20 Things to Remember for Writing the Perfect Blog Post

Marketing has so many subdivisions, sometimes it’s hard to keep track.

Content marketing, one of the more misunderstood off shoots, is as tricky as it is simple.

What’s so tricky about it, you ask? It’s just writing…

No. Not everyone can write something that speaks to their readers and prompts them to like/follow you on social media.

You are not writing high-school papers. You’re writing to an audience significantly larger than your bored college professor. You want them enthralled with your work. Unlike your professor, this audience can (and will) haul themselves off your website faster than you can say ‘Audience Engagement’ if they don’t find you interesting enough.

My point is simple and obvious: If you really want to make your content more inviting, engaging and user-friendly, you have to beat your articles into shape.

Content marketing can enhance your online visibility and generate leads for you within a short time span - But you need to get it right.

Let’s get this show on the road then, here are 20 things you need to consider when writing your next blog post:

1. Captivating headline

Here’s what David Oglivy has to say about a headline:

On average, five times as many people read the headline that read the copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.

Who are we to disagree with the Father of Advertising, really?

The headline of a blog post needs to be creative and magnetic. It’s what draws the reader’s attention at the first sight and prompts them to read what you post. Writing a headline that grabs your readers’ attention is a critical skill.

If you want to create fascinating headlines, you need to thoroughly understand your blog’s concept and then write down the headline that can both deliver the desired message and also persuade targeted readers. You can get some great tips from here as well.

Bottom line: It needs to be short and spunky, something to draw your readers’ eyes and entice them to take a look at the whole thing.

2. Supporting sub-header

You can’t squeeze everything about your content in the 5-10 words of a headline. This is where subheadlines come to the rescue.

You can use sub headers to start, finish, or explain (in short) what your content is about. Attention can be caught by the headline, but interest is generated with your sub-headers.

Bonus: Keyword-friendly subheadlines make your content more visible to search engines.

3. Word-play

Now we’re talking!

I am a huge believer in KISS (Keep it Simple, Stupid) and I will do everything I can to tone down the jargon or huge, pompous words. If no-one understands what you’re saying, you defeat the entire point of content marketing.

Simply put, use simple words to explain. Of course you can use jargon, but only where jargon is necessary. Everywhere else, keep it short and sweet unless the context (or the content itself) demands heavy words and brutally large explanations.

4. Bullets with a name on it

Articles are a thing of the past. Everyone’s writing ‘listicles’ now.

Make your blog post more easily understandable by using numbered lists or bullet points. It helps people read blog posts and find the information they are looking for instantly, without much effort.

5. Properly punctuate

Use full stops, commas, colons and dashes to divide the mass of words into smaller chunks of information that make sense.

If you are not sure about punctuation, then keep sentences short and digestive. As you gain experience in writing, you can lengthen your sentences, and break up them by using commas.

By breaking up long sentences, you can make your blog posts engaging as well as informative. Make sure to provide your readers the desired information in an easier way.

6. Try to keep it lean

In a mobile age, we as readers, are more used to reading top-down than left to right.

If you are using the WordPress or Blogger layout along with a specific wide content column, it will be better to select a new layout, or adjust your column width. You can use 80 characters or less in the width to make your blog post narrow.

7. Test your font type

Monotype Corsiva looks amazing. But if you wrote that paper on, say, Shakespeare’s contribution in that font, prepare yourself for a low grade. Regardless of what you wrote you will be graded down.

Let that be a lesson (hypothetical one): The web is no different. While you can and should do everything to put your brand personality to proud display, keep the fonts and typefaces legible. Sans-Serif fonts (without the squiggly bits) are easier to read on-screens, and of course there are others. Many leading bloggers use the sans-serif font Roboto that is created for easy reading.

Remember, bloggers: Test your web fonts for legibility.

8. Big and engaging font size

Choose a big font size while writing your next blog post. Tiny writing is tough to read online, so it is better to make it bigger.

