Social Media 101: Create an Immediate Buzz With a New Business Blog

Creating a blog for your business is one of the best ways to increase your online presence and create a social media buzz. Now that you’ve got it set up, you may be wondering, “What’s next?…How do I get people to visit my new blog?”

Creating a Buzz

Optimizing your site so that it will rank with the search engines is critical, but it won’t get you the fast traffic you are looking for. Just like any product or service you may offer, you’re going to have to promote your blog.

There are plenty of ways to do this, more than you may think. Driving viral traffic to your business blog isn’t as difficult as it may seem. Here is a quick rundown of ideas that should get you on the right track:

• Syndicate your blog content to feed automatically to your Facebook business page and your Twitter stream.
• Link your blog to feed to your LinkedIn profile.
• Submit your blog to directories like PRWeb.com, wilsdomain.com, rsshugger.com, and boingboing.net.
• Send an email blast with a few teaser posts to your list. (Yes, you should have a list).
• Create a video promo for your blog. Free tools such as Animoto.com can help you create a quick, easy and fun promotional video. Post the video on Youtube and Facebook.
• Submit informative, relevant content to EzineArticles.com. They allow you a link back to your website.
• Feature interviews with industry experts. Send out some hot topics or questions to potential special guests. If they answer and grant you permission to post  the answers, you can write up a nice series and promote the articles through Twitter, Facebook, and various forums that would be interested.
• Create backlinks by commenting on high traffic blogs in your niche. Many blogs allow you to add a linkback to your site right in the comment box. These treasured backlinks will help your search engine rankings. If your comments are smart and insightful, readers will be inclined to click over to your own business blog for more information.
• Guest Blogging. By offering to create informative posts for another blogger site, you’ll get your name out there as well as a link back to your blog. Remember, other bloggers are your friends. It’s important to create positive connections, even with competing sites.
• Hold a contest. Want to get lots of traffic clicking all through your site? Hold a contest that has the contestants look through your site to find the answers to the questions. Use Twitter to announce the contest, post questions, and announce the winners.
• Use BlogTalkRadio.com to create a free online radio show. Keep the focus to your niche, interview some cool people, and you can generate some traffic to your site.
• Give away a white paper, eBook, tutorial, or pdf. When you give away valuable information that is niche specific, you’ll always generate more traffic. Be creative. Just because you sell cleaning products doesn’t mean you can’t come up with an eBook. Have one written about secret stain removal tips or staying organized. If your offering is valuable, it will generate traffic and loyal blog readers.

These are just a few simple ways to generate interest in your business by using a blog and the power of social media. If you implement even a few of these ideas, you will see a boost in traffic and a rise in blog subscribers.
Let us know any of the buzz generating tactics you’ve used for your business blog.