So you have decided to embark on starting a blog—a good move as a senior care provider to build credibility and expertise around your service. When I first started my blog, the only thing I was concerned with was what I was going to write about (or the content) but I soon found out there were a number of other considerations I needed to be aware of in order to truly make my blog work for me to create engagement—or in the world of senior care marketers: leads!
Getting Started: Boost Your Blog
After doing some trial and error attempts, as well as a large amount of research and data mining, I learned how to be extremely successful at blogging. Recently I came across an article written by Denise Wakeman published on www.socialmediaexaminer.com that any new blogger will find very helpful. The article detects a number of necessary tasks to use that will help ramp up speed to your blog and increase your ROI. In addition, I’ve added a few of my own suggestions based on my own personal blogging experience.
14 Blog Necessities
- Upon introduction of your blog, invite your customers to participate.
- Is your name as author/publisher easy to find?
- Do you have an about/contact us page?
- Do you have subscription options (RSS and email)?
- Does your masthead (banner) make it simple for new readers to know what your blog is about and if it’s worth it for them to read?
- Do you have social sharing buttons on your posts?
- Do you have comments enabled?
- Do you understand how to use the meta tags and image tags in your article (this is essential for SEO)?
- Do you have numerous posts published? (It is vital that you have several posts –you don’t want to send people to a blog with only one or two posts. First-time readers will want to get a sense of your style, content and expertise before they commit to subscribing to your blog. I strongly suggest having at least seven posts published before you start promoting your new blog on your social channels.)
- Have you created categories for your posts to be saved in for archiving purposes?
- Do you have a call to action to help users find additional information easily (get a free helpful checklist; join your mailing list, etc)?
- Link your blog to your Facebook business page, LinkedIn profile, and Twitter stream, etc.
- Submit your blog to the appropriate blog directories.
- Always end your blog with a question to engage your readers.
Now, take a look at your blog and compare it to the list above to determine your blog readiness and effectiveness. If you are investing time and money in blogging, then you must ensure you are getting the top effectiveness of your blog. Have you found other blog strategies to be helpful? We would love to hear about them! Please share below.
