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If you’re struggling to make traction with your blog, you may be in for a surprise. Your lack of traction actually may not be the fault of bad writing, poor headlines or the wrong topics. Your writing may actually be just what your target audience needs. Only they can’t find it.
What?
Yes. If you can’t be found, no one can access your insights. No one can appreciate your expertise. No one will be there to comment and get a conversation started.
So how do we fix this troubling situation? How do we get more visibility?
Today, let’s talk about 3 secrets that the experts know that you may not. These are three ways that they get more traction and attention for their content. So with that, let’s get started!
3 Blogging Secrets the Experts Know
1) Facebook Notes as Blog Distribution
Mari Smith, Denise Wakeman and many of the other experts use a little-used section of a Facebook page – “Notes” – as a way to distribute their content. See examples here:
How this note looks in Facebook (you’ll be surprised!)
One advantage of notes is that you can tag other people so they’re informed that you have a new note when they log into Facebook (don’t abuse it!). Here’s a great article by Mari on note tagging guidelines. Notice I tagged Denise, Mari, Ileane and some others in my note, but only because I included them in this post (thanks Mari, Denise and Ileane!).
2) Getting a Tribe to help you out (a la Triberr)
Most of the experts know that you can’t take on the world by yourself. That’s why Dino Dogan and Dan Cristo created Triberr. It’s a place to find like-minded people who will share each other’s content on Twitter. And yes, they’ll also read your content (in some cases) and engage on your site by commenting (also, just in some cases).
The point is, Triberr is a great way to get much, much broader reach than you can by yourself. It’s also a great way to connect with others in your industry.
Another thing about Triberr is that they’re always innovating and they’re very approachable. I had a technical issue yesterday (on a new re-blog feature) and ended up chatting with Dino Dogan on Skype for about half an hour on that as well as several other topics.
Here are some resources and posts about Triberr that you should find helpful:
- http://alltriberr.com/
- http://diyblogger.net/how-to-get-more-out-of-triberr
- http://kikolani.com/how-i-use-triberr.html
- http://bertcarsonauthor.com/triberr-what-i-learned-today/
3) Blog Content Repurposing on YouTube
Another secret is to use the power of video and YouTube. You can pull together a Powerpoint presentation (or Keynotes or Google Docs). Then you create a video (I use Screenflow for Mac to do this) based on your slide presentation. Pop it up on YouTube and make sure to link back to your site (see it here in YouTube). This is a great way to re-use content you already spent time with and to add new content to YouTube (a huge opportunity to get found by a new audience).
And yes…the experts are doing this!
Here’s where I put the video on my blog (note that I surround it with content in the form of text for SEO):
7 Essential Elements of a Blog Post
Here’s the original blog post (on Basic Blog Tips) that started it all:
Blog Writing Checklist: Have You Covered These 8 Blogging Essentials?
Are you going to try these??
I hope you found these three tips helpful. Let me know what you’re going to do about it in the comments.
And if you need help with your blog writing, watch my popular Blog Writing Workshop here.
Twitter: chrisnpi
says:
Hi Tom – tip about FB notes is really smart, I must use it ;)
Thanks for sharing,
Chris
Chris recently posted..How to Write an Article in Less than One Hour – 10 Useful Tips
Twitter: rtmixmktg
says:
Thanks Chris,
Give it a shot! I like your article writing post, by the way. I like the (12+2) x 3 rule.
Tom Treanor recently posted..Advanced Google Search Tricks and Tips
Twitter: chrisnpi
says:
Hi Tom,
may I ask you someting – do you recommend preparing unique content for notes on FB, or use old content? How about DC. If it’s not indexed on FB (I don’t know if it is or not), why we should prepare note, instead of giving direct link to the post?
(12+2)*3 – great that you like it, you can find some other tips on this blog. And comments are also appreciated ;)
BR, Chris
Chris recently posted..How To Attract Your Blog Posts – 20 Tips For Normal People
Twitter: rtmixmktg
says:
Chris,
I’m still working that out. I think the most efficient is to mostly repurpose blog posts or occasionally write a Facebook-specific smaller “note”. Looking at how it’s being used by others, it’s another distribution channel for the same content. Look at Internet Business Mastery and they’re putting all of their podcasts posts there.. I really liked your newest post and left a comment. Will do more in the future – just a crazy week, this week.
