Blogging for Business Part 2: How to promote your Blogs beyond Twitter and Facebook?

Blogging for your brand, if done right, gives you the opportunity to engage with existing and prospective customers, gain leads, increase brand resonance among the target market and drive digital traffic to your sites in a cost-effective manner. Yet, despite your content creation and curation efforts, you may face a common challenge– where is my blog traffic?

The idea is to create awareness about and around your blog, break through the clutter and stand out from the rest. Using Twitter and Facebook to promote your blog works, but there are several other tools that can also yield great results in boosting traffic to your blog and getting your blog noticed.

#1 Share on Google+
Based on the concept of creating communities around shared interests, Google+ delivers great functionality when it comes to sharing and promoting content. Simply create a Google+ business page using your personal G+ account. Create a wholesome profile, complete with a high resolution image and header, address and a brief summary about your brand. The key is to insert your brand’s blog URL in your summary section, accompanied with a call-to action. You can also include your blog’s site in your page’s ‘Links’ section.

Once your business page is complete, create Circles – this feature lets you create groups within your contact list. Create groups of influencers, domain experts and your target customers, and share your latest blog posts with ease! Also, leverage Google+ Communities – these are online forums where you can interact with participants. By regularly interacting with other contributors, you establish your brand’s presence in the specific Community.

#2 Network on LinkedIn
This professional networking site works wonders in driving traffic to your blog sites, especially if you are a B2B brand. The key to promoting your brand’s blog on LinkedIn is to be active and to engage with your network. Create a public profile for yourself, and a business page for your brand. You can post links to your latest blog posts on your business page and use your profile to further promote these links to your professional network. Join industry-relevant groups and participate actively in current discussions or conversations, and share your blog sites with niche participants within the groups. Furthermore, you can create your own groups to promote your blog posts and articles.

#3 Post on Quora
Using Quora to promote your business blog is a fantastic way to reach a huge reader base who would be interested in knowing how you can solve their problems. Begin by becoming a member of the Quora community and contribute creative solutions or perspectives to queries. If your blog post can help the enquirer, post a link to the particular post as a part of your response thread. Quora works best as a promotional tool only when you share your expertise on topics and queries that are relevant to your business.

#4 Leverage StumbleUpon
Essentially a social bookmarking website, StumbleUpon is a goldmine when it comes to driving traffic to your blog sites! Simply create a profile, and you can start sharing your blog posts with the StumbleUpon community. Build a follower base of users who have interests that lie within the domain of your business. The site simply shares content that users like or have ‘stumbled upon’ it, with other users who are searching for content on specific topics. Although the user base is not particularly niche, your blog sites are shared at faster pace because of the sheer volume of users.

#5 Incorporate social sharing plugins
Social sharing buttons enable your readers to share your blog content with their preferred networks with ease. There are dedicated users of certain niche platforms. If your blog posts have interesting pictures, Pinterest and Instagram may be potential platforms to share the content. Tools from Buzzsumo can help you place relevant such social sharing plugins.

#6 Promote your blog on your brand site
Use your business web pages to promote your blog – you can include a button with a link to your blog on the home page, or include a widget that showcases your latest blog posts in a truncated manner. Let the hyperlinking appear relevant without affecting the flow of the content.

Your blog content can humanize your brand and give you the opportunity to render a personality for your business that your target audience can relate to. So, promote your blog using a strategized mix of tools such as social media sharing, bookmarking, email marketing and offline activities such as incorporating your blog link in your visiting cards and even other brand collaterals.