If you don’t talk about your blogpost, it is most likely that nobody is going to read it.

The truth is, nobody will wake up in the morning and come up with the idea to read my blogpost. And that is okay, with all the work, children, our busy life, good books, and Instagram it is hard to follow up on everything. Unless someone tells me to do so. 

A blog or website (whichever you prefer) is similar to a good fire you light up. To keep it alive you always need to put another log on the fire or it will go out. In other words, if we don’t nourish and flourish our blog and make sure to talk about it nobody will pay attention. Sounds depressing, I know. We invest a lot of time and effort into writing good stuff that we care about for people we care about, it deserves to be seen. Now I understand that we don’t want to be salesy when plugging out our work. It can feel awkward at times but if you don’t tell people what amazing work you are publishing nobody will read it. And if your people don’t read what you write their questions will not be answered. A loss on both sides.

I understand it is not all about the numbers but at some point, we have to keep an eye on them and admittedly it can be fun. They can answer a lot of questions.

What happened after I stopped staring at the numbers is that I gave my blog and myself a promise to invest more time in self-promotion. Starting with a few but effective methods that I am happy to share with you:

Work on your SEO

Optimizing your SEO should always be top of your list, yet we find it very difficult and the less fun thing to do. I will not go into detail about your SEO optimization here as it would take too long and also there are others who can explain it much better- like her: Lucy Lucraft! Doing it with Lucy means having fun with SEO from now on!

Connect with other blogs 

Try to connect with other people and their blogs that you like to read in your community. It is always of great value to have a group of like-minded people that support each other. You have read an article from someone and really liked it? Drop them a line and let them know you liked it. Leave comments or share posts if you enjoyed reading them.  If you name or quote someone in your post let the person know. It is always nice to know and maybe you can share each other’s work at some point. Build up relationships and support each other if possible.

Promote your blogpost in your eMail signature

Promoting your blogpost in your email signature is a nice and unobtrusive way of letting the receiver know that you have published something new. Just think how many emails you write each day? Speaking for myself it is absolutely worth using this as a small but nice blogpost promoter.

Share your blogpost on social media

Talk about your new blogpost on the social media channels that you enjoy using. Share them on Instagram. You can post a photo on your grid and talk about your post in your caption. Add the link to your bio. Talk about your blogpost in stories or use the swipe up if you have it (If only I had it…). Tweet about your blogpost on twitter. Tweet again, nobody saw the first tweet.  Share wherever you think is a good space for it. Don´t forget to pin your cover/ title to your blogpost board (or the one you prefer) on Pinterest.

Talk about your blogpost in Facebook groups

Why not share your new blogpost or a link in your Facebook groups? I am a member of a few closed Facebook groups and I love them. They are kind, supportive, and offer a high amount of know-how. A bunch of like-minded people who trust each other and share what they are doing. I couldn’t think of a better place to announce my work. And you can be sure to receive high-quality feedback that can be very useful. 

Send a newsletter about your new blogpost

Send out a newsletter to spread the news. Don´t be afraid to spam other peoples inbox if you pop in to say hello at a manageable frequency. People have opted in by choice and will be delighted to get some news and follow ups from you.

Set a Google alert for blog related articles

Who has ever used google alerts for monitoring new content publications in your niche? Can we please talk about this in the comments? I would love to know if you think this is helpful for you. Quite a few people I know love using this tool. You sign up with your email address and get a notification whenever new content gets indexed that you signed up for or requested. You can then jump over to the article and leave a comment or join a discussion being one of the first. By doing this you make yourself visible to others and get the chance to talk about your publications. You can query people’s names, other writers, bloggers, your genre, mentions, related articles, new articles, guest articles, the list, and options are endless.

These are only a few things that can be done easily, I know there are many others but if you like to share your favourite promotion tool for your blog post let us know in the comments or drop me a line here. 

Der Beitrag 7 SIMPLE WAYS TO PROMOTE YOUR BLOGPOST erschien zuerst auf Social Hut Cornwall.

Very often when I start working with a new client they feel unable to find the „idea“. They struggle with their marketing activities and hope to get some kind of clarity with their marketing. When I started my business I was all over the place and ended up feeling exhausted. I didn’t know where to start unable to decide on my goals. To make a long story short, I wasn’t happy with what I was doing. I know you have just started reading but nevertheless can you guess what the answer was? You are right, my story was missing! Now what about you? After working with clients and developing my own story I could clearly spot two main difficulties that pointed towards a missing storytelling:

1 You feel invisible and not connected with your customers or clients

You put so much effort, time and passion into your ideas and online activities and never seem to get any result. You have invested a lot of time in setting up your brand new website or writing blog posts for example, or you produce podcasts, passionately curate your instagram feed, learn how to edit videos, write an e-courses and give away free downloads and so on… It is an endless list of activities yet you feel unseen online. Your work is not getting any feedback. You feel like you don´t get anything in return. Also your sales stats are not performing the way you had hoped. There is no dialogue with your people and this leaves you feeling frustrated.

If you agree on one or the other feeling described above, then it is most likely that your communication is not getting anywhere it should- namely to your audience. Your audience is a major part in your storytelling and you need to make sure your communication is getting to your audience. In order to be successful with your strategy make them pay attention. Make them  listen to what you are saying and further make them stop, think and change their behaviour. Make them rememeber you.