Check out some of your favorite blogs and compare the font size they use and then you can decide what works best for your potential readers.

9. Be bold, baby

Grab your reader’s attention by using bold text in your posts. But only do this strategically. Writing an entire paragraph in bold will make your blog ineffective. But using this tool to highlight some important sentences is an ingenious formatting technique that will put extra emphasis on things you want to stick out in your readers’ minds.

10. Give italics ago (sparingly)

Italics are a great way to emphasise a point, or a question, in a more discreet manner than bold text. But don’t over do it because after a while italics strain the eyes.

11. Don’t forget caps

Don’t be afraid to dabble with capital letters for entire words every now and then… They JUMP off the page at your readers.

12. Tell a story

Every story has three major parts: the beginning, middle, and the end.

So, you can start off with the introduction, then the main information, and end your blog by wrapping up with a conclusion. It will give a proper format to your blog post, and allow readers to more easily consume the information.

Try to make your blog tempting so that your readers crave more content.

13. Keep attention with internal cliffhangers

Internal cliffhangers basically bridge your article, blog or podcast together by using emotions. These are statements and devices within your content that encourage readers to keep reading.

After all, we engage based on emotion.

14. Use images

Visually-appealing images will always attract readers to your blog post. Noticeable images in a blog post emphasize its message and also grab the viewer’s attention. It will be great fun to use images to break up your lengthy content into digestive paragraphs.

Reading fully text-ified posts is tiring and boring – so there is bonus points for relevant images that add to the ‘story’ of your content.

15. Use graphs

Graphs can be an essential tool for content marketers who are in technical industries or covering data-laden topics. Data visualization can divide the monotony of dry articles, and increase the chance of sharing.

By creating graphics, you add significant visual interest and give depth to your blog post.

16. Short paragraphs make your content interesting

It is not necessary to apply traditional rules of composition while crafting the perfect blog post. Instead of writing long sentences, you can divide your blog post into short, digestive paragraphs, as it allows the visitor to view the important points quickly.

If you break up your lengthy content into manageable chunks you will engage more readers.

17. Use white space

Whitespace is basically the emptiness in between the characters, lines and paragraphs of your blog post. Proper use of white space in a blog will help prevent your readers from losing their place when they look away from the text for a little while.

It allows the reader to process the information in the story, give their eyes a break and keep them engaged with the blog post.

18. Be aware of your background

Your blog’s background color should contrast your text color because ultimately the hero of your blog post is the CONTENT.

The best combination is a dark and vibrant text color on a light background.

A white background is simple and least likely to cause distractions.

19. Use text call-outs

Showcase the purpose of your blog posts, especially the important points, with text call-out boxes (Such as block quotes). It will add some serious significance to your statement.

Text call-outs can become irritating to readers, so make sure you use them sparingly.

20. Close your blog post in style

You know how the endings of all great horror movies are open?

The main objective of effective writing is to take the reader on an interesting and informative ride from beginning till end. Try to wrap up your blog post in style so that you can deliver the message to the readers in the most exciting way.

The ending of your blog post will determine the reaction and emotions of people after reading your content. You can leave them contemplative, excited, in suspense, and more, just with a few words that make your ending.

Wrapping Up

“We’re all ADHDs here.”

Yes, that was a poor rip-off of Lewis Carroll’s famous line in Alice in Wonderland, but you can certainly see the similarities between a rabbit hole and the vast (and crazy) world of the web. Come on!

The internet is a madhouse and you’re trying to be heard (sorry, read) above the noise. A nicely written piece of content is you trying to stand out from the crowd. And once the eyes are on you, your content will determine how long they stay there.

Whip that blog post writing into shape and keep that spotlight on you forever.

Guest Author: Lucy Barret is a WordPress Developer and a passionate Blogger. She is associated with HireWPGeeks Ltd. and provide HTML to WordPress service with her team of experienced WordPress developers. She is fond of writing WordPress tutorials and loves to share her knowledge with other bloggers. You can follow her company on various social media networks like Facebook and Google+.

