Blogging as a PR Tool
Using a blog for PR can be very effective, if you know how to do it properly. However, there’s more to blogging then just typing out a random post once a week. The content needs to be relevant, interesting and engaging. It also needs to be useful and grab the attention of the audience. In order to do this, you need to know who you’re writing for. You should personalize the content for them and make them want to share it with their like-minded networks. Here are some more suggestions to help you blog better.1. Make your posts news worthy
Traditionally, PR people would have to hound news people to get their press release into the mainstream media. The digital age has flipped this around. If you write strategically, you can bring the press straight to your client via your blog. According to Mashable.com, news media don’t only rely on traditional wires anymore. They’re constantly on the look out for new stories on the Internet and, if you play your cards right, a blog post can be considered news worthy. If written carefully, it can morph into a press release. A pre-published draft post, when shared with reporters under embargo, can even be considered a legitimate news source (Mashable.com). Interesting and well-written content, combined with short, punchy headlines (which can be easily shared via Twitter and the like) could effectively turn your blog into a news-wire.
2. Make your posts share worthy
Every digital PR dream is to go viral or, at the very least, get significant retweets. In order to achieve this, Mashable.com suggests that blog content should be less about the client’s product or business and more about the culture that surrounds it. In other words, it needs to be about what the client’s target audience is interested in. To get this right, you need a clear picture of exactly who will read the blog and what kinds of topics they will want to read.
Also Read - Floating Share Buttons For Blogs
You can get creative; post how-to advice, have experts in a related field guest post their wisdom or post links to interesting articles. If the target readers like what you’ve written, they’ll want to share it with their social networks. Mashable.com recommends that you have the appropriate sharing plug-ins on your blog pages. A Twitter and Facebook button is standard and if your content is aimed at a professional network, then a LinkedIn button is needed. If you want to go viral, Reddit or Digg could do the trick. However, you need to keep it simple; don’t have more than three share buttons.
3. Make your posts visual
Well-written content is gold, but an interesting video post can make your blog come alive. It can make it more personal and real, as video is often seen as more authoritative than text. These days, it’s easy to capture video: you can use a smartphone or a digital camera. You can also easily upload videos to YouTube via apps. Mashable.com suggests that your videos be between 30 and 60 seconds, so you need to keep to the point. You can encourage your client to be filmed while at events, or just around the office.
If you follow these suggestions, your blog can be a great PR tool. You can get a message across just as well (if not better) through video, so remember to incorporate some visual elements into your blog from time to time. Well-written and targeted content will bring the right people to you, and if you regularly write relevant and interesting posts, they will keep coming to your blog – and they’ll spread the word by sharing it.
Author: This post was written by Ang Lloyd, a freelance writer based in Cape Town, South Africa. Ang relishes the challenge of writing on a variety of topics, including the value of PR blogs.
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