Why a Blog Is Essential to Your Website

These days, every website has a blog, and for good reason — hosting a blog on your business’s website boosts your website’s appearance in search rankings, provides original content for your social media pages, builds consumer trust, and generally leads to a more professional, active web presence that generates leads and clientele.

Google Loves New Content

Maintaining a consistently updated blog is going to put you well ahead of the search rank game when it comes to your competitors. In fact, according to a TechClient infographic, companies with blogs have 97% more inbound links, with 61% of U.S customers saying they’ve made a purchase based on a blog post.

You’ll want to post blogs that include relevant, important keywords and phrases that you expect potential visitors to type into a search engine leading to your website. You may even be surprised that, in an era where video and images are certainly of importance, posts with over 1,000 words rank highest in Google searches. Creating in-depth, quality content like this is something that takes time and research, and is one of many reasons why you might prefer to hire a skilled blogging team to plan and post content for your website’s blog.

Blogging Lends a Sense of Expertise to Your Website

In the digital age, customers want to feel a personal connection with a company. It simply isn’t enough anymore to just post an ad or request a follow on Facebook. In 2016, blogs were rated as the 5th most trusted source for information found online. Blogging gives your company a personal, human feel that consumers are craving in this era. You could also use your blogs to network with other businesses, sharing each other’s blogs and boosting each other’s traffic.

Visitors Need to Feel Engaged

The Internet is an advertising goldmine, and in a market oversaturated with content, consumers need to feel truly engaged in order to follow your social media channels, explore your products, or share your services. High-quality, interesting blog posts are not only more likely to show up in search results; they are also more likely to develop trust between you and your web visitors. Expert content will keep readers coming back, and provide more opportunities for discussion both on your website and on social media. This level of trust results in creating loyal clientele that wants to be apart of your product or service. Content that consumers find interesting is one of the top 3 reasons people follow brands on social media at all, continues TechClient, with over half of customers feeling a company’s positivity after reading the company website. This, of course, leads to more sales and leads.

Blogging provides just the right combination of traffic driving and relationship building that is needed for your business’ success.

No Time to Blog? No Problem

Finding the time to compose regular, quality blog posts simply isn’t always realistic for business owners. Add in the time needed to share both original and Internet-based, engaging pieces with readers on social media, as well as the time to respond to comments, and the entire process can seem overwhelming for a business.

At Bamboo Marketing Solutions, we are experts at building the right digital presence for your business. We can create quality, weekly, SEO-friendly content that drives traffic to your website and allows you to establish loyalty with customers. We’ll take care of your social media needs, from Facebook to Instagram and beyond, so that you can focus more on running your business, and less on marketing.

Contact us today for an absolutely free consultation to see how we can help you grow your business through our expert digital marketing services.

Is LinkedIn Dying or Just Getting Started?

When it comes to social media, LinkedIn is often forgotten in the land of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even Snapchat. For years, people have speculated on and off that LinkedIn is becoming obsolete, but for that same length of time, the website has remained — and, you may be surprised to learn, doesn’t seem to be dying at all. In fact, with Microsoft having acquired the site back in 2016, LinkedIn now boasts nearly 600 million users.

The Professional Social Networking Platform

LinkedIn may have similarities with the other big social networking sites, but its users engage with the website in a noticeably different way. Brands aren’t exactly interacting with customers on the same platform where they’re posting their newest baby pictures, for instance. Where other social networks offer a certain user vulnerability, LinkedIn is basically a constant job interview wherein users, for the most part, want to present the best version of themselves. As Forbes notes, LinkedIn users engage with business, not personal life, on the brain, perhaps giving businesses and brands a more open invitation to engage with users than on Facebook, Twitter, and the like, where angry conversation can quickly shut down ideas and commentary.

A New Kind of Marketing Opportunity

LinkedIn blog posts and updates offer an opportunity to give a professional face to a brand in a professional environment where user engagement is high and authentic. On LinkedIn, networking is key and taken seriously. Publishers produce and promote original content (100,000 new articles published weekly) that gives LinkedIn’s highly educated and influential base room for strong discussion and connection. LinkedIn has even become a powerful spot for video publications, as well as blog posts, an increasingly important engagement tool across all social networking platforms.

