Blogging and Your Social Media Strategy

The world of marketing has taken a dramatic shift over the past several years and even more changes are yet to come. The internet has fundamentally changed how organizations communicate and how people communicate. Marketing has taken a much more conversational tone rather than the hard sale approach that it used to have.

You have to have a product that people want to talk about, something that will catch on as a trend and the buzz will swirl around it naturally or you have to create a campaign that will help people get talking about your product or service. This is where social media and blogging come in.

If you don’t have a social media strategy then you are potentially leaving a lot of traffic and leads out there for your competition. Every organization should have a website as well as a blog but they should also make use of article sites, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and an RSS feed.

Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter help to increase the exposure to your organization and your brand. Many people don’t understand the connection between social networks like Facebook and Twitter and their blog. Your blog should help people understand what you’re all about. Your blog should include things like information on your products and services, giveaways, podcasts, video updates, and other interesting things that are relevant to your targeted audience.

Sites such as Facebook and Twitter allow you to establish yourself or your organization as a trustworthy expert. When you engage in the community of customers and clients through replies, tips, strategies, and the sharing of other people’s content you can build customers’ trust in your organization and brand and help them to view you as an expert in your area.

When you create a new blog post, you can repurpose the post and submit it to article directories with a link back to your website. You will also want to publish your blog post on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to provide content in those communities to create a greater presence in those networks. When you post your blog in these communities you will also be posting a link back to your blog from those sites. The more exposure you get in the social media sites the more likely you are to stimulate links as well as build trust.

When you create a community in social networking sites you create a captive audience that you can then drive back to your blog and eventually your website. When they come to your blog and find it interesting you can ask them to join your e-mailing list and eventually reach the ultimate goal of them buying your products and services.