Tweet this, retweet this, check out this blog post, click here, act now, subscribe for free updates, watch this, share this, like me, follow me, act now. Whoa! There sure isn't a shortage of folks telling us what to do in the social world.
From bloggers, internet marketing experts, social media gurus, social rockstars, twitterati, to a-listers someone has something that is going to rock your world with a click, like, follow and tweet.
Do you remember why you created your blog?
It's easy to get caught up in the hype of the buttons, gadgets, shares, pages, videos, widgets, gidgets and gadgets. As a result it's also easy to forget why you created your blog in the first place. Did you create your blog only for the rankings, stats, clicks, shares and likes? Or did you start blogging to help your business?
Do you remember how happy you were when you received your first tweets, retweets, likes, and comments? Remember the feeling of knowing that your content inspired someone, helped you connect with someone in a way that brought them closer to you and your brand?
How long has it been since you had that feeling? You know the feeling I am talking about. The one that makes you want to do the “happy blog post dance” when you hit submit.
How long has it been since you knew deep in your heart and brain that you are providing value to your readers, your clients, partners, audience? If you have to think more than a few seconds on this question then it's been too long.
Take your blog back!
A few weeks ago I wrote a post titled “Is This My Blog or Your Blog?” where I realized I was doing the same thing. I had gotten so wrapped up in the hip and hype, gidgets and gadgets that I was starting to lose “me” in my posts. When you lose yourself in posts you also start to lose the value you offer your readers.
10 tips to take your blog back from the value eating gadget, widget and share button monsters.
1. Know your objectives. Why are you blogging? Who are you blogging for? What do you want to accomplish? If you are blogging for business, how is your blog going to help you meet your business goals and objectives? What do you want to achieve from blogging from both personally and professionally?
2. Stop Random Acts of Marketing (RAMs)! Get integrated. A blog should not be run as a silo separate from your business, online marketing, offline marketing or social media strategy. The more and better you can integrate the better your results will be. Many assume integration is more expensive. In reality integration can cost you less if done correctly. It helps minimize and often eliminate the Random Acts of Marketing (RAMs) which will eat your business ROI for lunch and dinner. If it isn't in the budget, doesn't have a plan and doesn't align with other efforts, campaigns and tactics then chances are it's a RAM!
3. Know what you have to offer. What are your strengths and weaknesses? What topics are you most familiar with that will enable you to provide the most thoughtful, comprehensive but easily understood content that can be enjoyed by your readers? Don't try to be something that you are not. If you have not had success or spent time on Google+ then don't write about it like you're an expert.
4. What do you know that others don't know? Writing a blog post every day about the latest feature that Google+, Facebook or Twitter launches is not going to differentiate you from the masses. What do you have to offer your readers that is different than the status quo blogger? How can you differentiate yourself by offering the most relevant, compelling content that will help your audience meet their business goals and objectives?
5. Know your readers. Who reads your blog? Why do they read your blog? What content do they read most on your blog? What would they like to see more or less of? If you don't know the answers to the questions then find them. Dig into the analytics and viral share metrics. Ask your readers what they want. You'll be suprised how much they'll share with you if you simply put a little more effort into showing them that you care.
6. Know the people you wish would read your blog. Who would you like to read your blog that isn't reading your blog? What content do they need? What blogs are they reading? Where do they hangout online and offline? How are they engaging with other bloggers? What content are they consuming, sharing and talking about? The more you can get in the head of your readers and wanna be readers the better your results will be.
7. Know your data. Dig into the data! Google Analytics is a gold mine for learning how your readers engage and don't engage with your blog. Pay close attention to top landing pages, exit pages and referral sites. What is the bounce rate, time on site, and top traffic sources? Google Analytics now supports a first level of viral share data if you install a small set of code on your blog. Our SMO team is just starting to use this as a way to easily get a snapshot of shares on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Of course it's not perfect or as comprehensive as our other more robust paid tools, but it's great for a close to real-time snapshot.
8. Get a reality check. If the data shows that your readers are not engaging, sharing, clicking, liking, or commenting, then it might be time for an overhaul. If it's broken, fix it, don't ignore it. Do a sanity check on your content, brand experience, user experience and overall success of your efforts. If you don't like what you see in the data then have the guts to make a change. You can either waste another year doing what you're doing or you can invest the time and money now to ensure a year from now your results are something you are proud of. If you do what ya' always do, you'll get what you've always got, period!
9. Quit making up excuses. Quit blaming your lack of success on your lack of budget, boring fans, readers and community. Maybe you are the one who is boring. Even if you have a limited budget you can still rock your blog. I started my blog with a computer, keyboard, two hands and a chick ready to rock. In less than a year my blog made the top 50 on AdAge Power 150, Top 100 Small business blogs. I didn't pour tons of money into it. I learned what I had to learn and hired out what I needed help with. If your results look the same a year from now as they do today, you will have nobody to blame but yourself, sorry.
