This blog has been running since November 2021 and it’s something that I’m very proud of. I started this blog before I braved my first networking experience, far before I’d considered guest speaking and even before I’d really defined what my business was all about. It’s grown with me and my business and has become not only an invaluable bank of free support for you, but also my most powerful business asset.
But I still feel like I don’t really know what I’m doing or how to make it more powerful. So when I met Bex from BlogWell, a blogging and SEO expert, at a Visibly You networking session a few months ago, I knew I needed to hear her thoughts and have her as a Featured Guest here!
“I have always loved writing. I was that child who was making up stories about her pets and turning them into books. It was my dream to be a published author, but have you experienced how hard it is to get a publisher on board these days!! Blogging gave me the opportunity to write freely, to be published, to connect with people, to work in a creative way and to do something I love.” – Bex
Why is blogging so valuable for small businesses?
“Blogging has changed a lot over the years. It’s less teenage diary journal style writing these days and more storytelling with purpose. Blog posts need to be written for your audience rather than solely for you, but I love how you can still very much add your personality into the writing – that’s how you build connections, trust, and create a recognisable brand voice, and that’s where the magic happens!” – Bex
I love this because I hear a lot of blog experts talking about SEO and getting more eyes on your expertise, but I feel like that’s kind of the second step. Most of my blog readers come directly from social media, most of them already know me, but my blog is a way for them to preview my approach and experience the benefit of expertise. That’s why I believe that even if you don’t know anything about SEO (like me), a blog can still be so powerful! Don’t get me wrong, we do need to take that second step – but don’t forget to celebrate the first step.
Which social media platforms work best hand-in-hand with blogs?
“There are definitely ones that lend themselves more to work well with blog posts. For example, Facebook is much better geared up for longer, storytelling posts and makes it easier for you to turn blog posts into lots of long-form Facebook posts. Although you can still do that on platforms like Instagram and TikTok, those are much more visual and so it’s harder to translate that across. Plus, I don’t personally think people have great attention spans on the visual platforms. Facebook is for the nosey audience. The ones who like to read, but who might not necessarily comment. But trust me, they’re definitely seeing you.” – Bex
I completely agree, I think Facebook is one of the best platforms to work hand-in-hand with blogs. Not only for the reasons Bex mentioned, but also because a lot of groups that don’t allow you to be salesy, do still allow you to add value and share your blogs.
I personally choose to also share my blogs as a LinkedIn newsletter (which probably doesn’t do my SEO any favours…) because every single new connection gets automatically invited to subscribe, and every subscriber will receive a notification about new blogs.
I also recommend looking into Zzatem, a lesser-known social media platform that is all about blogs. When I remember to post my blogs on there as well, that is always where I get the most readers, and I’m talking a couple of thousand readers rather than a couple of hundred!
It’s also worth considering which platforms allow you to share links.
Why do you need to blog? Why can’t you just write a long social media post?
“As long as you’re publishing your blog posts on a website that you own, that content is yours to keep, and it’s not going anywhere. Write a long post on Facebook, however, and it’s gonna be on the feed for a bit, but then it will just drop off and be forever lost in the social media void. Blog posts stay on your site and become like a mini library, so they continue to provide value and purpose to your audience long after you’ve hit the publish button.
You can also link through to other posts on your blog, so you can keep people on your site for longer (great for SEO), and it solidifies you as an expert in your niche. Plus, there’s no word limit, and you have much more options with structure, how it looks, etc. compared to social media posts. And while we’re on the subject of SEO, search engines don’t rank social media posts, so they’re not going to appear in search results, whereas blog posts will.” – Bex
This blog is over 1500 words long. If you saw a post that long, would you be reading it, or would you have scrolled past as quickly as possible?
Where do blogs fit into a social media strategy?
“I see a blog post as being the foundational piece of content. It’s going to take up the most of your time to create, because it’s the longest content and probably requires the most research, but once you have that it pretty much dictates the rest of your content plan. If you choose a theme for the month and write a blog post on it, you can then use that blog post as the basis for all of your social media content for the month. Blog posts are for the long game and social posts are for those quick wins. The ideal strategy is to combine the two so you’re covering all bases.
When you structure your blog posts in the right way*, you’ll naturally have a certain number of subheadings which clarify your main points. It’s these that you should be turning into social media posts. How much you share is up to you. The idea is that your content is intriguing enough to make your audience want to read more and therefore click through to your blog to read the rest of the post. Which is a good reason why it’s so important to include a CTA in your posts.” – Bex
Do you struggle to write salesy posts because it feels a bit icky? I totally get that! But instead of a “Hey, buy this today”, imagine a “Hey, I’ve written this really helpful blog!” and then while you’ve got them believing there is actually a solution to their problem, you go “Oh yeah, also, I’ve got this for sale that can help you further”. That feels so much less icky, doesn’t it?
* If you’re unsure what ‘the right way’ to structure your blogs would look like, check out this blog post from Bex: How to Structure a Blog Post; a simple guide.
How to promote your blog on social media!
“A lot of people will share a blog post link with something like ‘new blog post – read here:’. But why should they? You haven’t told them what the blog post is about, how it’s going to help them, or why it’s worth their time clicking through and reading. You can’t simply drop a blog post link and expect people to come running – you need to write a social post caption that acts as a teaser or a trailer for the blog post itself. Instead, you could write something like, ‘Struggling to come up with content ideas? Here’s how I break it down into 10-minute tasks’. You’ve recognised a problem your audience might be having, and now you’re showing them how you can help them. This is way more likely to get them clicking through to your blog post than a simple ‘read more here’. The main thing to remember is to give your audience enough, but not
everything.” – Bex
100% agree with Bex! Next time you’ve got a blog to share with your audience, here are three things I want you to remember:
- Give them a reason to click through and read the blog.
- Don’t confuse them with two CTAs. So instead of saying “read this blog and then do this second action”, save that second action for the CTA in the blog itself.
- Don’t be afraid to post multiple times. Not everyone is going to see the first time you post, and even if they did see it, you might not have caught them at a time they could read it.
My featured Guest
Bex Stafferton is a professional blogger, and she now helps small business owners use blogging as part of their marketing strategy to help get their websites found by the right people. But which social media platform is her favourite?
“I am a Facebook girl through and through. I do dabble on some of the others, but Facebook is where I find that I make the best connections, get good engagement, and I love the sense of community that there is on there. I have a Facebook page and a Facebook group – and I love using both. I think I love Facebook because I understand it the most out of all of them. And it feels like you can be authentically you without having to force yourself to follow certain trends and take part in silly dances just to get a couple of likes and a follow!” – Bex
P.S. Have you noticed that my blog structure has changed recently? I got Bex’s SEO Checklist, and I’ll be honest, it’s not the first one I’ve tried over the years, but it’s definitely the most exhaustive I’ve found. Check it out!
I help passionate small business owners with their social media so that they can create a powerful and supportive space to promote their business.
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