Using LinkedIn for Your Business

First things first, when it comes to marketing and building an audience on LinkedIn, you have to have a company page. Don’t forget the use of relevant keywords and links in your profile (without overdoing it), and offer the kind of professional, high-quality content that LinkedIn users expect from brands on the platform. You need to be creating original content based on your specific niche, but you can also engage users with content that helps them understand your company’s story, like details on product launches. Your content is the face of your business on LinkedIn. You can also use LinkedIn’s analytics to gain greater insight into your audience. Which posts are drawing the most views? How can you keep that momentum going in future posts?

Every social networking platform is different. Facebook and Twitter offer personal dialogue and sharing (for better or worse), Instagram and Snapchat offer a visual approach to social engagement, and LinkedIn offers a professional discourse that is unique to the platform. Far from dying, LinkedIn has a great deal to offer brands these days. This platform is most definitely just getting started.

Knowing how to engage with users on each social media channel can be complex though. Creating organic content is equally layered and time-consuming. Many businesses benefit by hiring digital marketing experts who can post to these social media channels, curate and write content, handle graphics, and respond to readers. Bamboo Marketing can provide an expert team for these digital marketing needs. Contact us today to discuss growing your audience on LinkedIn and beyond.

Finding Blogging Inspiration When You're Burnt Out

These days, it isn’t simply enough to have a blog on your website — you need to have an active blog, as well. A regularly updated blog lets the visitors to your site know that your business is alive and thriving. Blogging, of course, raises your SEO results, giving your business a boost. For the greatest success, it is usually recommended to post in-depth, weekly blogs that are engaging and a mixture of headers, subheaders, photos, and video. Now, this all sounds terrific in theory, but there is, of course, just one problem — what do you do when you feel like you’ve exhausted every relevant topic for your blog? What happens when you just don’t feel like writing anymore?

Well, first of all, take heart — blogger burnout is common, and there are a variety of ways to help re-inspire your posts.

Look at Similar Blogs In a Different Way

When you’re feeling burnt out, your first reaction might be to browse the blogs of similar businesses or niches, but doing this will often leave you feeling negative, competitive, and even more burnt out than before. If you do choose to check out a blog that’s similar to your own, make sure to keep your perspective positive. Is there something you can learn from the blog that could enhance your own? Is there even a connection that could be made? Blogging is still an incredible social tool for networking, and bloggers often use their connections to further boost their traffic.

Read Something Different

Truthfully, one of the best things you can do is to read something that isn’t a blog. Scan the news for topics that might inspire your own writing, flip through a magazine, and even consider topic areas completely outside of your usual area of expertise. You may be surprised to find inspiration for your wedding business, for instance, in the pages of Newsweek, but maybe there’s an article that makes you think of an exciting blog topic. Inspiration often comes in unlikely places. Don’t forget, too, about the power of the classic novel or book. Reading the works of other people lets you explore other styles and ways of writing that may just inspire your own.

Take a Break

We live in a technology-driven world where nothing ever seems to shut-off. Our phones are constantly dinging and buzzing, and they never leave our side. Sometimes, the greatest source of inspiration comes from a walk outside, away from technology, to refresh and let your mind wander. Consider having a schedule for your social media and email posts and checks. Overloading yourself with the online world is a surefire way to quickly burnout on the entire thing. It may sound overly simple, and even counterintuitive, but take time for yourself away from your blog from time to time. Find your own creative outlet, write about something unrelated to your blog, listen to inspiring music, spend time with friends or family, or make lists of must-dos and concerns.

Change Your Routine

Consider changing your blogging routine. For example, if you usually sit at your desk in your home office to write, try writing at your local coffee shop, instead. If you usually blog early in the morning, try typing away in the afternoons. A change of scenery or tradition can make a world of difference.

Hire Some Help

There’s no question — managing an online presence is hard. Often, the best thing you can do for your time and energy is to hire a professional to maintain your blog for you. A marketing service, like Bamboo, will give you time to focus on all of the other aspects of running your business that you miss out on when you’re busy trying to churn out another blog or social media post. Plus, Bamboo knows how to create the right kind of content that can drive your website’s traffic, so you don’t have to spend valuable time researching for your blog and hoping for the best.

If You’re Feeling Burnt Out, It’s Time to Step Back

When you go to write a blog post, and find you just aren’t feeling it, it’s time to figure out a new plan. Do you just need some time away from your blog? Should you look into outsourcing your blog to a professional?

Whatever you decide, remember — an active blog attracts new visitors and is an essential part of your website. Don’t let feelings of burnout keep you from engaging your potential base.

Have you experienced blogger burnout before? How did you deal with the feeling? Let us know in the comments.

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