We keep hearing about blogging, social media, content marketing and SEO. Buzz words, smoke in mirrors… yes, especially when you are on the phone with the tenth telemarketer this month telling you that their firm “specializes in placing companies like yours on the 1st page of Google”. We also hear it at the end of the news cast, “follow us”, “like me” “then go to our blog” and “tweet” something. The general population is uneducated as to the benefits of social media and how, or if it works, but never the less, people are talking about it constantly!
Content
Several tactics accepted by Google that used to work, now do not. Google’s goal is to provide the best “search experience”. So, anything that doesn’t show true and genuine content and transparency of the website that is found in their search results, it is either pushed to the back of the line, or removed from the search index all together. How they gauge this is by the quality and relevance of your websites content. A good rule of thumb is to never publish any content over the web that you wouldn’t want your English professor grading you on.
Social Media
The content that you publish can, and should be shared through social media. The more followers you have, the more likes you will get! The goal here is to put your competitive nature aside and try and learn from those who are already the best in your niche. There are already large followings and tight niched groups who share the same interest as you. With that being said, you should start adding these people to your “follow” list. After creating your first blog, start introducing it to the new group that you have begun to create. Slowly, you will start gaining a captive audience.
SEO
How does this help SEO? Great question! Part of Google’s algorithm gauges of popularity of webpages. And since a blog or news item is a webpage, the sharing aspect becomes very important. So when someone with 100k followers shares a blog post and it is then shared and liked by several other users, that post shows up on many different social profiles and the search engines see that.
Closing notes:
The main social profiles to begin focusing on are Google-plus and Facebook. Good blogs that are free are either WordPress or Blogger.
Also, don’t fall victim as so many businesses do trying to build their brand by buying automation software to do the social work. Automation is your enemy and it can make your posts look “non-friendly”.
Remember, people want you to share their content as much as you want them to share yours. So if you are a newbie, be prepared to do a lot of sharing and positive engagements right out of the gate! This will only build visibility and credibility which is critical in the beginning stages.
2 Comments
Early next year, I'll be launching a new business which sells desks designed for young kids. This is the first time that I've put my heart and soul into a startup. To chronicle this process, I started a blog. I think the blog will be helpful in many ways, but sometimes I wonder if I'm spreading myself too thin between the two. So much work to do and so little time.
Darin,
Thank you for your comment! When doing a blog, use same knowledge, experience and passion you used to start your new business. What you will find is that once you start typing, the words will begin to flow in a natural way and it won't take half the time you think it will. Also, Google puts heavy emphasis on quality content and give that content priority in their search results.So, by default your blog will definitely be quality!
Shoot us a copy of your first blog… Good Luck!
Remember, you can always edit your blog after it's published to tune it up.