10. Do the gidget / gadget test. Take a look around your blog. How many buttons, widgets and gadgets do you have? Take inventory, analyze the data and determine which ones are delivering value to your audience? Which ones are helping you meet business goals and objectives? If they aren't doing either then it might be time to say “buh bye” to some of the technical toys that are probably also slowing down your website performance big time. I did this last week and increased the speed of my blog exponentially.
11. Create an editorial calendar. After you have done your research, clearly defined your objectives, written a plan, now take the time to draft an editorial calendar. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. If you're new to blogging or content then simply decide upon themes that will connect with your audience throughout the year. Develop a calendar that defines by week, month and quarter what content you will develop. Defining themes of topics helps you integrate, increase brand awareness and brand equity by hitting home key messages and value propositions. It will also simplify the integration of your blog into a supporting and pivotal component of your overall strategy.
Your Turn
So what is your blog doing for me lately? What is it doing for your readers? Is it providing value? Is it time for a reality check? If it is working, what tips can you offer others? Was there ever a time you struggled? How did you work thru it?
Heartbeat of Social Media Series
This blog post is part of a new series titled “The Heartbeat of Social Media“. It will include a deep look at how communities work, what people are doing within them and how businesses can better understand how they can fit in, provide value and derive benefit as both a business as well as individual people.
Subscribe to the series for updates and access to special videos, webinar training and more. Would love to hear your input and have you participate in discussions and debates as we challenge each other to be part of what makes the social network heartbeat healthy and alive in 2012!
I'll be hosting a free “Facebook for Business” as well as “Rock Your Blog” webinar with focus on social media optimization which will deep dive into some of the topics discussed in this post. Subscribe to the series for updates and early invitations.
WOW! Granted that I wasn’t a Pamoholic much before your “Is this your blog or my blog” post, but I’ve gotta hand it to you.. Since that post, you’ve been ON FIRE. I’ve FELT every message that you’ve conveyed in the last few weeks and was inspired by each in a different way. This opening says it all… Everytime I get a DM spewing that, I throw up in my mouth a lil bit. It’s one thing to broadcast your message to make it available, but another to have Megaphoneitis and make everyone try to hear what their saying. Boy, I’m fired up now, good job Pam!
As for me, since I only have 4 blog posts to my name, I’m still trying to capture that Happy Dance feeling for every single post. A few have asked why I don’t post more frequently. My response is that I don’t want to publish crap that anyone else could do. If that means I lose a few impatient people who want daily gratification, so be it. If I can impact and inspire 10’s, or dare I say hundreds, of people every 5-8 days it’s worth it because dammit, Pam said this is my blog not yours!!! Thank you for being brilliant.
@SociallyGenius Amen! You are so right. It drives me nuts when folks think they need to post every single day even if they don’t have anything to say. I say write when you have something to write of value. I’ve even had posts that are half written or more and I wind up not posting them. Why you ask?? Well because once I get almost done I think “what value is this going to provide?” If I feel it’s not of the most value I can offer than why should I post it just to get traffic? Doing such can actually minimize your blog traffic when you do write good stuff! Thanks so much for the kind words. It is music to my ears to hear my words inspire you. Keep rockin’! You are on fire and are going to do great things this year! So proud of you!! :)
@PamMktgNut Thanks Pam! p.s. You’re going to LOVE my next post… and not just because I’m using you as an example of greatness! It’s taking longer to complete but I’m sticking to my guns – no BS filler post in between.
@jamiecrager I envision Paula Abdul reading the article out loud…
@jamiecrager I guess I should have said Janet Jackson, then maybe it would have been funny. :) I gotta learn my female R&B artists!
@AskAaronLee Are you going to be at World Bloggers & Social Media Summit on Mon-Tue? #MSMW2012
@pradeepchopra I won’t :( enjoy it sir!! saw you were speaking! go rock it
@AskAaronLee Thanks.. will miss you :(.
Hi Pam, I love your article. This is to inform you that I “PinIt” with the button at the bottom of the left bar, but it didn’t look it was working fine. I didn’t get any result on my Pinterest board.
It worked only when later I have used the Pin It button of my Chrome browser: now your article is saved into my Web Marketing board on Pinterest.
Luca
@lucaleonardini Sorry about that. I know it has had some issues lately! My developer is looking at it but I seem to always be driving the team nuts w/my button adds, moves etc. I think I might have to hire a full time button developer & mover ;) (Part serious!) ha
Well said Pam. I have been going through a period of adjustment on my own blog recently as I had found that it had all become a bit of a chore and that I was becoming bored with it all.
