Nothing turns readers away faster than self-promotional content. If you want to create excitement around your company blog, publish high-quality content that inspires a discussion.
A. Use Video Content
Video is the next big thing. With the invention of SnapChat and Instagram, users are expecting more visuals and less text. Use videos or photography to present the content you want. Make sure it’s fun and engaging for your audience. – Ryan Gyure, FXH
A. Make It Easy to Share and Interact With
Make the great content you’re producing easy for the readers to share and interact with. For example, make images or stats shareable or embeddable. If your content includes key statements, facts or stats, feature these in the styling and allow readers to tweet the specific points. Encourage readers to comment on the posts or tweet via hashtags. Ask for interaction and make it easy. – Shawn Schulze,Names.org
A. Use Infographics
Infographics are an excellent way to give your viewers valuable content in an easy-to-digest format. If you have a good design and content team, they can make insanely useful and shareable images. We’ve seen success with infographics on our own blog, with our most recent one getting up to 135 views a day. Also, they’re fun to share on our own social media profiles and resonate with our followers. – Dave Nevogt, Hubstaff.com
A. Do Your Long-Tail Keyword Research
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p>Every company has a specific set of knowledge and expertise they can offer. The key is doing keyword research and identifying the underserved, long-tail search terms that customers are searching for but are coming up empty in terms of useful, relevant content. If your company can identify what you’re good at and identify what customers are searching for, your content will be much more engaging. – Brett Farmiloe, Markitors
A. Focus on Data-Driven Posts
Of the thousands of posts on our blog, the content that gets the most organic and earned traffic are the posts where we use data to inform our readers on trends in the lead generation and customer acquisition industries. Identify any unique data set you have, and then write a simple analysis that offers a unique or contrarian perspective. – Ben Jabbawy, Privy
A. Use Different Formats
Infographics, studies and video mix up the posts that readers see. These visual changes to regular posts add interest for the reader and get them to look at the information differently. Plus, different audience members respond better to different formats, so you may win some new readers by changing the format. – Zach Binder,Ranklab
A. Engage in a Meaningful Way
We at Trucker Path saw very low engagement with our Facebook posts, and since community is key for our crowdsourcing app, that was a problem to be solved immediately. After several unsuccessful attempts, we got a post that blew up. We asked our users (“truckers”) for views from their driving seat — and that format is still the most effective. Get feedback from your users and listen to them. – Ivan Tsybaev, Trucker Path, Inc
A. Experiment With List Articles
Have you noticed how even the oldest broadsheet newspapers have started posting “Top 10” articles on a daily basis? List articles are dominating online journalism right now, and company blogs should take note. They’re quick to conceptualize and write and are easy to read, too. Because of this, they’re ideal for sharing and are guaranteed to engage your community as well as wider readers. – Marvin Amberg,Caseable
A. Write for People
So many times companies write content to write content. This is a big mistake that a lot of companies make. Write highly engaging content that truly helps users. Write content that causes users to have to come back and reference it several times. Write content you’d want to read in entirety. Work hard on your title or headline. If it doesn’t engage, people will never read it. – John Rampton, Due
A. Cover a Range of Topics
Provide content that covers a range of topics, and don’t just publish self-promoting content. Share posts that will help people in your industry. At EVENTup, for example, we post party tips as well as how to increase conversions on your listing. You just have to mix it up and keep your clients coming back. – Jayna Cooke, EVENTup
A. Write Longer, Expert-Level Posts
Google prefers content over 1,500 words, but it can be hard to write more than a few longer blogs a month. Therefore, focus on writing just a handful of extremely well-researched topics; add (and correctly tag) photos or screenshots. Make your mission to create incredible quality for the readers. If you can quote and tag other businesses, great. If you have the resources, boost posts on FB, too. – Nicole Munoz, Start Ranking Now
A. Provide Detailed Solutions
Many times blogs are filled with information that isn’t backed by facts. Identify a problem and walk your readers through a proven solution. Make sure you relate to their issue and show them a solution detail by detail. This process will help increase your engagement, and we all know strong and relevant content gets more shares. – Drew Gurley, Redbird Advisors
A. Study the Blog Leaders in Your Niche
Not everything is that bloggable, but if someone in your niche is locking down that engagement, then study what they’re doing and why it works. In particular, you’re going to want to focus on the types of content that catches on (written, video, infographics, etc.), and apply the same principles until you can bring a unique approach. – Adam Steele, The Magistrate
A. Share Proprietary Information
Share information that only your company has access to and create visual charts based on that data. You can aggregate data to show industry trends. Another idea is to answer questions that are specifically suggested by Google search. Combine these two ideas and you have a winning article. – Peter Boyd, PaperStreet Web Design
A. Engage a Variety of Voices
The only people writing for your company’s blog shouldn’t be the people who work there. Engage clients as writers, public personalities, and other experts on topics that are in line with your blog’s theme. You benefit from taking a collaborative approach, and you’ll also be able to connect with new audiences. – Megan Smith,Brownstone PR
These answers are provided by the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.