Get Off Your Blog To Build Your Audience

If you want to build your audience, then you need to get off your blog. On day 3 of the 31DBBB Challenge, Darren Rowse suggests a number ways that you can get off your blog to promote your brand. You should listen to Darren’s podcast to get more detailed information about each of these tips but in a nutshell, this is what he said:

1. Share a post on social media
2. Guest post on other blogs
3. Find a forum that relates to your blog topic
4. Pitch another blog or social media influencer
5. Speak at an event
6. Join a Facebook group
7. Interview someone and publish it on your blog
8. Share your content with relevant media

I have already started to apply some of these tips to my daily routine. However I know that I still have a lot of work to do. Here is a quick snippet of how I plan to Get Off My Blog more often:

1. Share a Post on Social Media

I think that I’m pretty good at sharing new blog posts on social media. It has become a habit to immediately share all new blog posts on Twitter, Facebook and Google+. I use the automatic share buttons on WordPress to share new blog posts on Twitter and Google+ but I prefer to manually post to Facebook so that I can add my own graphics and text. On every new blog post I write {New Blog Post} in brackets. It is a great way to highlight a new post and differentiate from a shared post or a post that I wrote in the past.

How To Improve

• Use Buffer to Schedule Posts – I have a buffer account that I hardly ever use. Buffer is a fantastic tool which allows you to schedule posts ahead of time. It allows you to post at specific times and across many different social media accounts. I need to make more time for buffer and share posts and relevant content (from my blog and from other people’s blogs) more consistently.
• Be More Consistent – Consistency is super important! Creating a social media schedule (and sticking to it with the help of schedule posts and buffer) will ensure that I consistently post new content to social media and consistently engage my readers. At the moment, I am posting on the fly. I know this is bad. I know I need to get more organised with this.
• Schedule Instagram Posts – I just learnt that there are ways to schedule instagram posts. I plan to use latergramme to schedule my Instagram and become more consistent posting on that platform too
• Pin Blog Posts on Pinterest – I use Pinterest a lot but not in a way that optimises my blog. I need to go through all of my blog posts and pin them to a special board specifically dedicated to “blog posts”.
• Comment on Other Blogs –

2. Guest Post On Other Blogs

I have been invited to guest post on a few other blogs, however I have procrastinated the project for a while. Very slack! Darren suggests guest posting for another blog at least once a week however I don’t even blog on my own blogs that much. Once I find a rhythm and start to post on my own blog more consistently, then I will start writing for other blogs too. Getting content published on my own blog needs to be the priority!

3. Find A Forum That Relates To Your Blog Topic

Forums have been amazing traffic generators for my Greek Weddings Blog. I spent a lot of time on them years ago sharing information and links to my blog posts. However all of that traffic is now being sent to the stupid hackers that stole my original domain name.

Perhaps I should go back to all those forums and attempt to fix the links. Adding this project to my to do list!

5. Speak At An Event

In the last week, I have been to 2 Thermomix Events + I have another event coming up this Friday. I decided to test out Darren’s theory and I was surprised when it worked!

At our Something For Everyone Cooking Class, I got up in front of an audience of about 20 people. My group leader asked me to talk about my story and why I decided to become a Thermomix Consultant. At the very end of my 2 minute talk, I quickly threw in a comment that I am blogging about my journey. I didn’t mention my blog name or plug a URL at anyone however at the end of the event I had 3 people come up to me and ask me for my blog details. It was a huge confidence booster!

Then at my Thermomix branch meeting, I met a consultant who read my blog. She told me that she was going through a similar experience and that she really enjoyed reading my post about failing. In fact, my blog post became a topic of conversation at the branch meeting for everyone.

Promoting my blog posts at real life Thermomix events is great for both my blog and for my Thermomix business. Im going to continue doing it with a more proactive approach. I might even get some special MOO business cards made up for my blog.

6. Join A Facebook Group

Since becoming a mother, I have joined almost every Facebook group that I have found relating to pregnancy, breastfeeding, baby wearing and MCNs. I’m also a member of a long list of Thermomix, blogging and business groups too. Sometimes I feel like I spend way too much time on Facebook. Perhaps I should use time to be a bit more strategic and a little less social. I hope it helps to grow my blog.

Tip – If you are like me and you belong to a lot of Facebook groups then be sure to download the Facebook Groups ap for your mobile phone.

7. Interview Someone And Publish It

I have posted a few wedding interviews with brides and grooms on my Greek Weddings blog. This is really popular and something I definitely want to do more of. I plan to:

• Ask Photographers, Videographers & Stylists if they have couples that want to share their stories.
• Follow up with photographers, Videographers & Stylists that I have already talked to.
• Create Interview template forms for couples to fill in
• Send an email  to my database to find more couples willing to share their story.
• Complete draft blog posts that I have sitting in ,y drafts folder
• Create a space on my blog for couples to submit their own wedding stories

8. Share Your Content With Relevant Media

This year I was featured in the Brisbane Bride / On Trend Bride Magazine. Perhaps I could write more for other wedding magazines? This is going on my to do list!

The more I write, the more I realise how much I still have to do. To achieve my blogging goal, I really need to start focusing more on content creating, growing my blog and building my audience. I know what I need to do, I have heaps of ideas to implement however I just need to sit down at the computer and do it.

Do you have other suggestions?

How do you get off your blog?