Let social media fuel your business blog
Here’s a common question about business blogs: How do we come up with enough content to keep our blog updated regularly?
Today, I’m going to fill you in on a few simple tips for developing quick but effective blog posts.
Before you get too excited, let me offer a little disclaimer: These tips all require you to have a social media presence. So if your business doesn’t have that yet, well, what in the name of Mothra are you waiting for?
How can you pull blog content from your social media sites? Here are a few quick tips:
This is a pretty easy one. Post a question on your Facebook wall. Make it a good question. One your followers will want to answer. Now, remember this should somehow pertain to the theme of your blog. After a day or two, collect your answers. Pick the best ones and post them on your blog along with a short introduction stating why these answers are valuable/interesting/insightful.
Sample Facebook Question:
Local Real Estate Blog – What is your favorite thing about living in Anytown, USA?
You can pull content from Twitter the same way as Facebook. Though it may be a little more difficult depending who your follows are (friends, colleagues, business partners, etc.). So you have to base your question on who will answer. Dave Pogue, tech columnist for nytimes.com, does this all the time. He sends out a question via Twitter and reports the answers. There’s also an even easier way to use Twitter for blog content. Simply search the topic you want to write about on Twitter. Your search should turn up a lot of tweets. Use those tweets as content for your blog. Again, be sure to add an intro explaining why what people are saying is useful and relevant.
The groups on LinkedIn are not only an easy way to get blog content – they can also help you get ideas for blog posts. Join some groups relevant to your blog theme. See what people are talking about in these groups. When you find a good discussion, make it a blog post. Create a short intro explaining why it’s an interesting topic, mention there’s a whole group discussion devoted to it on LinkedIn, and provide a glimpse of the conversation. Presto – you have yourself a blog post.
Along with being quick and convenient, pulling content from social media sites for your blog also gets you more active on social media sites (always a good thing); and shows customers/readers your business is active in the social media world. It’s win, win, win. Take that, Charlie Sheen.
