When you want to expand your audience, consider tapping in to someone else’s.
In order to expand your on-line reach, you need to get your content in front of more people: the more people who know about you, the better your chances for getting noticed. But how do you expand your audience?
You could buy followers on Twitter and Facebook, but those aren’t quality leads (which just wastes money). You could trying following everyone and everything on social media, but (again!) those won’t be quality leads, so you’ll end up wasting time.
One simple way to grow your audience is to tap in to someone else’s. You can do that by writing guest posts for other people’s blogs. Don’t ask just anyone with a blog, though. Be strategic in who you contact. These three tips will help you make the most of your guest post.
1. Make sure their blog is relevant to what you do. Sharing recipes on a mommy blog will get your name out there, but it won’t show your expertise as a graphic designer. If your goal is to promote your brand, keep your blog posts relevant. Look for people in your industry or in the industries you service.
2. Make sure they have an audience. If there are only six people reading the blog and the author doesn’t share links via social media, you’re probably wasting your time. The goal is to help get your name out there. If another blog has thousands of readers, plus they tweet all posts out to their tens-of-thousands of Twitter followers, pitch them an idea.
3. Make sure you’re contributing to the blog, not just advertising. Your blog post should show your expertise while supporting the goal of the blog. If you send an in-your-face-promotion, it’s not really a blog post, it’s an ad. Don’t be surprised if you’re not invited back (or not published on the blog at all).
Not sure how to find blogs you can write for? Ask around in your Facebook groups, at local networking events, or in any associations where you have membership. Offer your services and see what happens!
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