Tom recently posted..Why I’m no longer monogamous with you, my dear (blog)
Twitter: rtmixmktg
says:
Chris. I’m trying out a FB only blog post. Written as I watched Michael Stelzner of Social Media Examiner do a FB Video Chat. This is an experiment – let’s see how it goes. It’s up here on the Timeline if you want to check it out: https://www.facebook.com/RightMixMarketing
Tom recently posted..Blogging Mistakes & Solutions From 513 Of My Closest Friends (#blogchat)
Twitter: bethanyjolee
says:
I like facebook notes tip too and will try it out. I just started using youtube às an addition to my blog. Love it! I am hesitant about triberr because its another platform to take my time. Is the time invested really worth it? I did find your article via atweet by sherryl perry. Is she part of you tribe:-)
bethany lee recently posted..An Interview with Susan Cooper: A StoryTeller with Heart and Dyslexia
Twitter: rtmixmktg
says:
Hi Bethany,
I took my time with it and started my own (very small) tribe. It was a good addition to the mix. Then I was invited to a much larger tribe. It’s actually been very good for distribution but I’m also getting to know a great new group of people (at least some portion of them). It’s definitely worth it but yes, you have to invest some time. But you aren’t required to share any particular post or a certain number of times.
Tom recently posted..Why I’m no longer monogamous with you, my dear (blog)
Twitter: rtmixmktg
says:
I forgot to answer your other question – yes, she’s part of the tribe!
Tom recently posted..The Great SEO MindSchmuck: Why businesses just don’t get SEO
Twitter: RyanHanley_Com
says:
Tom,
The note thing for Facebook is an absolutely fantastic Tip… Thanks dude.
Ryan H.
Ryan Hanley recently posted..Content Creation Curation – Social Media RoundUp – Week 22
Twitter: rtmixmktg
says:
Thanks Ryan. I discovered Jason’s newest post on Ana Hoffman’s blog via your Content Creation Curation board this week. Keep up the great work!
Tom recently posted..Do You Know Your Product’s Risk-Reward Ratio?
Twitter: enstine
says:
Hi Bethany, I like the FB note secret and I’m putting it to use. Tell me, any SEO benefits with it?
Enstine Muki recently posted..More Followers, More Exposure, More Traffic on EasyRetweet.com with New Features
Twitter: JenMcGahan
says:
Hey Tom, (love the hat!) Thanks for these tips. I find that where I put my energy is where the treasure turns up. I’ll carve out some time to explore some to these channels soon. Do you know, I recently found some folks on Quora that I connected with. I find if you take a look around at some of the not-so-in-your-face social media channels, there are some really cool people there!
Twitter: rtmixmktg
says:
Hi Jen. Yes, I agree with you there. Putting some time in certain channels can lead to some great things. Not giving up too early on a platform or tool. I think that’s the difference between people have success in Google+ and those that don’t. Similar to your Quora experience, taking the time to find and engage with the right people makes all the difference. Thanks for stopping by!
Tom recently posted..Landing Page Optimization: Don’t kick your customers out the door
I find Triberr to be useless for most bloggers. I find that most people on Triberr are in blog marketing.
Anything outside of that world has almost no one on there to work with.
In my genre, I have found 2 people on the site period who relate to my topic
Twitter: rtmixmktg
says:
Mike,
I know that’s a problem with certain marketing platforms. The marketers are there first but it really become useful when the general population utilizes it more. What about gathering the couple of people in your area and inviting a couple more? Then you use Triberr as a tool to help you all to get a bit more distribution? Just an idea.
Tom recently posted..Google Vehicles: What’s Next?
Twitter: MichelleChilds2
says:
I’m not normally thick, but how do I import my blog posts to my FB page notes??? I’ve read your post and really like the idea, but can’t for the life of me figure out how to do it! I checked FB help and all I got was an explanation as to why we can no longer import our website to our FB page. What am I missing?
Michelle recently posted..Study Tips for Adult Learners
Twitter: rtmixmktg
says:
Hi Michelle,
If you go to your page – one of the default tabs is Notes (right below your Timeline photo). Click on this and then “write a note” (upper right). Basically you can just paste in your text and do minor formatting like adding spaces, bold and italics, bullets, etc. You can turn your links into working links if they’re formatted with HTML code. So basically, cutting and paste in your post. Do some minor formatting, add a picture and make sure links work using code: http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_links.asp
I hope that helps!
Tom recently posted..Blogging Mistakes & Solutions From 513 Of My Closest Friends (#blogchat)
Twitter: MichelleChilds2
says:
Thanks Tom! I was looking for an automated method, not realising it was as simple as copy and paste, but I had been wanting to learn some basic HTML, and the link you provided looks like just what I need!
I also found the other points on your blog very useful too, have joined Triberr, and the tips you gave for putting your blog content on YouTube were excellent – will try them out as well.
All in all, for someone who’s relatively new to social media, a great learning experience!
Michelle recently posted..Take Control of Your Life!
The FB tip is really cool. Facebook is popular and, with the right strategies, it can certainly be used to increase popularity of your blogs. The “don’t overdo it” part is also a good point to emphasize to those who will give this tip a try. FB is a social networking site; it is generally meant to stay connected with friends and love ones. Be careful not to overdo your marketing efforts lest you turn off some “friends”.
These are smart tips. The secret of using the power of Youtube and videos is a real good one. Thanks for this informative share.