Once you’ve created a blog for yourself or your company, how can you ensure your content is interesting and valuable to readers? Here are a few simple tips to create a great blog:
1. Create compelling content. Don’t just rephrase articles or blog posts you read elsewhere. Write about your area of expertise or personal experiences. Your writing will come alive and engage readers when you are passionate about the topic.
2. Title – Think about the keywords people might use to find your blog, and include them in your blog title. For example, if your blog post is about how to train for a marathon, make sure your title includes the keywords train and marathon. Also consider how your title will appear in tweets and whether it can easily be retweeted. Titles should be less than 140 characters so there is room for hyperlinks and “RT @username.”
3. Use images and videos – Use images and videos in your blog posts to make them more interesting and enjoyable to read. Images draw in readers and can reinforce your post in a creative way. A post about the Amazon Kindle just wouldn’t be the same without a picture.
4. Comment – Make sure to comment on other blogs you find interesting. Chances are good that both the blog author and other readers will click through to your site after reading your comment. Always be transparent and identify yourself and your company when commenting.
5. Post often – Readers will come back to blogs that regularly post interesting content. If you know you have a busy week coming up, write a few posts ahead of time and schedule them to automatically post on your blog the following week.
6. Link your blog to e-mail, Twitter and Facebook. Whenever we post a new entry on the Communiqué PR blog, an update automatically goes out over e-mail to our subscribers, and via Twitter and Facebook. We have clear, bold icons on our blog so readers can easily follow us via e-mail or Twitter.
Have other questions about optimizing your blog? Leave a comment or send us a note at [email protected] and we’ll get back to you.