Do you want more blog traffic and social shares? Do you want to stop hiding your social share buttons as you're worried they might look lame? In this blog post, we'll cover the 6 types of content that will bring you the traffic and social proof that you crave.
Have you ever heard the phrase “givers gain”? Or maybe you've heard of the Oprah Effect? Promoting other people and services relevant to your market will diversify your blog content and grow your traffic, shares and influence.
You can use these posts to increase your web presence and position yourself by association – What's not to love?
Have you ever heard the phrase “givers gain”? Or maybe you've heard of the Oprah Effect?
So let's get stuck in…
1. People-to-Follow Posts
If I said I had a post that would take three weeks to write would you be interested? No?
If I said the post would generate at least 1,000 social shares? Would that change your mind? The annual people to follow post on Birds on the Blog gets in excess of 75,000 visitors in the first 3 days, and well over 5,000 social shares. That's a post worth writing isn't it!
Create a list of some of the influential people in your niche. This type of content I find works best in a list format – ie 100 people to follow on Twitter in the Blogging niche or Top 100 UK bloggers, however, you are not obligated to make it a list. Each number on the people-to-follow-post should have a mini-biography, a description as to why you find them interesting and worth following.
Remember to add links to their website, social media profiles and events, so your audience can connect with them.
You can also create a Twitter list of the people you've profiled and invite your readers to follow that list. If it's blogging, pull all the feeds into Feedly and share that with your readers as well.
2. Interview Posts
With the boom of social media, an increasing number of celebrities are willing to give blog interviews, even if such blogs have a small and specialized audience. Use this trend to your advantage and try to persuade an influencer to give you an interview. What's the worst they can say? No? I've found most influential people are happy to do a text interview via their PR agency, and they'll even supply the images for you.
You've more chance of getting an interview with an elusive influencer if they have something to promote, and you include the links to it in your post. Sometimes you'll find you can get a phone interview and then add the audio content to your blog – mixing media will simply give your audience more options to choose from.
3. Profile Posts
Profile posts focus on a public figure or an influential person in your niche. These are relatively easy to put together and if you contact the person's PR you'll find that you'll get a lot of information that will help you write the profile. Remember to notify the people you write about via phone, email or social media so they can share the article with their Facebook and Twitter followers.
Remember to optimise your post so your profile can be found in the search engines.
This type of post is popular on business blogs as it gives credibility by association. Out of all the posts types listed here, I've found this the least effective for social shares.
4. Crowd-Sourced Posts
Another powerful blog post idea is to write the so-called crowd-sourced post. These articles bring several influencers together to answer a single question in a few words. Make sure to get at least three people answering your questions, so that each can write about 100 words on your topic.
Alternatively, if you have a busy forum, Facebook group, or blog you can ask your fans, followers, and customers to give tips on a certain topic. This works really well for those new bloggers looking to get established quick.
5. Quote Posts
The audience loves to read quotes from famous people, and they don't all have to be Winston Churchill and Einstein to grab your audience's attention. Pull together a list of quotes from multiple influencers on the same subject or invite a quote on a specific topic.
Be sure to notify the influencers that you have quoted so they can spread the word about your post. Accompany the quotes with suitable and appealing images so they can be pinned on Pinterest and shared via social media. Again, make sure you optimise the post well and if it was my post, I'd mention the word “quotes” in the headline as readers often search for quotes on specific topics.
Accompany the quotes with suitable and appealing images so they can be pinned on Pinterest and shared via social media.
6. Best-of-the-Week Posts
AKA the weekly round up or wrap post. These posts work best when done on a regular basis and contain a series of links with an explanation of why they're worth reading. These posts often bring in new readers and social shares thus growing your audience that bit more, but it's something that has to be done on a regular basis in order to gain momentum. If you don't gain momentum with these, then they just won't work. Don't rely on your blog being able to notify the person you've linked to, send them a message via Twitter and let them know you've mentioned them.
You want more traffic and social proof on your blog posts, then you know what to do. The real question is which one will you try first?
Sarah
PS if you want more help with your blogging you can join my 30-day blogging challenge. It's free.
Great ideas Sarah – as always. I’ll be trying out one or two very soon.
Hi Sarah,
These are great ways to pump up our blogs. My 2015 agenda is having more guests on my blog, mainly those that are influencers. I do have a few lined up.
I did have huge success when I mentioned a few pro-bloggers on a post. And of course, I did contact them before the blog was posted with a not saying that “tomorrow you will be featured on my blog” Need to do more of those.
All these suggestions work so well and I thank you for the reminder. I’ll sure pass this one on.
-Donna
Nicely done Sarah!
So… how long did it take you to write this article? 😉
It is very well written and provided me with a few new ideas. Thank you so much!
Hi Sarah,
Thanks for sharing these ideas. I didn’t think quote posts would go a long way. I’m definitely considering that and the others you mentioned. I currently do a round up of work-from-home jobs on Fridays and that does seem to go well.
Thanks again for these great ideas! Passing this along :). Have a great day and weekend!
Hello Sarah! Wow all great idea’s my friend! I do need to start listening and then doing more of what I learn here in 2015!
You Rock! Thanks for sharing.. Chery :))
Sarah, you have presented somethings to take in consideration. I have felt that we can write to give solutions to daily challenges. That relates to a major part of visitors and registered readers.
Speaking with others and reading comments then replying to them. This gives you an idea of what is desired for conversation. Then, you can write our article to address the concerns.
Thanks Sarah, for opening this conversation, which is needed for allot of writers out here.
Wow Sarah. Thank you that was an awesome and valuable post. I will definetely be looking into implementing some of those tips.
Hi Sarah,
Awesome ideas, really will help me be more productive
so happy that I found your article 🙂
Thank you ,
Have a fantastic day!
Emi
Hmm…I’ve done some profiles, for AC and Hirewriters, but not as blog posts.
Even in North Cyprus you make good reading Sarah!
You always have such great ideas for creating new content! Thanks for sharing! I think I am going to try out a couple and see how it goes.
Thank Anjela, would love to know how you get on x
Awesome as always Sarah! can I interview you?? lol please let me know 🙂
Sure you can Rania, but a blogger’s wardrobe isn’t that exciting 😉
Great post! I’ll use some of these tips. Thanks!
Thank you for sharing these great tips. ???? I will definitely try them out.