Some clients not only ask, but demand, that any freelance blogger they hire should use their own personal social network accounts to promote all blog posts they write for the client.

That’s a problem, and not just for the freelancer.

3 Reasons You Shouldn’t Require Bloggers to Use Their Personal Social Media Profiles for Promotion

Here are three specific reasons you shouldn’t even want to require your freelance bloggers to promote your posts via their personal social media accounts.

1. Your freelance blogger built their social media following around their own networking goals.

Their target network is almost guaranteed not to be your target network. For example, they might network with prospects for their freelance business, or they might build a community of their colleagues. Neither is likely to be your own target market. And poorly-targeted updates do nothing but piss people off for wasting their time. Is that the impression you want your blog posts to leave?

2. Blogging is about building a community.

It is the job of a freelance blogger to help you build a targeted community around your company blog. If they don’t respect their own communities or networks, why would you want them to build and represent yours? Respectable freelancers don’t sell out their networks.

3. You risk hurting both of your reputations.

If your bloggers are required to promote your posts via their social media accounts, and they’re being paid by you to do so, good ethics (and FTC guidelines if you or your blogger is located in the U.S.) would require that their referrals include a disclosure. That means they should note that their tweet, share, post, etc. is directly paid for. Not doing so opens both of you up to criticism as soon as someone realizes what’s going on. Many social network users don’t like seeing paid promotions, but especially ones where someone they follow sells out and then isn’t honest about it.

At the same time including a disclosure could also be problematic. When their followers see that the promotion is paid for in some way (and probably not well-targeted to them), it can lead to skepticism. Did this person promote your content because it was truly deserving, or simply because they’re being paid?

Instead of requiring your freelance bloggers to use their own social media profiles to promote your posts, focus on building your own social media presence. Then hire them to help you craft tweets, posts, and other updates related to your blog posts so you can reach a better-targeted audience on social networks.

If your post does happen to be relevant to your blogger’s followers or friends, they’ll likely share it on their own. And those genuine referrals mean much more than forced promotion, while their followers are likely to pick up on the latter.

Do you not have a social media presence at all yet? Consider hiring a social media specialist or a blogger who also specializes in social media writing to help you build one alongside your company’s blog. Get in touch today to see if I’m available to help.

The post Don’t Ask Bloggers to Promote Your Posts on Personal Social Media Accounts appeared first on Pro Business Writer.

While I hate to break it to you, yes, you need a small business blog. At least most of you do. Okay, okay. Maybe “need” isn’t the right word. But a blog would be worth every bit of time and money you put into it, if you do it right.

Let’s talk about why you want a small business blog and what “doing it right” means.

Benefits of Small Business Blogging

When you launch and maintain a well-planned-out blog for your small business, here’s what that blog can do for you:

• It can help you share news with your customers, from limited online deals to local event details. That means more customers get to take part.
• A small business blog can bring you visibility and recognition in your field, especially when you or key staff publish industry commentary or opinion pieces.
• Blogs can make you a trusted resource for customers. Educational or entertaining blog content can keep them coming back to your website, or it can get them to subscribe to your email list. That gives you more opportunities to sell them on your products and services.
• A regularly-updated blog for your business is a ranking signal for Google (which loves fresh and timely content). That can mean better search engine rankings. And better search engine rankings mean your customers will have an easier time finding your business — whether that means buying online, getting local business information like your address and hours, or learning about your latest products and services.

With all of these reasons your small business should have a blog, how do you go about it the right way? After all, if you’re going to put the time or money in, you want results.

Small Business Blogging the “Right” Way

Now look. There is more than one effective way to manage a business blog. But there are some “rights” and “wrongs” that apply in every case. It doesn’t matter if your blog is a marketing tool, a customer service resource, a part of your PR outreach, or even a direct money-maker. If you want your small business blogging efforts to pay off, here are three things you must do:

• Have a content strategy. Effective small business blogging doesn’t come from writing whatever you feel like on a whim. Know what’s coming. Plan content out weeks to months in advance. If it’s evergreen, have it written early so you can coordinate other social media marketing around each post.
• Talk to people. Your company blog needs to make readers feel welcome. Make sure your posts speak to them rather than you “talking at them.” Use second-person POV (saying “you” as if you’re having a conversation with each reader one-on-one). Leave your comments open — blogs are social tools. And respond to those comments when appropriate. Don’t worry about it being a huge waste of time. A new small business blog won’t get many comments early on anyway. But shutting them down tells your visitors you don’t care about what they have to say, whether they intended to share or not.
• Offer something of value. If your small business blog does nothing but scream “Me, me, me!” you’re not offering anything of value to readers. Solve a problem. Answer a question. Be a resource. Turn your small business blog into both a tool and a destination. It has to work for you. But it has to work for your customers too.

