Not a day goes by without some new content trend promising to revive your flailing business blog.
In this post, we’ll examine some of the factors you need to consider before pouring time and money into a shiny fad that fails to deliver.
If you’re developing content to help your business grow, you know it can be hard to keep up with the evolving landscape.
Let me share a personal story about my own struggles with refining my content strategy.
During my time in the newsroom, I saw important shifts: Social media was completely changing how people discovered news.
When I took on a role as a media liaison, I knew you’d have to get creative to obtain consistent coverage.
I started experimenting with Facebook, shooting live videos. My experiments with ads paid off. We reached engaged followers. Posts were shared thousands of times.
When I started my own freelance writing business, I was keen to replicate the winning formula. I set up a business page on Facebook, created some content and put a little money behind a brand awareness campaign.
Do you know much leads I generated from that page? Zero.
It’s why I shuttered the page. As a solopreneur, I didn’t have the resources to mount a strategy on a network with no tangible returns.
In hindsight, I realize my mistakes.
I went onto a network for the sake of it, and I didn’t educate myself on Facebook marketing. If I had taken the time, I’d have known organic reach was dwindling. Facebook was increasingly pay to play.
Not only that, I fell for the trap of chasing vanity metrics – I had over 200 followers, but they weren’t engaged
That’s my cautionary tale.
But, when you do it right, social media channels can amplify your content on your business blog and help you connect with customers.
In a recent article on journalism.co.uk, Tamara Baluja of the CBC, investigates how journalists can use social media. Her message is that journalists should have a clear intention behind their efforts, and that’s an approach brands can adopt, too.
In this post, I’ve assembled some of the expert advice and resources I’ve gathered during my quest to use social media to boost my business blog.
Find out Where you Audience Lives
If you’re getting ready to relook your social media strategy, finding where your audience lives online is the perfect place to start. This is especially useful if you’ve decided to overhaul your approach. Perhaps you’re not convinced Snapchat is still relevant for your brand, for instance.
In a post for the Social Media Examiner, Rich Brooks, provides a step-a-step process to find your audience online.
These include:
- Identify your ideal customer
- Determine your audience size
- Survey your customers
- Research online behaviour
Touching base with your existing customers may be particularly valuable. You can use free tools like Google Forms to perform surveys.
To conduct research on social media behaviour, check research from sources like Statistia.
There’s also regular reports from organizations like We are Social and Hootsuite.
Once you’ve found your audience online, define a clear goal with your efforts. After all, if you don’t know what you’re aiming for, you won’t be able to measure your performance.
You may also find there’s specific plugins you want to install if you’re blogging on a content management system like WordPress. A click-to-Tweet plugin is natural, for instance, if Twitter is a big focus.
After conducting this exercise, I found it made sense for me to invest in LinkedIn. I’ve the opportunity to engage and connect with professionals in my industry – people I can learn more. On top of that, potential clients have proactively reached out to me on the platform.
This clarity helped direct my posting strategy. I repost my blog articles and guest blog posts on LinkedIn too. When I post a new article on Medium, though, I’ll add it to my Instagram Stories and add the link to my insta bio. I’ll use hashtags with a wide reach like “productivitytips”. So, it comes back to studying your audience and knowing your way your selected platform.
Document Your Work
Once you’ve picked your channels, document your strategy. Research from the Content Marketing Institute found a link between a documented strategies and successful content marketing.
When you revamp you social media strategy, it may be useful to ask yourself a few questions.
On a post on the HubSpot, Kelsey Meyer, recommends answering the following:
- Who are we trying to reach with our content?
- What are we hoping to accomplish?
- How does this fit into our overall marketing strategy?
- How will we measure success?
Storing your strategy doesn’t have to be a pain. Use free schedules online like this one from co-schedule.
Or keep it simple with an excel spreadsheet. Whatever works for you.
Documenting social for your business blog can be as easy as adding a blurb for social media to your blog content calendar. Or perhaps, you want to drive visitors back to a specific piece with a live video? You can add this type of information to your blog content calendar as you go to keep track of your ideas.
When you select indicators for success, will you monitor an uplift in traffic to your business blog? An increase in queries via your web-based form? These are all factors to consider.
Don’t hate. Automate
It’s likely that robots are, in fact, coming for your job. But until AI takes over the world (Just kidding. Or am I?), tech can help you improve your capacity on social media.
Automation tools give you the power to post on multiple platforms with ease.
Wordstream lists some of the top social media management tools available. I can personally recommend Buffer. It’s easy to use and they have the BEST customer service ever.
When you use a tool like Buffer, you can spend only a few hours a week scheduling your content in advance. You can even try Buffer’s free version. (TIP: beyond the product, they have a blog with tons of useful tips on managing social media. I drew heavily on them for my social media strategy.)
Another technique is to create workflows. I use Zapier to post my LinkedIn updates on Twitter, for instance. Perhaps you can set up a Zap to retweet new post links after you’ve shared them on LinkedIn.
Using Social Media as a Distribution Channel for Your Business Blog
Now, if you’ve been following the dwindling organic reach on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, you may be wondering whether it is worth your while investing in a social media strategy at all.
Many marketing experts advise investing in owned channels like your website. I discuss the impact of algorithms on content strategy in this post on Muck Rack.
Point is, a communications strategy built on a single platform is resting on shaky ground. View social media channels as amplification, not the be all and end all of your content efforts.
Your blog is a digital storefront. It’s where your customers can learn about you online. They can browse and decide if your offering fits their needs. Social media are your flyers, stretching beyond time and space to connect your business with your ideal customers.
