Summer Strategy Series: 5 Elements of A Blog Strategy
August 24, 2011
Topics: Blog, Blogging Tips
Continuing on the heels of last week’s post discussing the creation a blog strategy, the focus this week will be on the elements I believe are needed in order to have a well working strategy.
Our blogs are a vital part of our long-term plan to be successful in this space. They provide topics of conversation and/or debate, help build our brand presence as well as getting us to the next level of our quest to become a respected voice in this field.
In order to have our blogs work like well oiled machines, we must first recognize the elements that are needed to establish our strategies. Content creation, site promotion, site management (or community management), listening strategy and measurement system are the crucial components needed to run a successful site.
Attempting to establish a blog strategy without these components can often be challenging, especially when all the essential components are not working efficiently and effectively together.
While looking into these elements and making sure they are working for you, ask yourselves these questions:
Content Creation
- What should you blog about?
- What is the point of your blog?
- What message are you conveying to your audience?
- What purpose will your blog serve?
- Can your content be easily consumed?
Site Promotion
- Are you efficiently using sites like Twitter, Facebook and/or other social networks to promote your site/brand?
- Are you promote yourself by guest blogging?
- Do you use services like ChimpMail to send your subscribers updates?
- Do you make it easy for readers to subscribe to via RSS or email?
- Have you added your blog to any directories?
- Have you joined or are involved in communities relevant to your niche?
- Do you participate in forums?
Listening Strategy
- Who is your audience?
- Who do you want to talk to?
- What is your audience asking for?
- What social networks are you using to reach your audience?
- Have you set up Google Alerts, Twitter search or other tools to ‘listen’ to what is being said about you and/or your brand?
Measurement System
- How are you using Google Analytics to attract readers?
- When analyzing your stats, do you think of ways to increase traffic?
- Are you using URL shorteners to track visitors?
- Are you using sites like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck to manage multiple accounts, tweets, retweets, clicks or monitor key words relevant to your niche?
Site Management
- Is our site aesthetically pleasing to your readers?
- Are you keeping your site up to date?
- Do you make it easy for readers to comment on your site?
- How do you manage comments on your site?
Share your blog strategies and tips to that make you push forward and persevere?
Jessie Nuez a native New Yorker covering stories that focus on mobile and personal technologies. When You can find Jessie writing for her site Hecho Para Mama. Follow her on Twitter @JessieNuez.
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Chantilly Patiño (@biculturalmom)
This is such a great post! Really excellent tips here! Thank you.
Chantilly Patiño (@biculturalmom) recently posted..New Study Aims to Explore Multiracial Parenting & Identity-
Jessie Nuez
Thank you – I am very happy that you find them helpful!
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AlvaradoFrazier
Great reminders and I’m glad they’re all in one spot so I can reference them monthly.
Thanks for all your tips.
AlvaradoFrazier recently posted..Portable MFA in Creative Writing from NY Writers Workshop-
Jessie Nuez
Gracias!
Sometimes we need those little reminders to get us to where we need/want to be. =)
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Carla @ All of Me Now
Love how everything is broken down into easily digestable pieces. Off to implement!
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Jessie Nuez
Carla,
I am a big fan of breaking things down. I don’t like throwing too many things out there at once because it then defeats the purpose of being a tip.
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Karina
Great information. Love the step by step explanation. I have a question and hopefully some one can give me their honest opinion. I’m new to all this and working on creating my first blog. What do you think of SBI? Is it worth the investment? Specially for some one not very familiar with blogging and creating websites.
Thanks!-
Jessie Nuez
Karina,
I have heard of SBI but honestly I am not completely sold on it. In my opinion, there are platforms and themes that make creating, setting up and designing blogs relatively easy.
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