Don’t Let Your Blog Fall in the Forest – Special Guest Post by Lorraine Ball

Today’s special guest blog post is by friend and fellow blogger Lorraine Ball, owner of Roundpeg. 

Scholars have argued this question for years: If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there, does it make a sound? The same question can be asked about a blog post.   If you write a terrific post, but no one reads it, was it a waste of time? 

As a business blogger, I write for several reasons, including: demonstrating my expertise, engaging clients and prospects, and improving visibility on search engines.   For me, it is critical that people actually read my blog posts. 

To improve the chances people will actually visit the Roundpeg blog, and read a post or two, I am constantly testing new techniques to build buzz, and drive traffic.  Here are just a few things you can do to build your own blog buzz.

1.    AutoFeeds – Automatically feed a link to my twitter stream.  I use twitterfeed (http.www.twitterfeed.com)   I like the ability to set it and forget it, knowing at least once a day; my new post will be updated to my tweet stream.   The tool also provides some insight into which posts are retweeeted.

2.   Influential Followers -Simply sharing a link is not enough.  You need to have a network of followers who will share the link with their followers, and that takes time.   To build the following start by looking for people who are writing and talking about the topics you write about.  Comment on their posts, ReTweet their messages.  Over time they will do the same for you.

3.   Links on other blogs – Don’t restrict your conversations to twitter.  Find interesting and relevant blogs and post comments with links back to your site. 

4.   Add, "like" "retweet" and "share this" buttons to your blog – But don’t wait for others to use them.  You need to get the ball rolling.   Share this will allow you to connect to a wide range of social networks, including Digg, Delicious, and Stumbleupon.  Right now Stumbleupon seems to deliver the most traffic.  But this may change over time, so be sure to check your webstats on a regular basis so you know what is working for you.

5.   There is a place for eMail  – Despite much of the hype to the contrary, email still has a place in an integrated social media strategy.  Be sure to have the option to sign up for your newsletter displayed prominently on your blog.   Don’t abuse the list, but an occasional email with links to your most popular posts brings past visitors back, again and again.   Even on high-traffic blogs, the majority of visitors are first timers.   eMail gives you a way to bring them back again and again.

There is no single strategy which will work every time, but these will certainly help to amplify your sound!

Rhoda:  It’s always fascinating for me to read posts from other blog content writers who, like me, deal in corporate blogging for business. I think Lorraine, as a small business marketing consultant, is making an important point – blogging alone cannot be a business’ total marketing strategy – tactics development must happen on many fronts, all working together. That means the business blogging assistance I offer – or my services as freelance Seo copywriter – are most effective when I can function as one member of a company’s marketing team.