The blog is at the core of your social media efforts. It’s a wonderful tool that when done well satisfies the need for content to backup your social media strategy, showcases your expertise and allows you to become industry relevant by being part of the big conversation. You can also use it for a very soft sell.
I’ve compiled a list of five ways that you can use your blog like a good p.r. campaign to help influence potential buyers as they work their way through the buying cycle.
1. Link to company offerings from within blog posts. Sometimes when you are offering insight on a particular observation or challenge, it’s appropriate to include a link to or mention of your own offering. You can even use links to your website such as when you are describing an offering like Software Integration, the reader can click to your site with Software Integration hotlinked to it. It will also maximize your SEO exposure as well.
2. Use the sidebar on your blog to advertise your content assets: video, white papers, studies, etc. When a new piece of content is published, you can summarize it in a blog post then link to it as well. Or you can create a link in the body of your post when the post applies.
3. Don’t forget to use the power of networking. Your blog should have links to your website, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter channels and vice versa. Also include share buttons for your readers to easily send your content to others. And make a subscription box on your blog sidebar so readers can easily subscribe to the feed. It gives you more face time to network with your audience.
4. Have a new product or service? You can’t link to your press release from your actual blog unless it relates directly to your story, but you can post a link to it in your blog sidebar.
5. Syndicate when possible. There are many sites you can syndicate your blog to that aggregate blogs in your space and make them available to tens of thousands of potential readers. Some of them are Ezine, ITToolbox, BlogNotions and Technorati.
So you see that if you use your blog not only to showcase your expertise, but also to promote it; in turn you’ll maximize your efforts and help along your marketing ROI. Have a great summer and enjoy blogging!