However there is no doubt you are creating lovely pieces of content for example helpful blog posts or the most imaginative photo creations but without a story in the background it leaves you behind feeling a bit disappointed. The engagement is not like you had hoped.  Your content doesn’t  have the impact and power it deserves.  

2 You feel overwhelmed when it comes to creating content that makes you happy

You don’t have a clear vision of where to go. Your product or service is great but you don’t know how to advertise. What kind of marketing activity is the right one? And whether you are a creative person or not you feel like your head is stuck in a big grey cloud of ideas and you are unable to focus. Nowadays we swim in a big sea of possibilities especially when it comes to online activities. 

All sounds tempting but you feel it is difficult to make a decision. What channels should you use for your business? A very common question is: can I create one piece of content for various channels or different purposes? For example to post the same photo for instagram and facebook. The answer is, you need to have a clear picture of what you want to say, who you are talking to and where you are talking. A well thought story has all the answers and cuts through all the clutter because creating your content after all is just a part of your big story.

Although there can be many reasons why you are feeling uncertain about generating ideas for your business I contend that in most of the times it is your missing story and your uncertainty towards your audience. Once you get that out of the way you feel clear, focused and able to connect with your people.

It is a perfect time to start. All the digital possibilities and developing technologies are there for you to use and once you are clear about your story it won’t take you long to decide where you need to be. Another good news is creating your story doesn’t require a big budget. You don’t need a lot of money to start rather a piece of paper and a pen and then get down to the nitty gritty. 

If you are still not convinced that storytelling could help sorting your struggles, this might also be interesting for you. And lastly remember it is your story. It is not carved into stone. If you feel you need to add a chapter or a missing bit, go for or it.

*from Joe Pulizzi: Epic content marketing //

Resources: Think content, Miriam Löffler

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Der Beitrag TWO SIGNS THAT YOUR STORYTELLING IS MISSING erschien zuerst auf Social Hut Cornwall.

The online world has become such a noisy and busy place, you might feel many brands are so similar to your business and you feel unseen. Storytelling is your chance to stand out in between all that noise and thousands of brands. Your story makes you unmistakably you. You dream of a business that has an anchored place in the heart of your people and engaging with them gives you all the joy? Then it’s story-time!

Stories have always been around for as long as we can think back in human life. People like the feeling of sharing their experiences. We post, we chat, we sit around a dining table, a campfire, we hold meetings. At the end of the day it is all about a good story. There are several more reasons why we need to stop simply selling something to people and start to really show what makes us special and furthermore invite them to be part of the story. I´ve written down my favourite four reasons why creating a story is inevitable nowadays, most importantly, if you want to connect to your people, stand out amongst your competitors and build a true relationship with your people.

1 Stories connect you to your people

Good stories connect people. People love stories. Therefore good stories will continue to be told. We all know the following situation – you hear something and think ”Yeah, I know exactly what you mean”. You can relate. You feel connected to a person automatically because you have had the same experience. The story stays in our minds easily.

2 Stories evoke emotions

Stories create emotions – that is a fact. We all know the situation when you are extremely well-prepared and open a meeting with various logical reasons presenting all the logical facts you could find. At the end, the opposite side says:” Sorry. We are not convinced”. This is the same with everyday situations. A very well-known situation for example is our children at home. It depends on your story if you want to make them do something they dislike. I know a mum who kept telling their children that deep-frozen peas are a delicacy and a real treat. They ever since loved peas, deep-frozen of course.

It is HOW you present your story which determines how enthusiastic the opposite side is – or not. The challenge is to create a vision, which the opposite side of your customer/ client recognizes and wishes to be part of. They do not make this decision because they are convinced by facts but because they have the feeling of having made a good decision besides which it gives added value to their life.

3 Stories are easy to remember

People who know what they are talking about don’t need powerpoint

Steve Jobs quotes this and he is so right. I don’t think he was ever seen holding a presentation with charts.  He much more preferred seeing people engage and he really understood what he was talking about.

Just count the number of presentations or meetings you have been to with hundreds of presentations, stats, graphs, and other things. How much do you remember? What are you taking home or telling others about it? On my phone, you’ll find a saved album with pictures of Powerpoint slides from a number of events I´ve been to. I thought I HAD to save them because the information they provide is helpful and informative and might be of use at some point. But how can something be valuable for me if I don’t even remember it an hour later? (Having said this, I might just delete the album.) 

In my early school days, I had a crazy teacher who would jump around with a banana demonstrating a life of a chimp. Those pictures will stay in my mind forever. Now, we don’t have to pretend to be a chimp to stand out but it is a good example of how stories work their way into your mind. The story that will stay in our minds has touched us in a certain way. That is why we will remember it.

4 Stories are authentic

A good story always comes from your heart. It is something that you have experienced, dreamed of something that you can relate to.

Don´t lie to your people. Tell them the truth. Nowadays people have the ability and know-how to uncover fake news within a snap.

If you tell them YOUR own story its very likely that they will love it and soak in everything that you are presenting.

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Der Beitrag FOUR REASONS WHY STORYTELLING IS A MUST FOR YOUR BUSINESS erschien zuerst auf Social Hut Cornwall.