The post 20 Things to Remember for Writing the Perfect Blog Post appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

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Is Pain Your Path to Success

As a child I struggled to breathe.

For days I would lie in bed and fight for every inch of breath. I almost thought of it as normal. Waking up and trying to drag air into my lungs for hours.

Nights were long with no end in sight.

Asthma wasn’t considered such a big deal back then and drugs were minimal and for the most part ineffective. Going to hospital wasn’t a consideration. For years the doctors were not much help. One suggestion was  burning an oily lamp with some strange concoction next to my bed.

The result.

Only stained bed clothes and sheets when the device was struck by flailing arms in the middle of the night.

Finally… at a doctor’s appointment, I was told that maybe exercise was one way of possible relief. Some new research had shown some promise

By then I was old enough to take some initiative.

I was tired and fed up with the pain. The next day I struggled out of bed in the gloom of the early morning. The fresh smell of dew promised a new day. The sound of the gravel driveway under my feet was deafening in the silence of the dawn as I walked past my parents bedroom and opened our creaking gate.

The orange street lamps beckoned.

I started pounding around the park next to the family home. The first event was 4 laps and I was done. The next day I thought it would be good to have my younger brothers join in. So I coaxed them to put on their running shoes and share my pain of struggling out of bed at the crack of dawn. The next day they just groaned…rolled over and went back to sleep.

No encouragement there.

It’s up to you

I was on my own.

But I had something they didn’t have. I was seeking a solution to escape pain. It’s a big stick.

The days became weeks and that turned into months and my persistence didn’t diminish but increased. I exchanged the pain of fighting for breath from asthma to fighting for breath as I exercised. My determination to escape pain drove me to such frenzied activity that sometimes I threw up from the sheer exertion.

I had also discovered a new natural high. It was a drug called endorphins. As my fitness grew, I felt I could run forever. Maybe I was the original Forest Gump.

Within a year, I could run for hours. I disappeared into the surrounding hills. I loved my freedom, enjoyed my own company and I learned that sizeable, insurmountable obstacles can be overcome. If you’re willing to push through the pain and take the next step.

This motivated escape had become a passion and my asthma had now become just a small sideshow.

I joined the high school long distance running team and discovered that persistence and practice had a reward. I qualified for regional and state championships and started winning races.

That was my first lesson on the power of pain.

One step at a time

Stephen King was asked ‘how do you write these 120,000 word novels and he said ‘one word at a time…’

The path to success is just one step at a time.

Going for a run every now and then is good. But the only way to achieve peak fitness requires persistence. Succeeding in this digital world…whether it’s blogging, content marketing, digital marketing or re-inventing your company or re-inventing yourself is sometimes not apparent.

It requires shedding comfort for growth inducing discomfort.

Your attitude to pain is key

You’re going to feel a lot of pain in life…because the reality is the world has changed and will never stop changing.  So you can bravely embrace the digital opportunities and understand that you have the power to build your own brand online without seeking permission or paying for it.

Then the riches of the world are yours…you can go from local to global in the click of button.

The new reality

You can build your own global audience one word…one tweet at a time…without having to pay for it.

Are you going to embrace your pain and reinvent, or are you just going to wallow. Settling for comfort is never going to lead anywhere. Feeling some pain means you are pushing your boundaries. And that is the event horizon where growth happens.

You have the choice.

The post Is Pain Your Path to Success appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

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How to Create Content That Converts Like Crazy

You’ve been working hard to produce great content for your audience….

You’re getting your name out there on social media and traffic to your website is growing steadily.

But no one is buying your stuff.

Content is pointless if you’re not converting leads and sales. If you can’t do this, all the traffic in the world won’t help you.

If you want to create content that converts like crazy, you need to use a little marketing psychology.

