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This is a guest post by Nathan McGee.
It is challenging in the blog world to garner attention. Sometimes I have felt like the guy at the party that is just jumping up and down shouting “Look at me everyone! Look at me!”.
Here are 5 ways to promote yourself with out feeling like you are being too obtrusive.
- Flattery will get you everywhere
It is all about them, not you! When you pay someone a compliment, it piques their curiosity in who you are. “Who is this person with impeccable taste?”Be honest and sincere in your flattery, but it shouldn’t be hard to come up with a compliment. Because you are approaching people one by one, it is best to focus on influential people within your realm of interest, get them interested in what you are doing. This might go without saying, but make sure there is a link to your blog on your profiles and e-mail signature so that whatever avenue you are using to hand out the flattery can be easily linked back to you.
- Bury it in Twitter.
If you have a modest amount of followers, tweet links to other posts that match your blog posts’ topic and slide your blog in the midst of them. (Getting people to follow you in Twitter is another topic)For example, I recently wrote a post about twitter being a social media powerhouse. I found more posts about twitter on other blogs and throughout the day I passed those posts on and included my post a couple of times. I was retweeted on several occasions, including on my post! (Like how I slipped in my own blog post about twitter into the tip about using twitter?… this was no accident
). - Say something smart… or stupid
If your comments are well thought-out and put together, or if you are tweeting thoughtful contributions to the community, people will naturally want to see who is saying that and dig deeper into who you are. If possible, provide a link to a specific blog post that fits the topic of discussion. Don’t bring attention to the link, just have it available. I.E. “I feel that people are motivated to blog based on their intrinsic needs as human beings! http://www.nathanmcgee.com/2009/02/11/why-are-you-blogging/”You will get more attention if you say something controversial, shocking or just plain stupid, but you have to ask yourself, is that the attention you want. For some it will work, but not for me. Proceed with caution!
- Start talking outside of your circle
Your blog topic is probably not the only thing you are interested in. Get out there and get involved in other areas of interest. I have met some fantastic people in my industry on twitter when I started talking about the popular show “Lost” on ABC. I’ve even made business contacts through discussing fun activities for families.Some of the best comments I have had on my blog come from people that I know from other circles, but didn’t even know were reading or even interested in my blog.
- Up Sell
In marketing, the term “up sell” means to add additional features or products at the point of purchase. The concept is that they are in a buying mood and will most likely buy additional items. Most recognized up sell phrase, “Would you like fries with that?”Use this to your advantage. When someone says, “Hey, great post on…” or “I like your blog, I will be coming back for more!” I always respond, “Thanks! Be sure to subscribe so you never miss a thing!” They’ve bought into the value of what you present, get them to take that extra step and subscribe!
Don’t be ashamed to strut your stuff occasionally. If you are good at what you do and proud of your work, let people know that. Giving yourself a plug is completely acceptable when used sparingly. If you take the time to mingle and get people interested in who you are and what you are doing, then when you stand in the middle of the room and say, “Look at me!”, people will turn their attention to see what you are going to do next.
What are ways that you have found useful in promoting your blog and what you do?
Nathan McGee blogs and speaks about social media marketing and marketing strategies. You can find his blog at nathanmcgee.com and follow him on twitter @nathanmcgee