This is just a short introduction if you’re still on the fence about whether or not you should launch a blog for your small business. Moving forward here, we’ll talk more about the specifics. How long should your posts be? Should you write your blog yourself? (It might sound odd coming from a freelance blogger, but the answer might be “yes!”) How can you make your company blog an extension of your brand? We’ll talk about all of this and more. And I’ll be here to guide you through the process of small business blogging if you need a helping hand.

In the meantime, do you have a question about running a small business blog? You can contact me with your questions, and I might answer them here on the blog. Or, get in touch any time to discuss your blogging needs if you’d rather let a professional blogger handle your content strategy and writing.

The post Does Your Small Business Need a Blog? appeared first on Pro Business Writer.

While it helps to form a long-term content strategy and come up with your own unique blog post ideas before you begin, I can point you in the right direction with some reusable blog post ideas.

If you’re feeling stuck, try these five angles on for size. You might even want to alternate these types of posts on a regular basis by turning them into series.

1. Share Industry Insights

Keep an eye on industry news and post commentary about any important stories. You can do this by monitoring social media updates, industry news sites, or setting up Google Alerts for industry-related keyword phrases.

A perk of sharing industry updates is that the ideas come from other sources. You just share your thoughts and expert insight.

2. Inform or Educate Your Customers

Will you be presenting at a major industry conference soon? Is your company about to unroll something big? Have you been getting a lot of similar questions about a product you sell?

Good blog posts are often designed to inform or educate readers. You can do that by posting company news, answering customer questions, or even posting tutorials on how to use your products and services.

3. Post Status or Support Updates

Is your company experiencing shipping delays because of inclement weather? Will your website be down for planned maintenance, especially if it affects a web-based service or your e-commerce operations?

Keep your customers in the loop with updates or advance notice of potential problems on your blog. An informed customer is a happy customer.

4. Offer Stories and Case Studies

Why not use your blog to showcase some of your successes? Bring on key customers or clients to share their stories of working with you, or post case studies explaining how your past work led to successful resolutions for your clients.

5. Publish Customer-Centric Posts

While case studies can work well for service-oriented businesses, what if you run a retail operation? Well, why not get your customers in on the action too?

Consider highlighting your best customers or stories about how customers are using your products. Your company’s fans will love that you care enough to put the emphasis on them once in a while instead of just selling to them.

Need help coming up with blog post ideas custom-tailored to your company blog? Get in touch today. I can help you plan out your content strategy or even write your blog posts for you.

The post 5 Business Blog Post Ideas appeared first on Pro Business Writer.

A case can be made for either option. After all, no one knows your business as well as you do. You would be a logical choice. Then again, not all business owners count writing as a strength. In that case, bringing in a pro makes more sense. The same is true when your time would be better spent elsewhere, where you would see a better ROI.

Blogging involves much more than slapping some words up on a website. Professional bloggers understand this and offer you content that can more effectively appeal to your target readers.

Here are some things experienced freelance business bloggers bring to the table, some of which you might not have considered:

A professional blogger knows how to engage with your audience.

As professional bloggers, we know how to get your readers talking and entice them to connect with your business more directly. That allows you to have more meaningful conversations with prospects and customers rather than simply having them read your content.

Freelance bloggers can invest the time serious blogging demands.

You’re busy running your business. Chances are good your time is worth more in other areas (like closing sales) than it would cost you to hire a pro to manage your blog content.

Professional bloggers can help you develop a solid blog content strategy.

This should be based on your company’s goals for the blog — from search engine rankings to customer support. It’s not enough to publish content just for content’s sake. There should be some underlying strategy so every blog posts becomes a brick in building toward a larger goal.

Freelance bloggers understand how to craft effective content for the web.

Good blog content can be very different from other types of writing you might be more familiar with, such as newsletters or sales copy or even articles in print publications. People read differently on a screen than they do in print. Professional bloggers understand the formatting issues involved in writing effective blog posts, from making them visually scannable to keeping them search engine friendly while still prioritizing readers.

These are just a few examples of things professional bloggers can do for your business. You might hire a full-time blogger to manage multiple blogs or handle all social networking and community management as well. Or you can outsource blog content to freelance bloggers (like myself) when you need the content but don’t need or want a full-time commitment. Freelance bloggers can even ghostwrite your blog, so you get the credit.

Are you ready to make your business blog work harder for you? Do you need an extra set of hands to make that happen? From auditing your existing blog to helping you plan a new blog content strategy and writing your posts, I’m here to help. Contact me today to check on my availability and see what I can do for your company blog.

The post What Does a Freelance Blogger Bring to the Table? appeared first on Pro Business Writer.

