WEEK 1: EFFECTIVE BLOGGING FOR CREATIVES
/
2 Comments
My eyes were really opened to the possibilities of online marketing when good friend of mine established herself as a successful photographer by marketing almost completely through social media and the internet (and amazingly at almost no cost!). Stephanie began with a passion of photography as she naturally found herself snapping photos in her free time. She continued to follow this passion when she entered college as a photography major. To my shock, not even two years into the program she quit! The thoughts started racing through my head, “How could she do that?!” and “Why would she do that?!”
Well, she
proved my doubts wrong. Six years later she has established her own company,
Stephanie Pana Photography, which has proved that the right combination of
passion, hard work, and creativity, one can succeed. Photography now provides
Stephanie with her sole source of income and she thrives! A big part of this
success I believe comes from her tactful utilization of social media and
internet marketing. Set up with an arsenal of internet marketing points
including a web site, Facebook, blog, Instgram, and Twitter (among other things
that I am probably not aware), she was able to launch her company on a tight budget. Not only launch her company, but attract the attention of the photography
community as well as her target market. She, to me, is a great example of someone who uses
social media the right way.
With
Stephanie in mind, I look at ways in which to promote my own creative endeavors
as an interior designer. How can I successfully brand myself online? This week
I started not by tackling this larger question as a whole, but by chipping off a piece and focusing into what makes a successful blog. For this information, I turned to an article
by another blog, Creative Bloq, which gears itself towards creatives. From their article, I was given some insights on various topics which it seems that we will be covering in further detail these upcoming weeks! See my summary of this article below:
1. Use SEO tools
This point addresses the importance of using tools such as Google Analytics to monitor what keywords people are using to find your blog.
2. Follow other bloggers
For the pure sake of finding inspiration for your own.
3. Use social media
Use social media as a tool to look into the minds of others in your niche as well as what topics are trending in your industry in general. Provide your own piece to appeal to what your group is interested.
4. Brainstorm with peers
When you hit a mental roadblock, turn to your peers for renewed inspiration.
5. Make contact with readers
In order to gain insight into what your audience wants to read about. Ask them!
6. Re-read your past posts
For inspiration for new ones. Follow up with more information on past topics; it is these topics after all that originally drew your audience in.
7. Follow the news
As the news can serve as another source of inspiration for your blog.
About Post Author
Your #7 is something I put on my summer bucket list. I've been using Google Alerts so I'm forced to look at topical content in order to clear out of my inbox. I find the best articles and sound-bites that I didn't previously "have time" to go looking for. . . and then I post them to my Twitter feed as a way to establish my interest, naively collect a following and bookmark content I like.
ReplyDeleteMolly, thank you for taking the time to read my blog and comment! It is nice to see the information I posted is actually used out there. I am curious if you grow your Twitter following for a business interest of personal (I am not yet a Tweeter myself).
ReplyDelete