Three Blogging Lessons We Can Learn From Public Relations
Blogging is a practice that can draw from a series of different ways to get your companies name out there. By learning from other channels the best ways to connect with your customers, you can translate these lessons into blog posts and strategy.
Public relations is one of these areas where there is a lot of information and strategy that can be translated into blogging. From events to creating buzz about your company’s action, public relations capitalizes on telling your target audience what you want them to know. Successful blogging can do the same by aiming to educate and provide information to your customers, without seeming overly pushy.
Have Events
As blogs get bigger, it’s not all about the content. Many successful blogs regularly hold webinars and other events that help them build traffic and their social media presence, including contests. By offering something for free that your audience wants, you can gain visibility, trust, and more traffic.
Many webinars are fairly easy to set up using services like GoToWebinar or WebEx. You can build on information you already have written about in your blog, but revive it with current events, new developments, or additional information. For instance, your webinar titled “How to Suck Less at LinkedIn” could build on the foundations of good LinkedIn business practices, but then delve into how the latest additions (follows, blogs, data) can help businesses.
Other “events”, like a new e-book, a contest, or more, can help drive more traffic to your posts because they are shaking up your ordinary content output while also providing a resource.
Get Publicity Where You Can
The internet is ripe with ways you can position yourself as an external resource. Public relations is built on getting the company’s name out there– through press releases, interviews, and more. Bloggers can do this as well– by promoting company events and products through blog posts and other external sources.
A good place to get started is Help a Report Out (HARO). It is a twice daily email list that has a list a reporters, writers, and more looking for sources for their content. You reply with your answer and could be chosen to be referenced or interviewed. This does take some effort, but it could pay off in a big way for your blog publicity.
Be Controversial
A lot of public relations fuels its fire by making your company stand out. To get noticed as a blogger, it is important to be controversial or think outside the box. By writing posts that include unique ideas or have a different twist on current industry events, you can fuel more discussion and greater traffic numbers.
Blogging is a digital form of public relations by showcasing your company through your content. As long as you shake it up through events, external publicity, and unique ideas, you can harness the motives of public relations through your content.
Kelsey Jones runs her own social media and search marketing business, MoxieDot where she helps clients grow their online presence. She was voted one of the top 100 marketers of the year by Invesp in 2009 and has worked for Yelp, Run.com, and Bounty Towels. Check her out at MoxieDot and on Twitter @wonderwall7.
Hi Kelsey,
Thank you so much for mentioning HARO to your readers– we appreciate the shout out! I want to clear up one minor error. HARO editions are sent out three times a day: morning, afternoon, and evening. Thanks again for the mention!
Best,
Laura
HARO’s Social Media Community Manager