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Blogs can be used in marketing, to share information, and can even be a viable online business opportunity on their own. There are also public relations benefits of blogging. Here are a few:

Key Audience Reach

PR is all about getting your message in front of your target audience(s). When you build a blog effectively, and update regularly with information members of those key audiences actually want to read, you build a reader-base and subscriber-base. Then, during your PR campaigns, your blog becomes a vehicle to placing your message directly in front of members of that audience, with no added cost and very little time involved.

Niche Media Reach

While press release distribution is still the most effective way to get your news in the hands of interested journalists, if your company has any kind of following, you can also release news information on your blog. Even smaller companies and webmasters can take advantage of news blogging to attract pickups from smaller media outlets and coverage on niche blogs which they may not think to target otherwise.

Direct Feedback

You no longer have to wait for a lengthy evaluation process. If you have good audience reach through your blog and enable comments on each post, you can receive reader response quickly, and alter your message or campaign objectives if you need to.

Image Building

Business blogging provides an inexpensive and instant outlet for professionals to write on issues in their industry. Similar to building your reputation as an expert in a niche in print and broadcast media (using op-eds, features, etc.), a blog lets you associate your name and thoughts with larger subjects affecting your company, your peers, and your audience. If you give quality information and opinions on a regular basis, you may reap the same benefits of having journalists and bloggers contact you directly in the future for commentary on similar issues.

Crisis Response

If a crisis does occur (whether that be an explosion at a manufacturing plant to a major website being hacked and making user data public), executives can immediately respond to concerns, post information about pending news conferences, and more without typical “spin” associated with PR. A blog allows you to get your message out transparently, and you can include a call to action to help others spread the word for you. Addressing crises quickly can head off speculation and accusations that you’re trying to deny or hide something. Build trust with your readers through your blog from the start, and your crisis response will carry more weight in the minds of your audience.

Blogs aren’t just for journaling or making a quick buck online. While a company’s PR strategy shouldn’t revolve solely around blogging, blogs are a valuable tool in the growing online public relations trend.

The post Online PR: Benefits of Blogging appeared first on Pro Business Writer.

Here are some of the marketing benefits of blogging you might want to consider as a small business owner:

1. Credibility

Because a blog allows an executive, owner, or other company representative to use their own voice while discussing company or industry news, a business blog becomes a platform for sharing expertise and a valued take on an industry or niche. In other words, blogs help you build a reputation as a “thought leader.”

2. Simplicity / Cost Effectiveness

As far as marketing tools go, you get a lot of bang for your buck with blogging. It doesn’t have to take a huge amount of time out of an executive’s workday if they choose to write their own posts, especially compared to more formal tools like white papers or reports.

You don’t need fancy or expensive equipment or even software to set up a business blog. You can set one up in a matter of minutes, and for free. Of course you can also spend money on premium platforms, plugins, and designs if you choose to. But as far as tools for communicating with your target market go, blogging can be one of the least expensive options around.

3. Market Reach Potential

By launching a public business blog, you have direct access to your company’s target market. If you’ve targeted them effectively with your content, that’s who will come to the blog looking for news, tips, or industry commentary.

The more trusted your company becomes in the eyes of its target market, the better the chances that the same audience will think of you first when in the market for your products or services. Quality blogs offer you reach and access to build both credibility and relationships while giving you a place to showcase your “voice” and what sets you apart from your competition.

This article was originally featured on April 15, 2007. It was updated for re-publication on its currently-listed publication date.

The post Marketing Benefits of Blogging appeared first on Pro Business Writer.

Why Pre-Write Start-Up Content?

A lot of new bloggers are overwhelmed pretty quickly when they realize not only how much time they can spend posting, but also how much time they can spend marketing.

While some bloggers may prefer to “wing it,” launching a blog with a single post and trying to get right into a regular schedule, I prefer putting together a set of start-up content first, set to automatically post for at least the first week, but preferably enough content for a month or more. That’s on top of several articles that will be publicly available on the day you launch.

What Makes Good Start-Up Content?

It’s a good idea to start a new blog not just with a bit of background about yourself and the niche topic, but with a few primary articles that will attract your earliest readers. Think of linkbait (in the most positive sense of the word), and you’ll come up with ideas for useful content ideal for launching a blog (such as resource lists, advice not already available all over the Web, an interview with a “player” in the niche, etc.).

Most blog platforms will allow you to “drip” posts – you write them now and set a post date when they’ll automatically go live (so you don’t have to save them as drafts and remember to come back later to post them). Look into your specific blog host or blog platform to find out exactly how you can do this on your own blog.

This post was originally featured on January 24, 2008.

The post Creating Start-Up Content for Your New Blog appeared first on Pro Business Writer.

