Promote With Purpose
By Melanie Biehle. Photography for Ruffled.
Supporting other bloggers is good
Sometimes the green-eyed monster gets the best of even THE BEST bloggers. But think about how many people there are in the world - how many companies, how many brands, and how many products. There are so many different interests, personalities, and ideas out there. Supporting and encouraging other bloggers is a positive thing. We’re not all right for every brand, job, or reader out there. The more the merrier!
Promote other bloggers
What does it mean to support other bloggers? Being there as a friend to offer advice and encouragement is part of it, but the other part is helping promote their work. This is not just good for them, it’s great for you. No one wants to read Twitter feeds that are just full of your own posts and work. How cool is it to have awesome posts to share from bloggers you respect and love? Super cool. Your followers will love you for it. It’s a win/win/win.
Think before promoting
There’s helping and then there’s overkill. You don’t have to promote every single blog post that your friend writes. In fact, you shouldn’t. You don’t want to burn your audience out by promoting the same people over and over again. Break it up a little and pepper in some new talent every now and then.
Keep in mind, if you don’t like something, or if it’s not a good fit for your audience, it’s okay to pass. I have an understanding with my blogger friends that they are under no obligation to promote anything that I send to them. You have to make sure that the things you’re chatting up are a good fit with your brand.
Consider guest posts
Do you have a blogger friend who is working on something awesome? Invite them to guest post about it on your blog! Has someone pitched you something they’d like you to cover and you’re totally into it? Invite them to do it for you!
Guests posts are a great way for bloggers to help each other get their work in front of new audiences. And this goes both ways. It’s helpful for the guest poster, because they get to make use of your audience. It’s good for the blog that’s hosting the guest post because they get to expose their readers to something and someone new.
A warning about guest posting: Make sure you save some of your best stuff for your own blog. While you want to get the word out about all the cool stuff you’re doing, you don’t want to give all the search traffic and Pinterest pins to another blog. If a blogger is up for it, you can always ask to do a teaser post on their blog and have their readers click through to your own blog to get the rest of the story. Make sure you’re spending enough time working on your own blog and brand, in addition to being featured somewhere else.
Apr 10, 2013
Reader Comments (6)
Great tips! Especially the last one about crafting guest posts, but saving some good things for your own blog. I struggle with this. When I am asked to guest post I always want to make sure my idea is super interesting/crafty/new/exciting to ignite a spark in the blog's readers....but I never thought about what I could do (like a teaser) to draw more traffic to my own site.
This is great! This is why I started my Friday Specials - a way to share great finds each week with my audience and promote some of the great posts out there.
I'm glad you found it helpful! :)
I am all about this, in every way. I love the collaborations and the nods you can offer to great work. Within the blogosphere, I've met the best people with uber talent and big hearts, and I love exposing their work to my audience. Thanks for being a living advocate of this, Melanie!! xo, MJ
Thanks, MJ! xo
One of my favorite aspects of blogging is the community driven focus on sharing and promoting each other.