Content Mastery Guide

Editor and Ghostwriter

Two Business Blogging Power Tools You Need to Be Using

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Do you feel like your business blogging is hit-or-miss, with more misses than hits? In my latest post for SteamFeed, I introduce two systems that work beautifully together to hone your blogging efforts and produce better results.

The editorial calendar puts a structure around how blogging will achieve your business’s marketing goals, by plotting out exactly how and when you’ll produce relevant content for your audience.

Once that structure is in place, your mind is free to look for real-life examples, questions, stories and topics to fill out your calendar. Idea catchers help you quickly and efficiently capture those ideas so you never have to start blogging from a blank screen again.

© xalanx - Fotolia.com
© xalanx – Fotolia.com

Business Blogging Power Tools: Editorial Calendars and Idea Catchers

http://www.steamfeed.com/business-blogging-power-tools-editorial-calendars-idea-catchers/

Before You Share a Link on Social Media, Answer These Five Questions

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Content curation is an excellent way to extend your reach on social media. By consistently and strategically sharing the right kinds of links, you can:

  • Build your personal brand (reputation) as an expert in a topic
  • Be more active and visible on social media
  • Enhance your relationships by being helpful

But wait!

time out before sharing a link
© vgstudio – Fotolia.com

Can sharing the wrong links in the wrong way detract from your social media activity and damage your reputation? Yes, absolutely! That’s why I encourage you to review these five questions before you share a link. If you can’t answer yes to every one, head back to the drawing board and review your curation strategy.

  1. Is this a topic your prospective clients care about? First and foremost your goal is to help, inspire, enlighten, educate or entertain the people in your network – and the best links will accomplish all five!
  2. Does this link reinforce your expertise, resourcefulness and connectivity in your industry? Everything you post is a reflection on you and/or your business. When you limit your curation to a set list of topics, you become a trusted source of information about those issues.
  3. Have you read or skimmed the entire article? If this is a site you’re not familiar with, click around a bit to ensure it’s one you want to be associated with. If this is someone you already know and trust, be familiar enough with the content to reply to any comments from your network.
  4. Have you added your own text? This could be a quote from the article, an opinion about the topic, a summary of what’s included, or the reason you think it is worth reading.
  5. Have you given credit to the original source? Including the personal or company name (“tagging” them on each specific social media site) increases your credibility, and notifies the author you’ve shared their content. You may even want to go the extra mile and tag the person who helped you discover the link.

BONUS question: Have you used smart scheduling tools to spread your links throughout the day and week? If you’re silent all week and then bombard your stream with several links in a row, fewer people will see them (and those who do may be annoyed). Use Buffer or Hootsuite to take out the guesswork and make the most of your precious time.

Want to curate content the right way? Try our content curation services!

Which of these questions will most change the way you’ve been sharing links? Please let me know how your network responds!

Podcast version

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Is Your Blog Going Cold on the Back Burner?

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Many business owners find it challenging to make blogging a priority, then feel frustrated when their haphazard efforts don’t produce results. In a post originally shared at 12 Most (that site is now closed), I offer some solutions.

Some of these ideas may challenge your ordinary routines, but isn’t that the point? What you’re doing now isn’t leaving any space for this important marketing task. If it’s going to work for you, blogging needs to find its way up to your front burner.

© Chepko Danil - Fotolia.com
© Chepko Danil – Fotolia.com

12 Most Tenacious Ways to Keep Blogging on the Front Burner

https://www.contentmasteryguide.com/2016/06/keep-blogging-front-burner.html

 

Blogging Is Not a Sprint But a Marathon

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Warning: This interview with successful business blogger Leanne Hoagland-Smith may contain some things you don’t want to hear. For example, she gets up at 4:30 a.m. in order to fit in her blogging and other administrative work.

You also may not want to hear that while some results happened immediately (you’ll see some impressive traffic numbers), others came over time. In fact it took some clients months or even a year to make contact after reading the blog for awhile.

If you do want to grow your business and improve your online marketing, you’ll read the post anyway. The bottom line is that Leanne makes time for blogging and keeps doing it consistently because it’s working for her! Click the link below to read this guest post at SteamFeed.

Blogging is like running a marathon
© dejangasparin

Blogging Success Tips From a Leading Sales Expert

http://www.steamfeed.com/blogging-success-tips-leading-sales-expert/

No Time to Blog for Your Business?

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If you want to receive all of my latest posts by email, click here to subscribe to the weekly Blogging Tips newsletter.

“Not enough time” is one of the most common reasons I hear from business owners who abandon their blogs or refuse to start blogging in the first place.

My blog posts, workshops and presentations are all devoted to making blogging easier, but the best blogging tips in the world won’t help if you don’t take the time to apply them.

Let’s say you invest in a blogging plan for your business, or do the work to create your own blogging plan. You’ve been listening for ideas and have several blog post outlines all ready to be developed.

What next? Cobwebs (gathering in the corners of your ghost town blog) and crickets (no attention from prospective customers), unless you go one step further and actually implement the plan, blog consistently and promote your blog posts.

This guest post for 12 Most is all about time and making the most of it to achieve business blogging success.

12 Most Fierce Ways to Protect Your Blogging Time

Fierce lion roaring
© emiliau – Fotolia.com

[Update June 21, 2016: The 12 Most site has been taken down, so I’ve republished this post here at Content Mastery Guide: 12 Most Fierce Ways to Protect Your Blogging Time.]