Your content strategy is your long-term plan for the content on your blog. Although it can (and will) change periodically over time, having a long-term content strategy can help you avoid the common pitfall of quickly running out of blogging ideas.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when outlining a long-term content strategy for your new blog (valid for any niche):

• Are there any regular features you can include (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.) that will not only keep ideas coming in for you, but that will build anticipation regularly with your readers? For example, I offer daily freelance writing job listings on one of my blogs, which brings me repeat traffic daily. On a related blog, I offer weekly links to other blog posts in the niche for people to catch up on the field’s news from the week that’s ending. You may find that a weekly tip would suit your audience, or regular interviews or features on other sites and resources. People like stability, and these “themes” can help you to get out of a rut if you can’t think of anything completely different to write about.
• Do you have any content series ideas for the future that would give you a longer collection of post ideas? For example, maybe you can write a 10-piece series on basic HTML, or a 30-post series on how to lose 10 pounds in a month. Make a list of all of the series ideas you can think of while you’re still excited about the new blog.
• Is it realistic to think you could get guest posters to offer content on your blog (or can you afford to pay a regular blogger to keep it fresh)?
• Is your niche topic news-heavy, where you can link to interesting news stories and write your own short commentary when you’re having an otherwise slow day in coming up with post ideas?

One of the biggest things to keep in mind is that many bloggers are excited and passionate about their blogs when they’re new, but that fizzles to some degree when they realize exactly how much work is involved in the writing, marketing, etc. of their blog. It’s vital to understand early on that the ideas can seem endless in the beginning, but they can seem to dry up down the road. Take advantage of that start-up mentality, and plan as much of your long-term content strategy as possible, and avoid blogger’s block in the not-too-distant future.

This post was originally featured on January 22, 2008.

The post Creating a Content Strategy for Your New Blog appeared first on Pro Business Writer.

Blogging as a Marketing Tool

Blogs can be effective marketing tools. For example, you might use them to show off new products or to drive more traffic to your website as a whole. This blog business strategy is when your blog indirectly brings in money by promoting the larger business to a targeted audience. The blog brings in leads and sells them on whatever you offer.

Blogging as a PR Tool

Blogging can equally be an important public relations tool. In this case, your company or organization would use a blog to build and maintain a community. You can gather feedback from visitors. You can directly communicate with your customers (and actually answer their questions and concerns). You can share company news. And you can build your, or your company’s, reputation as an authoritative source of industry information.

Blogging as a Business Model

Business blogging doesn’t always involve adding a blog to an existing company’s Web presence. Sometimes the blog is the business. This is when you use the blog to directly make money. You can do that with advertising. You might run an affiliate blog. Or you might even sell your own products directly on the blog itself (like an author using a blog in place of a sales-oriented static website to sell their books).

How do you use blogging as a business strategy? Tell us about it in the comments.

Note: This was originally published on September 12, 2012.

The post What is Your Blog Business Strategy? appeared first on Pro Business Writer.

Here are three reasons you should consider pre-scheduling blog posts on your business blog:

1. Improve Efficiency

Sometimes you’re simply in the mood to write, you have a lot to say, or you have a nice flow going and you don’t want to waste it. At other times you need to get a blog post up but nothing comes to you. If you do most of your blog writing while you’re in one of those productive and creative stretches you can cut down on the overall time you spend blogging. But being virtually yappy one day doesn’t mean you need to send all of the posts live right away. Schedule them for future post dates instead (unless, of course, they’re incredibly timely and really need to go live right now).

2. Improve Quality

No one has “fresh eyes” immediately after drafting a blog post. That means you’re more likely to miss things when you proofread the post before publishing. The only way to get those fresh eyes is to walk away from the project between the writing and editing phases. If you’re writing evergreen content or at least something that can go up in a day or two, consider writing your posts a day or two before they’re scheduled to be published. Then you can proofread them and catch more errors before they go live to your customer base or other target audience.

3. Improve Consistency

When you pre-schedule blog posts you don’t have to worry about making sure you publish things at the right time each day or each week. Because things are written and scheduled early you can make sure each post is published as consistently as possible so readers know when to expect them (and you don’t have to rush out a blog post at the last minute, trying to stay on schedule).

Pre-scheduling blog posts could be a great idea for your business. But it doesn’t apply to every blogger or every blog post. If your blog is about timely stories (like a news commentary blog), you’ll need to put posts up shortly after writing them. But for most business blogs there’s a mix of content. So even if you can’t put up something like company news a few days in advance, your tips and advice can enjoy that cooling off period and you’ll still reap some of the benefits.

Are you ready to move forward with your content strategy and pre-schedule your posts? Contact me if you need a hand with content creation or planning.

The post 3 Reasons to Consider Pre-scheduling Blog Posts appeared first on Pro Business Writer.