I realised that I was trying too hard in attempting to join in with every new fad that came along and that in the end I was just chasing my tail trying to keep up with it all. I am in the process now of stripping things back and get back to basics so that I can find the essence of my blog again and once more enjoy the social media experience.
So thanks for the tips to help me move in the right direction. The only thing I would add is that from my experience it isn’t only the blog itself that can be the problem but also all the glittery social media toys that suck up your time and distract from what you are trying to achieve :-)
@TonyH Very well said Tony. I agree with you. It’s so easy to get caught up in the latest social network fad, gidget, gadget. However, we must make time for our foundational offering to the ecosystem as a whole. For me, that is my content. I deliver it via my blog, tweets, Facebook etc. After I wrote the post “is this your blog or my blog?” I have had so much more joy when writing. It also seems to be adding value to my readers as well. On the #GetRealChat a few weeks ago we were chatting on this same topic. By the end of the hour we all concluded that the important factor is that your blog keeps “you” in it. Yes, we must be focused on providing value to our readers, giving them content they can use, content that inspires etc. However, it’s also the “you” in your posts that give it that unique flavor and keep them coming back. We are then able to learn different perspectives from one another. I believe firmly when we focus too much on numbers we lose sight of the thing that made us successful to begin with which is developing content on a subject we’re passionate about. Hope that makes a little bit of sense. Great words and comment. Thanks for making me think on this again.
Have a great rest of your Friday!
I have been spinning my wheels to drive traffic to my site, and this post really nailed it for me. Although my blog isn’t a business, but instead more of a “ministry,” so to speak, I’ve been breaking my back trying to get my name out there.
This topic, “What Has Your Blog Done for Me Lately,” inspires me to focus on what IS happening with my blog, rather than what’s not. Since I started blogging for Gospel for Asia in November, my readers have sponsored 14 children from a link on my blog. Most people look at my measly 8 “followers” and think it’s not a successful blog. However, the small group that does come back daily is making a difference in the world, and I guess it’s time I started focusing on that rather than trying to drive in more traffic.
Thanks for the insight!
@GodsReminders Amen!! When you focus on the traffic only you lose focus on the why you started your blog to begin with and the “what” is going to make it successful. I say focus on the good you have done to date (and congrats by the way.. that is awesome!). However, also just focus on doing more good. Keep evangelizing and doing what you do. Eventually it will work as long as you stay in touch with your readers, how they respond, what they read etc. Google Analytics should become your best friend. There are many answers within the analytics walls for those who dare to spend time there!
@jimwoodsblog @douglasi thank you both! :)
Great post. I’ve been tackling these issues for the the past few months. It’s all about finding focus and remembering why you are doing this. Whether you blog just for fun or for a business there’s going to be more enjoyment out of it if you have direction. I completely overhauled my site and moved it to WP. It forced me to make some decisions about where I wanted to go with the blog. I haven’t figured it all out but I feel as though I’m in a better place to do it.
@whenpigsflyblog The truth is I don’t think any of us will ever figure it “all” out. If we do then something will have gone wrong, really wrong! ;) You hit the nail on the head in the importance of not forgetting why you are doing it in the first place. I always preach this with clients and fellow bloggers we coach. The question you should ask yourself at every deliverable, post, question is “WHY”!
Too often the term “thought leader” is thrown around. Pam, it was meant for you! I appreciate your consistent quality of info, ideas and affirmations!
@loiscreamer Thanks Lois! Happy Friday to you :)
@LinkedInExpert @PamMktgNut y r u up so late?
Hey Pam,
Great Tips here!
Yes, it is really important to define our blog’s objective and blog while keeping that in mind. You have also reminded me about the importance of using Analytics to realize our audience and improve our blog based on the data.
Lately, I have been focusing on writing about techniques that I come across and experiment with (I think I am providing value to my readers – but I am trying to provide more value, I hope I can). Thanks for the tips, Pam. They will sure help me to make my blog better :)
Hey Pam,
Great Tips here!
Yes, it is really important to define our blog’s objective and blog while keeping that in mind. You have also reminded me about the importance of using Analytics to realize our audience and improve our blog based on the data.
Lately, I have been focusing on writing about techniques that I come across and experiment with (I think I am providing value to my readers – but I am trying to provide more value, I hope I can). Thanks for the tips, Pam. They will sure help me to make my blog better :)
Agreed! @pammktgnut “Writing a daily blog post abt latest Google+, Facebook or Twitter feature won’t differentiate u frm the masses.”
[…] Pam Moore has got the bead on bringing you back to why you blog in her post titled What has Your Blog Done for Me Lately? […]