Do you write a regular blog for your website or LinkedIn profile? Are you making it work as hard for you as you can? If you’ve put hours into researching useful, interesting and engaging blog content, don’t just hide it in one place, make it work hard for you on all your social platforms. As Maria once said, ‘let’s start at the very beginning’…
Tip: If you’re starting out with social marketing, writing a monthly blog to pull apart for social posts can set the theme for a whole month of content.
Getting started with engaging blog titles
Website? Check. A couple of social media pages? Check. Blog content? Yes, but…
Before you start writing your blog, ask yourself a couple of questions
What am I talking about?
Can I structure my title, sub-headings, tips and comments to make useful social updates?
Some of the most engaging blog titles start with ‘5 tips on…’, ‘How to…’ ‘Everything you know about xxx is wrong’ ‘xxx changing/coming and there’s nothing you can do about it’. Can you think of a title for your blog that will grab the attention? Can you carry this engagement through to sub-headings too?
Your social media post can be made up of these blog titles and sub-headings. They can be turned into questions which you will answer within the post in an abbreviated form, easy!
Tip: Use headings and sub-headings to capture attention in your blog, that will also work on social.
Using bullet points in blogs
Let’s be honest, most people skim read a blog for the takeaways. You’ve probably already done it, and you LOOKED HERE because of the block capitals! Bullet points help with skim reading and are everyone’s friend. As a writer you can reduce some great content into some important points that you want your reader to take away. As a reader, you really just want the punchline. Bullet points in your blog are great:
Use bullet points to summarise your most important information
Give your reader the takeaways in short, easy to read format
Create interest in a sea of words
Make sure you punch your point home
Use the point in your bullets as a social media post.
Tip: Bullet points don’t just have to be in the form of lists, they might be a side note such as a ‘Tip’ or ‘NB’ 😉
Illustrating your blog with images for social
Again, creating interest in a sea of words, images can draw the eye to a particular area, and be used to illustrate an important point in your writing. Infographics are terrific examples of images for blogs that can be easily re-purposed as social content.
Tip: Create your own infographics. Check out the ‘Diagrams’ options in PowerPoint.
If you’re using photos or simple images to illustrate your blog, you may want to try creating something of interest using a tool like Canva. Rather than posting a simple photo, can you take it further with text boxes and layering effects?
Tip: Canva and other image creation tools can make a simple image or string of images more interesting.
Make your blog work hard for you
These tips should help you find a way to make your blog work hard for you. Why publish it to your website and leave it there? Get it out on social media and you can find it provides you with content for up to a month. Be warned though, don’t make it all about the blog, remember to mix your social posts to the 80/20 rule – 80% interest and 20% sales. If you’re using the blog content as the theme for your social media that month, take a look around the web and see what else you can share along the same theme.
For example. Our latest blog was written by our intern, so we shared advice for businesses about interns and how to be a good work place for one, talked about some of the points raised in the blog and of course shared a picture.
Happy blogging and let me know if you’ve used any of these tips in your social, just use #PushStartMarketing or tag @PushStart_ on Twitter…
Final Tip: Your social media tips should get greater reach if you ask people to share them! Try #PleaseShare #PleaseRT…