In a lot of ways, blogs are wonderful. Constructed and written correctly, they can be the foundation for your business’ social media and advertising platform.
But, blogs are also just blogs. Without the help of platforms like Twitter, Facebook and email, they can act more like a stagnant pond than a blossoming fruit tree.
Why? Because the goal of marketing is to engage your audience, make sales and ultimately increase revenues. If all you do is blog and no one ever sees your posts, it’s like a tree falling in the woods when no one is around – no one cares. However, if used properly, each blog post becomes the catalyst for multiple pieces of share worthy content.
Folks, this is good news. This is the kind of news you should be shouting about.
Sure, you can create a unique topic for every single tweet, status, and eblast. But, just typing that sounds daunting and time consuming. Luckily, when you develop a high quality post, you can use it to create share worth snippets (small, single thought comments) to send to your audience.
Life suddenly sounds a whole lot more pleasant if you ask us. Lets break it down.
Craft a Valuable Post
A valuable blog post shares information with your audience that they find either helpful or interesting. For example, you might share:
- A how-to article
- An insider tip
- A witty anecdote
- A personal story
- A shout-out to a friend or colleague
Keep in mind, each post should center on topics pertinent to your business. We’ll discuss this more in a future post, but the idea is to always tie your posts into what you do.
Identify Your Additional Platforms
At RWL Design, we focus primarily on Twitter, Facebook and eblasts. You might also include:
- Google+
- LinedIn
If you want to shout about your business to everyone under the sun on every single platform possible, that’s great. Just be aware of the resources required to maintain an active presence on each platform. Sharing is a wonderful thing. But, you need to be able to respond and engage with your audience. Sometimes, less really is more.
Develop Platform Specific Copy
Each platform has its own ideal format for the length and type of text, image sizing and orientation, and link sharing. For our purposes, we’re going to focus on the three formats we primarily use.
Twitter
Though your status can include up to 140 characters, it’s best to keep it between 80 – 100. The best tweets start with a short question or statement, followed by a link and then by 1 -3 hashtags.
Example: How can your blog be the foundation for your marketing campaign? LINK #ShareWorthyCopy
Additionally, tweets with images significantly outperform tweets without. While you don’t want to share an image every time, it’s a great way to draw attention to an important topic. However, picture attachments take away from your overall character count. You’ll need to cut down on your copy.
Example: Turn one post into multiple share worthy bites: LINK #Marketing
Facebook
While Facebook allows you to share a seemingly endless number of characters, shorter statuses perform better. The best statuses are 1 – 2 short sentences that sum up what you’re sharing and include a call-to-action, include a link and have a picture.
Example: Spend less time and engage a bigger audience. Learn to turn one blog post into multiple share worthy tidbits: LINK *Add an Image*
Email
Email blasts are great. Unlike Twitter and Facebook that not only require your audience to be online, but the platform to add it to their newsfeed – emails go to your entire list. Transform a valuable blog post into an eblast by summarizing it into an engaging synopsis with a link encouraging your audience to learn more.
Example: Dear Ladies & Gents –
Creating multiple, unique pieces to share on all of your different marketing platforms can be a time consuming headache. But, you can avoid this by concentrating on creating valuable blog posts. These can become the catalyst for your entire marketing platform. Learn how here.
Have additional questions about blogging? Contact us today,
The RWL Design Team
Added Share Worthy Bonus!
Don’t let your content crawl into a cave of obscurity. Great content can be shared again and again. The following week you might pull a quote from the post and share it again. At the end of the month you might send a “Blog Post Roundup” eblast. Down the line you might share a Throw Back Thursday post (use the Twitter hashtag #tbt).
Added, Added Bonus - 3 Ready To Share Tweets!
The magic of value: it keeps on giving and giving. Link (to this post)
Is organic Facebook engagement giving you a headache? @AmyPorterfield has tips to help: bit.ly/1nHC3pS
Homemade is beautiful, wouldn't you say? #Seattle #PNW pic.twitter.com/xiRfDp9pZE
