What? Do you seriously think that I, a great hopeless romantic was not going to somehow weave the idea of love into a social media blog post on Valentine’s Day? Given the great significance of this holiday, I wanted to talk about a topic that I absolutely love. And, for those of you who know me well…you know I love to blog. I mentioned all of my blogs at the bottom (linking is important!) and share my path to blogging with that info. Right now, let’s get to it, because this post is all about…
Helping you fall in love with blogging…
1) Put together an editorial calendar
When I work with a client the first thing we write is an editorial calendar. This outlines what themes we are going to talk about each month, week and even highlights important days. The themes are for social media, website articles and blog posts. I have several online resources I use for this, go through an extensive review of competitors, and use the actual calendar.
2) Get a list of actual blog posts titles.
Knowing the topic of each blog post is critical to your success as you sit down to write. When you have a few minutes of time the last thing you want to do is sit down and wonder “ok, what am I going to write about?” You want to hit the ground running. Based on your editorial calendar you should be able to easily brainstorm titles. Just think about each calendar event and how it relates to your business.
3) Watch the news
Your blog is a fantastic way to show your potential customers and clients you are on top of your game following industry news. You want to talk about any new happenings, legislation, special occurrences, and even a crazy event. Always write about how your expertise contributes to the topic and how your business can help your target market.
4) Put blogging as part of your weekly routine
When you schedule time you are more apt to write regularly. You can commit to blogging one a month, week, or even once per day. The most important thing is that you block out time and sit down and write. Set an alarm, a timer, or tell your staff to reminder you. Whatever it takes, make it happen.
5) Get support
If you do not know how to get started or need someone writing and outlining for you, then get the help you need. I offer this type of support to clients who know they are too busy running their business and want a weekly reminder to blog. I can outline or write full blog posts for you that you then take and tailor in just a few minutes with your personal style.
There is no doubt that blogging is important. You can communicate with your target market with your personality and show your expertise with current topics. Blogging also builds up your website with new and fresh content…and no one loves fresh content on an ever building website than Google. So, if you are trying to rank in Google search results, blogging can definitely help with that (don’t forget, you need a whole strategy to ranking…you are on Google+ right?)
You may be asking yourself…how do I get started blogging?
To answer this question I will share my path and how I fell in love with blogging. Honestly I just started writing. My first foray into the blogging arena was when I started to write NJ Divorce Mom. I was working for a law firm and we wanted to rank on NJ Divorce. We also needed credible links to sites about the topic of divorce. So I started one. At first I had no idea why anyone would find my life interesting but soon found my true inner voice in a way that I had never discovered. My writing was so authentic it was picked up by the Huffington Post (not kidding, you can see my Huff Po Bio here.) When it was time to start my business I started social media blog on Your Social Media Hour and then one here on JenniferGardella.com. It is easy for me to write because I love what I do. It is also easy for me to write for my clients because I love supporting them.
So, how do you get started? Well, one step at a time. Have a blog set-up internally on your website and develop your editorial calendar. Start by committing to small steps, blogging at a regular pace about topics related to your industry. When appropriate throw in some intersection with you as a small business owner and your passion for helping and serving your clients.
