Social Media

How to Make a Blog Your Social Media Nucleus Lorrie Thomas , Web Marketing Therapy , Santa Barbara, CA - Nov 16, 2010

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The way we market products and/or services has been revolutionized by the social web's ever-evolving conversational, connective, content-sharing nature. Content is still king in web marketing; however, the new ways we share, manage, and distribute content has changed for the better (saving time, money, and energy) thanks to social media tools like blogs.

In this article I'll explain how to multiply your social media efforts by making your blog the social media marketing nucleus. The idea is to think of your blog as the central part of your social media campaign with your other social media marketing components (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) visibly gathered around it.

Here's how to begin.

Select a Blog Theme

First, give your blog a clear theme. When visitors come to your blog, they must know immediately what the blog is about. Communicating the theme visibly in the header of the blog, the title, or under the "about" section of your blog to help visitors "get it". This makes content expectations clear and help your visitor anticipate what is there. A clear theme also helps blog writers for your organization focus on what to write about. Here are a couple of examples:

• Web Marketing Therapy has a "Healthy Marketing Advice" theme for their blog.
• Tax Resolution Services, Co. has a "Tax Resolution University" theme for their blog, educating readers on tax relief, IRS resolution tips, and offering resources.

A clear theme helps define your focus and can be reiterated across other social media outlets like Facebook (for pages and groups) as well as what is communicated in a Twitter bio. When your the theme is clearly mapped out -- and focused on your reader's needs, not your company's greatness -- it provides a "mental compass," giving visitors a reason to come back and re-engage with you.

Link, Link, Link and Sync

Once you've established your blog as your base for thought leadership and a rich source of content in your field, now employ the following "link, link, link and sync" technique to amplify your blog content throughout other social media.

1. Link -- Link to Your Other Social Media Outlets

Be sure your social media icons are very visible on your blog -- link to them. Do you have a Facebook page or group? Do you have a Twitter account? Are you or your company on LinkedIn? YouTube? BlogTalkRadio? Flickr? If so, show! These icons (or widgets in geek-speak), help increase your connections across all social media platforms and give your visitors choices as to how they engage with you.

Marketers say that it takes an average of seven touches to get a sale. Why not tap the power of your blog to connect your visitors and then and continue to connect them throughout other media. Here are some examples:

• The US Capital Blog ("small to mid cap company's insider download on small business lending") has Twitter and LinkedIn Widgets on the blog.
• The Law School Expert blog ("expert law school law school admission advice") has Twitter, BlogTalkRadio, and Facebook embedded into the right navigation to increase the ways readers can connect with them.

2. Link -- Link to RSS, Re-Tweet Tools and Social Bookmarking Widgets

RSS ("Really Simple Syndication") allows readers to seamlessly receive your content, either to their web reader or to their e-mail inbox. Example: a medical spa blog uses free Feedburner RSS technology that invites readers to subscribe via reader or via e-mail, giving them choices based on their preferences. Once your visitor has signed up, each time you add another blog post, the RSS will automatically send the post to the folks who opt in, helping to increase readability and visibility.

AddThis button with hover pop-up above

When you add a ReTweet widget to your blog posts, it encourages your readers to hit the "ReTweet" button that sends your post to their Twitter followers, helping them share your content with little to no effort. Like Feedburner, the ReTweet widget is free.

You can also help readers remember and share your great content by adding the AddToAny.com or AddThis.com widget. Linking to this "add this" widget allows a reader to click, save or share the post, once again, giving you a greater likelihood of making your messages marketable.

3. Link -- Link Other Social Media in Your Content

When content is shared, you help your readers know you, like you, and trust you, so don't be afraid to have links in your blog post that link to your other social media outlets. Close a great blog post once in a while with something like this example: "Author Name" is the "job title" of "Company X" and writes extensively on "Insert Subject". To connect more with "Company Name" visit us on "Twitter link" or "YouTube link" or "Facebook Page." Little details like that can make a big difference.

Linking and embedding any videos or photos from your social media outlets can also enhance user experience on your blog. The more you can "show" vs. "tell" with imagery, the better. The more the blog supports your organization as the core of your social media by bringing all pieces of the social marketing puzzle together, the more your efforts will click.

4. Sync -- Sync Your Blog to Your Other Social Media Outlets

Your blog and its content can continue to serve as your social media nucleus once you sync it to your other social media outlets. Every time you publish a new blog post, it can automatically feed into Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and even your Amazon.com author page, if you have books out.

Twitterfeed is an easy -- and free -- way automatically sync posts on your blog to your Twitter account and Facebook page. Networked Blogs is an application within Facebook (just search for it when you are logged into Facebook) that allows you to feed your blog into your Facebook group or page -- however, this does not apply to personal pages. When you log into your LinkedIn account, go to the Add an Application link (under your "edit" section on your profile) and find the blog feed option. Then follow the steps to feed every blog post into your LinkedIn profile.

Don't Forget to Share Your Social Media In Your E-mail Signature

Finally, it's useful to close your e-mails with an e-mail signature that includes a link to your blog. Tools like WiseStamp provide a free way to add social media savvy as you send off your e-mail messages.

Looking at your blog as the core or nucleus of your social media marketing allows you to share longer messages via blog posts, link them out to other social media channels without any extra effort, and enables your happy readers to click widgets and seamlessly share your content with their social contacts. In turn, this helps businesses more scalable -- greater impact for the same amount of work. Put these pieces of your social media marketing puzzle together now so your work can click even better.

Lorrie Thomas, MA is The Marketing Therapist ® that helps small businesses get BIG with web marketing. Her team of "wild web women" at Web Marketing Therapy empower professionals with healthy doses of marketing advice to gain maximum wealth from the web. Lorrie speaks nationally and teaches Web Marketing, Social Media Marketing and Search Engine Marketing courses at UCSB and Berkeley Extension. She wrote the 36-Hour Course to Online Marketing for McGraw Hill.