by Bruce Newman

   This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

There are currently over 200 million blogs on the Internet.  54% of all bloggers post content or tweet daily.  34% of bloggers post opinions about products or brands.  The highest percentage of new bloggers are people in the 55-65 years old range.

These are amazing numbers and statistics.  They indicate the importance of blogging for both business and personal reasons. Blogging for business allows companies to gain attention, enhance market share, announce new products and be branded as an industry leader.  Positive buzz is extremely important, particularly since so many bloggers will readily post their opinions about a product or brand (which also denotes the need for a solid social media policy).  Conversely, blogging for personal reasons is often simply because people feel the need to write or to be heard.

With this huge number of blogs and new content, it is becoming increasingly difficult to stand out from the din.  Increasingly, a strategy must be employed for a blog to be successful.  Being a very good writer is no longer sufficient – unless you work for the New York Times or are very famous.  If you’re not in these categories, here are five important keys that will help your blog be successful.

1. Know your goals and target market

Determine the goals of your blog.  Is it to generate attention for your website or brand you as an industry leader?  Is it mainly to communicate with others?  Do you just want to provide information or use it as a political platform?  There are many different goals.  Select only one as your main goal and if applicable, several secondary goals which, when achieved will help you reach your main goal.

You must also know your target market – including your competition.  The more you know about how people are reacting to other blogs and what is triggering their reactions, the better idea you will have concerning what actions you must take to achieve your goals.

Knowing your target market also includes determining the keywords that you should scatter in all your posts and include in your titles.

2. Plan a mix of posts

Just straight text is not sufficient.  Augmenting your posts with videos or pictures will enhance their value.  It will also provide a basis for content distribution (as discussed in point 4, below). What is most important, however, is that you supply excellent content, for it is this content that will continue to drive people to your site and follow you.

Writing great headlines will also attract attention.  Since searches by keyword are extremely important, make sure to include them in both your headline and content.

3. Publish regularly

You must publish regularly.  If you stop publishing, the world will go on without you and you will be quickly forgotten.  No matter how loyal your readers or followers are, unless you write regularly, you will lose them.  The best solution is to establish a writing schedule. Twice a week is good, three times is even better.

4. Spread it around

Remember, your world does not revolve only around blog and maybe a handful of social media platforms.  Twitter and Facebook are important, but so are many other relevant blogs and sites - particularly if the target market of your article matches their specific niche.

5. Listen

Comments that reflect your article content are great. Definitely respond to them.  It will help develop a dialog that will attract more subscribers and attention.  Unfortunately, too many people respond with inane comments such as, “I learned a lot” in order so they can generate back links to their websites.  You can ignore them, set a no-follow flag so they don’t get credit for their links or review all the comments before allowing them to display.  My personal preference is that people who provide thoughtful feedback should get back links (if they want them).  They should be rewarded for their thoughts and I enjoy read and responding to their comments.  I’ve started some great dialogs and made some good friends as a result.  But, because I do allow back links, I must approve (or ignore or spam) each comment first before I allow it to be published.

Blogging is an important part of any social media campaign.  By following these five steps, you significantly enhance its success.

Bruce Newman is the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC, a leader in locating, evaluating and matching the specific areas of expertise of consultants to the needs of its clients.  An expert on social media, Bruce constantly writes and gives talks on many facets of social media including branding, social media strategies and policy.  He has also developed several social media training courses. In addition, Bruce is the editor of the Productivity Institute Newsletter, a free content-is-king newsletter and thought leader.  Follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter and the Productivity Institute blog.

by Bruce Newman

   This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

The lure of social media is very strong.  Every day, we hear new statistics about its growing popularity, some YouTube video going viral or someone’s tweet (or response). Social media is now the most popular activity on the Internet and its appeal crosses all age and gender demographics. But that doesn’t mean that we should assume it’s the wherewithal for everything.

People used to believe that all they needed to create an Internet business was a website and that prospective customers would be automatically drawn to it.  That turned out to be untrue.  Today, many companies utilize advertising, search engine optimization and campaign planning to help generate Internet business.  “Build it and they will come”, is certainly not a winning mantra.

Social media falls in that same category.  Just because you may have a Twitter or Facebook account does not mean that you will become a social leader or even that people will follow you.  It’s not automatic and it won’t happen overnight.

When using social media, it is very important to create realistic social media goals.  If you’re Oprah, having a million twitter followers is realistic.  If you’re Bruce Newman, it’s not.  (In fact, I wouldn’t even want one million followers but that’s for another article when I discuss quantity vs. quality.)

Rules to live by:

1. Set realistic goals. They can be as simple as writing two articles a week or achieving 150 first level contacts in LinkedIn.  How you reach these 150 contacts, how frequently and to what extent you communicate with them and the building of the relationships is crucial.

2. Create a feasible social media strategy. Depending on your goals, this strategy may be simple or complex but it must be reasonable.  Of key importance is the realistic determination of the amount of time – usually on a daily basis depending on your goals – that it will require.

3. Do not be enticed by large numbers of followers.  It’s easy to generate large numbers of followers.  Along with the development of many social media sites has come the onslaught of automatic marketing programs designed to increase the number of followers.  Interestingly, what these programs don’t tell you is that a smaller number of active people in your network (i.e. followers, true friends, etc.) will provide a far superior response than a much larger number of random people who you count as contacts or followers. 

4. Realize that it takes months to generate a sizeable following.  Building relationships takes time; it doesn’t happen overnight.  As an analogy, think of meeting someone new at a party.  You like them and want to become friends (or more).  It may happen, but will take both time and effort to occur.  The same holds true for social media except that these relationships are instead, digital.

5. Follow the rules of proper social etiquette – be respectful, helpful and authentic.  In short, be yourself.  And be helpful.  

6. Don’t get frustrated. Social media is not a race. Ever hear baseball players say that the baseball season is not a sprint, but a marathon?  Think of social media in a similar fashion, though maybe as a half-marathon.  If your goals are realistic and you don’t reach them, fine.  Adjust them.  That’s the normal sequence of any plan – create and constantly adjust as you move forward.  The key thing here is to not get frustrated and stray from your original goals and plans (provided they were indeed realistic).  Many potentially successful social media campaigns have been prematurely cancelled or extensively re-worked because of insufficient time constraints or frustration.

Social media has opened the world to a tremendously exciting and interactive means of communication.  By properly abiding by its rules, understanding its strengths and limitations and by setting realistic goals, you too can benefit from its enormous potential.

Bruce Newman is the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC, a leader in locating, evaluating and matching the specific areas of expertise of consultants to the needs of its clients.  An expert on social media, Bruce constantly writes and gives talks on many facets of social media including branding, social media strategies and policy.  He has also developed several social media training courses. In addition, Bruce is the editor of the Productivity Institute Newsletter, a free content-is-king newsletter and thought leader.  Follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter and the Productivity Institute blog.