How does blogging and social media help your marketing strategy?

By Morgan Roddy, Social Media Strategist and Blogger 

Northern AZ Social, LLC | A Full Service Advertising Agency in Prescott, AZ

Blogging gained popularity in the early 2000s and has remained important throughout the rise of social media marketing. Pairing a blog with your current social media marketing strategy might not be a brand-new idea but it is still an important one and a good step for most business owners.

When it comes to blogging, set yourself up for success by ensuring your blog has been optimized to keep your current clientele engaged as well as to expand your audience. Content is the first thing you should think about when creating your posts. Every post should have a purpose. Not all posts need to, or really should, directly advertise your services or products. Sometimes a post can merely share important information about your area of work in general. Other posts might speak to things that may not directly relate to your business but could increase your customer base. For example, a restaurant would benefit from a local marathon because of an increase of visitors. Other posts can simply serve the purpose of keeping your blog active. For example, highlighting local photography. Word counts for a blog post usually average between 500 to 1000. Generally, blog posts appear less frequently than social media posts with once a month or once a quarter being the industry average.

Quality content is important no matter what platform you are working with, but it is especially important with blogging because the majority of your content will be text. Your best posts should always be highlighted on all your social media platforms. These posts should be about your product or services or have particularly useful information for your audience. Be careful to not sound too pushy or “sell-sell-sell” when you write. There is a fine line between talking about the benefits of your product/service and being annoying, which obviously would turn your audience off. Some good topics for these kinds of posts would be Frequently Asked Questions, an Interview with the Owner, or an exposé on your top product.

Linking inside your blog posts is also very important. Imbedding links into your posts both promotes traffic inside and outside of your site as well as increasing your Search Engine Optimization (SEO). You can link to your other blog posts, your own website, or other social media accounts. It is also important to link outside of your own services. Do not be afraid of mentioning other business in your area, even if they are similar to yours. Having relationships with your community’s local businesses helps your social media accounts succeed.

Of course, keywords are also important for SEO. Once you’ve figured out what your keywords are, be sure to feature them in the title of the post and at least once in the body of the text. However, you don’t want your post to be a confusing conglomerate of keywords. Overuse will make your content unreadable and uninteresting to the audience you’re trying to attract. One of the best ways to embed keywords in your blog post is to do it in a photograph. Include your keywords in the title of the photo before uploading it to your site. If you are given the option of writing a small caption for the photo, use the keywords again.

All posts should be paired with an image because visual content is very important. Stock photos work for some posts as long as they have relevance to your topic. However, posts about your services or products should include personalized photographs whenever possible. Action shots of you or your employees at work is always a good place to start. Photos provide not only visual appeal for your blog but are also vital when promoting your blog posts on other social media platforms. When attempting to post about your blog on Facebook, for example, it is much easier when there is already a photograph attached.

The key points to keep in mind when blogging is that all posts should have purpose as well as links (both internal and external) and a photo. Keywords should be used with intention, and don’t be afraid to promote your posts on other platforms!

Written by Morgan Roddy,

Social Media Strategist, Northern AZ Social, LLC