on your business blog. Share the link and an excerpt on that social site instead. Keep the original content on your own URL – where Google and your visitors can connect it to your business.

Let the traffic and the authorship come to you.

Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Google+ and the rest make it easy to build groups and share content quickly. But what are we risking by building a following in places where we donât own the âlandâ? The social site “landowner” is gaining benefit of every customer you attract. If you decide to leave, you might lose your whole list.

Who can trust that the social site sill never change the “rules”? Are you willing to risk your business on that?

Free isnât free when you think about it.
Go visit instead and invite folks back to where you’ve build a location that looks, feels, and interact with them in a way that only your own property can. Content is king. Don’t build your castle on another guy’s land. You might find that you can’t get to the castle one day.

How would your business be affected if Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, or Google+ lost the content and connections you’ve built?

Be irresistible.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

Michael Martine offered to help me out while I was in Austin. He actually sent more than one idea for a high-value guest post. This one on content strategy appeals to the editor in me and also to the business strategist.

Do You Have a Blog Content Strategy?

by Michael Martine

A content strategy is a plan for how you will create content for your blog. Having a content strategy and following it will accelerate your blog’s growth. In this article, I’m going to explain how to develop and use a blog content strategy so you can get the best results. This is something that I have done with demonstrable success, so you can, too.

Over the past few years, as blogs have become more popular, a few best practices have evolved, and we see them repeated endlessly in all the metablogs out there: be passionate, create compelling content, and know your audience. But somewhere between reading that, nodding our heads sagely, and hitting publish, we lost our way.

Now, I can’t help you with passion. Either you have it or you don’t, and if you don’t, you are simply doing the wrong thing. Seriously, do yourself and everyone a favor and just quit blogging. But as far as the other two go, well, that’s where a blog content strategy comes in. A blog content strategy helps you channel your passion so that you get the results you want without first burning up all the fuel in your fire. Following a blog content strategy helps you accomplish what other bloggers have trouble with, like coming up with topics to blog about, and getting more traffic, comments, and subscribers.

A blog content strategy is not complicated. It only has two parts:

Knowing the purpose of the blog, and making sure everything about the blog fulfills that purpose

Knowing the needs of your audience, and creating content that meets those needs while fulfilling the blog’s purpose

Know the purpose of your blog

If I asked you right now point blank: what is the purpose of your blog, could you answer me right away? Most can’t. Your blog needs to have a purpose. It needs to have “true north” on its compass. The purpose of your blog is what you want to accomplish with it from the perspective of meeting your needs. I can use my own blog as an example: the purpose of Remarkablogger is to acquire new clients for my blog consulting and coaching business. Now, if you’re thinking that sounds a little selfish, hold on, because we haven’t discussed the second part of a blog content strategy, yet. One way to get to the purpose of your blog if you’re not sure is to ask yourself why you started the blog in the first place.

One problem with strategies and plans is that people keep them only in their heads. You think you understand it and know it, but it’s probably all foggy and vague. That’s why when asked point blank, you stammer. The solution is to write it down. The act of writing forces us to be clear in our own thinking because we have to make it clear for others. This is invaluable. Write it down and keep rewriting it until it’s clear.

Make sure the blog fulfills its purpose

This is part design strategy as well as content strategy (nothing is ever in its own little box in blogging!). Just like when you wrote papers in school and your professor said that everything in the paper should support the thesis statement, otherwise get rid of it, so it is with your blog. Whatever doesn’t serve the purpose goes buh-bye. Again, using my own blog as an example, I clearly and unmistakably display that I offer services and am for hire. My content is often about the work I do for clients that has brought them success.

Know the needs of your audience

The biggest mistake you’re probably making is that you think your audience is like you. If you are running a hobby blog or an internet marketing blog, they may be. But if you are running a business, they are not. This creates a huge blind spot for us. Here’s the secret: you define your audience by the content you create. This means you will get exactly the people you want. If you’re running a business (freelancing or small company or whatever) then you want qualified potential customers and existing customers reading your blog. By writing material that only appeals to that group and no other, you are guaranteed to get them. It may take a while, but eventually it will happen (especially through search).

Put yourself in the mind of a person who is looking for you, but doesn’t know it, yet. 😉 What is your dream? What is your biggest fear? What words are you going to type into that little box on Google? Write posts that create beautiful visions of those dreams. Write posts that speak to their fears, and that present you as the solution. Stuff that you like or that you find interesting, your audience may not identify with at all. If this means you have to change what you’re blogging about, and you’re afraid you’re going to lose part of your audience, well, you’re right. You will. But they were the wrong audience anyway, so it is no loss. They will be replaced by more qualified people.

Just as you wrote down the purpose of your blog, write down the hopes, fears, and needs of the audience you want to have. Refer to this list when writing posts (especially if you feel blocked: just pick something and start freewriting).

Meet audience needs while fulfilling your blog’s purpose

By meeting the real needs of your audience with your blog’s purpose in mind, you will fulfill your blog’s purpose. So, even though it seemed selfish earlier when I said to determine purpose from your perspective, you now can see how it works out in the end. By meshing your audience’s needs with your purpose, you have a blog that can grow and, if you’re in business, help you make more money, too. Speaking for myself, ever since I started pursuing this content strategy, I have had non-stop freelance blog consulting work. Having a content strategy and following it is a win-win situation for both the blogger and the audience. It needs to be for any real success to happen.

Review

Successful and outstanding blogs need a content strategy that consists of two parts: knowing your purpose and knowing your audience. Make sure everything on your blog fulfills the purpose. Put yourself in the place of your audience and write content that meets their needs while helping you fulfill the purpose of the blog.

About the author:
Michael Martine is an official SOB and has been blogging since the year 2000. He is a blog consultant and coach. He blogs at Remarkablogger and Gateway Blogging.

Thanks, Michael!
–ME “Liz” Strauss