By Arielle Ford, Author & Literary Agent
Speakers need to stay focused on growing their platform and blogging is an excellent way to do it. Here are some proven tips:
Stay on topic: Brand expansion through blogging requires that you, well, blog about your brand! Remain consistent with your messaging, your tone, and your reason for sharing with your audience. Use self-promotion blogs sparingly as your visitors will get bored and annoyed by this and they will not return.
Plan ahead: On your editorial calendar, remember to always plan a blog before a book signing, speaking engagement, or tele-class to create a buzz. Also post a blog within 48 hours after an event so that you can share a great audience question and provide your answer for those who did not attend.
Create a community: Whenever appropriate, elicit comments to your blog post. If your blog is a How to… or 10 Steps… ask the reader what has worked best for them. This creates a discussion and community from which you and others can learn. You may even come up with another blog idea, or even your next speaking topic!
Maximize blog page effectiveness: Make it easy for any visitor to connect with you once they are on your blogging page. Add a Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn button to your blog page. Also, your subscriber form should be very visible on this page because once the visitor likes what you have to share and how you share it, they will want to learn more from you.
Create social networking infrastructure: If you are taking the time and mental energy to create great content on your blogs, it would be a shame if no one knew about it. I use my Facebook personal profile, Fan Page and Twitter accounts to announce a new post and drive traffic to the blog.
- Have your blogs automatically posted to your Facebook account through the Networked Blog feature and the auto blog import via the Notes feature.
- Use a scheduling account such as SocialOomph to pre-plan the posting of your updates for time efficiency and retweet effectiveness.
My results: Within only 6 weeks of consistent blogging, I saw my click-through-rates grow from 150 to as high as 863. My Facebook Fans increased by 60% and my e-newsletter had consistent new subscribers.
For more ways to increase your platform, book and product sales don’t miss 21stCenturyBookMarketing.com, October 14-16, 2011 in San Diego where the smartest people in the business will be speaking.
Arielle Ford has launched the careers of many NY Times bestselling authors including Deepak Chopra, Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Neale Donald Walsch & Debbie Ford. She is a former book publicist, literary agent and the author of seven books. Visit her at: www.arielleford.com or www.everythingyoushouldknow.com