When it comes to blogging the fashion industry leads in this area. Personally I never really paid much attention to blogging and probably wouldn’t have ever had much interest in it if it wasn’t for the fashion industry. Although now there are blogs for many areas and interest, which is great.
BE CONSISTENT
When it comes to blogging and tweeting some of the best practices is to be consistent. What do I mean by this? Well, let’s say you are just starting out and you begin posting something every Monday and then all of sudden you go a few weeks without posting anything. Your readers won’t know what to expect from you. Being consistent is the key in blogosphere. The best way to keep on task is to create a content or editorial calendar. The content calendar will serve as a great tool to keep you on task and stay committed.
“A social media content calendar should organize the way you curate and create content, and help develop your editorial strategy. A social media calendar cuts extra time out of your content marketing strategy and helps you allocate your resources wisely, to help ensure your brand consistently publishes high-quality, well-written, high-performing content pieces (Sorokina, 2014)”.
If you’re not sure how to create one, check out this article: How to Create an Editorial Calendar Using Google Calendar
KEEP IT SHORT AND SIMPLE
Another great practice is keep it short and simple. Every post is going to be different but they don’t have to be long. If you find a post is growing in length, split it up into a series or find a great end point and say, to be continued. Depending on the time of day you publish your post, the majority of people are busy. A great post should be about 5 minutes long or short enough that someone can read while enjoying a cup of coffee. In addition, the post or tweet should be meaningful, “Providing interesting content is the way to “earn” your audience (Schaefer).”
SELECT A NICHE
As I mentioned there are some many things to blog about and everyone has different interest. So selecting a niche is important, this way readers know what topic(s) you are focusing on. Also, this is where you can be creative and showcase what you do or how you do something.
BE AUTHENTIC
Regardless of what platform one may use to the engage their audience the key is to be authentic. Mark W. Schaefer said in his book, The Tao of Twitter, “When somebody does something great–provides an interesting blog post, an exceptional insight, a helpful solution–I try to make an effort to compliment the person publicly on Twitter (Schaefer).” We get it there isn’t enough time in a week to respond to every re-tweet or comment especially for those with a large audience. However, I think sometimes with social media people forget that socializing is apart of the formula. I should also add here that not everyone is on social media for the same reasons, some use it solely for business while others use it to connect with friends and family.
The bottom line is that there are so many wonderful opportunities that can be developed through social media and keeping up to date is essential. Social media is continually growing and according to some statistics presented in the video I have shared below, “Social media has become the #1 activity on the web.”
The suggested practices are only a few of many but these the ones that I believe will help you gain a good start. Do you have any practices that you find useful with blogging or tweeting?
Share and comment below
References
Calanderpedia. (n.d.). Blank calendar-template 1. Retrieved from http://www.calendarpedia.com/blank-calendar-excel-templates.html
Qualman, E. (2012, October 7). Social Media 2013 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXD-Uqx6_Wk
Schaefer, M. (2014). The Tao of Twitter: Changing your life and business 140 characters at a time. McGraw Hill.
Sorokina, O. (2014, November 6). Why You Need A Social Media Content Calendar For Your Business. Retrieved from https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-to-create-a-social-media-content-calendar/
Wainwright, C. (2016, February 2). How to Create an Editorial Calendar Using Google Calendar. Retrieved from http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/create-robust-editorial-calendar-ht#sm.001pp59dt1c4ed9az6127a6y0tltl
Sunsets and Sequins 
Hi Astrid,
Nice post. Amid the previous decade there a major unrest has occurred in advertising interchanges. Promoting interchanges have changed from customary broad communications and deals and item situated advertising towards more coordinated showcasing. Coordinated advertising interchanges can be characterized as “a procedure for dealing with the client connections that drive brand esteem “(Kitchen and De Pelsmacker ,2004,7). The key engineers of coordinated advertising correspondences are data innovation, the Internet and World Wide Web, globalization and the requirement for organizations to end up more client driven and client centered (Kitchen and De Pelsmacker ,2004, 12).
There are a few social media stages. The time spent on a specific online networking stage relies on upon the demographic gathering. Ebrand (2015) reported that the most well-known online networking stages among youngsters are YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. Contrasting the most prevalent online networking locales of the 13 to 17 and 18 to 29-year-old individuals, it can be seen that right now more youthful individuals lean toward different informing applications, for example, WhatsApp, Messenger, Kik ambassador and Snapchat over Pinterst, Twitter or LinkedIn. Nonetheless, there was not that huge contrasts on the time spent on online networking between these age bunches (Ebrand 2015; Goldman 2013, 45).
Online networking unites diverse similar individuals. Individuals appreciate contributing, making and joining groups. Being socially associated satisfies necessities of belongingness. As indicated by Whitler (2014), 92 % of shoppers trust proposals originating from loved ones over different types of advertising. WOM-Word of Mouth-is one reason why to utilize online networking promoting. It expands the brand mindfulness, directs people to sites and along these lines enhance web crawler rankings. What’s more, online networking showcasing energizes the association amongst purchasers and brands in a practical manner. When it is done well it will likewise improve the notoriety and the image of the brand (Whitler 2014; Tuten 2008, 19-20, 25-26).
References
Ebrand. 2015. Some ja Nuoret 2015. Accessed 29.8.2015. http://www.ebrand.fi/somejanuoret2015/2-suosituimmat-sosiaalisen-median- palvelut/
Goldman, Jeremy. 2013. Going Social: Excite customers, generate buzz, and energize your brand with the power of social media. USA. American Management Association.
Kitchen, P.J. & De Pelsmacker, P. 2004. Integrated Marketing Communications: A Primer. Great Britain. Routledge.
Tuten, Tracy L. 2008. Advertising 2.0: Social Media Marketing in a Web 2.0 World. USA. Praeger Publishers.
Whitler, Kimberly A. 2014. Why Word of Mouth Marketing Is the Most Important Social Media. Forbes.
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Astrid,
I enjoyed reading your blog this week. Your four points for best blogging practices were short and simple, making things easy to understand. In an article I found, there were a few other points mentioned which I really believe will improve blogs. One thing he mentioned is to write about what you know. A lot of times people decide to pick a topic and share their opinion, whether they’re knowledgeable on the subject or just feel like putting in their two cents. Not having a full grasp on what your own blog is about looks childish and quite embarrassing if something incorrect is mentioned. Something else he mentioned is to be controversial. Maybe not in every post, but it’s okay to disagree every once in a while with what’s going on (Rickershauser). Not only is it going to make the blog more interested for people to read, but it’ll also make people want to comment and contribute to the blog more often. Their comments may not always be positive, but you’re part of the conversation. An interesting statistic I found showed that business to business bloggers receive 67% more leads than those who do not (Stahler, 2016). That shows that if you’re putting you and your company out there as a blogger and are an active member in the community of blogs, the company is going to be more popular and gain more followers in the long run. Being smart about keywords and topics can make the difference between a successful blog and a blog that people scroll past. Blogging is something that isn’t thought much of in the way of research and effort, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The more social media rises as the main source of communication, the more popular blogs will become and the more people will understand its importance.
Citations
Rickershauser, D. (n.d.). 10 best practices for corporate blogging. Retrieved July 22, 2016, from http://www.campaignercrm.com/en/community/blog/crm/post/10-best-practices-for-corporate-blogging/
Stahler, M. (2016, January 06). B2B Blogging Best Practices for 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2016, from https://www.sensiblemarketing.com/blog/b2b-blogging-best-practices-for-2016
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