Know the mind of your audience, truly engage them with your content, and they’ll be eager to click that button.

Know your audience

All successful businesses are based upon their ability to meet the needs of their audience. If you can do this, you will succeed. If you can’t, it’s going to be a struggle.

Any business strategy must start and end with your audience. Content marketing is no different. If you want to boost your conversions you need to know who you’re trying to convert.

Many marketers make the mistake of creating content for their peers. For example, as a freelance writer I could create content on the art of writing. However this would not win me any new clients. My clients are not interested in learning how to write better. But they would be interested in how to use content marketing to grow their business.

Create content for your audience not your peers.

But how well do you know your audience?

Get to know everything you can about your audience:

• Their demographics
• Where they hang out
• What their needs are
• What their values are
• What words and phrases they like to use
• What makes them happy
• What makes them frustrated

You can find out what you need to know using the following methods.

• Go to forums relevant to your niche
• Search under your keywords in Quora and Yahoo Answers
• Search under your keywords on social media
• Invite visitors to your website to fill in a survey
• Study the blogs and magazines they read
• Meet them in real life by attending relevant events

Choose a topic which is relevant and useful

The secret of effective content marketing lies in creating content which is relevant and useful to your audience.

The more relevant and useful your content is, the more engaged your audience is and the more they will trust you.

To optimize your conversions you should pick interesting topics that address your audience’s pain points and allow you to demonstrate your expertise.

This is where your knowledge of your audience comes in. After doing your research, you should have a clear idea of what their needs are.

Which of those needs can you fulfil? Those would make great topics for your content.

It’s often effective to be highly targeted with your content. For example, an article about social media strategies will have a broad appeal, but the topic is too general to really engage people. Now an article about social media strategies for solo entrepreneurs might turn off a section of readers, but the ones to whom it applies will be highly engaged.

Remember, engagement leads to conversions.

Write a captivating headline

In content marketing, the headline is king.  No matter how amazing your content is, now one is going to read it if they’re not immediately captivated by your headline.

According to Peter Koechley of Upworthy, switching from a bad headline to a good headline can produce as much as a 500% increase in traffic.

Headline writing is as much a science as it is an art. The attention grabbing headlines you see on the covers of Cosmopolitan Magazine or Buzzfeed are based on established formulas. These formulas were thought up by old school copywriting legends like Eugene Schwartz and David Ogilvy. They have proven their worth time and time again for more than 50 years.

Remember, your headline has one purpose: to capture your reader’s attention so that they want to read your content.

So how can you get your reader hooked?

Simple. Promise them a benefit.

“The headlines which work best are those that promise the reader a benefit.”

— David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising

Now going back to Buzzfeed. This website lives or dies by its headlines. So why not use it for inspiration.

Now let’s say you run a website that offers social media marketing services. Can you repurpose some of these Buzzfeed headlines to write an attention grabbing headline that promises a benefit?

You certainly can.

“8 Brilliant Ideas for Throwing An Autumn Barbecue” becomes “8 Brilliant Ideas for Social Media Marketing”.

“21 Hilarious Tweets That Perfectly Capture Your Feelings About Dating” becomes “21 Inspirational Tweets That Perfectly Capture How You Should be Using Twitter”.

“24 Secrets River Island Staff Will Never Tell You” becomes “24 Secrets Social Media Experts Will Never Tell You”.

Hook them with your opening

Ok, you’ve captured your reader’s attention with your headline. You’re not home and dry yet. Not by a long shot.

People’s attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. According to scientists, our average attention span is now 8 seconds. For goldfish, it’s 9 seconds.

What does that mean to you?

It means you need to hook your reader from your first sentence. You need to make them interested in what you have to say. If you don’t they’ll just wander off and watch some videos of skateboarding dogs. Or something.

Here are some great ways of starting your blog posts with a bang;

• Ask a question. If you ask a question, you’ll get your reader thinking. Thinking means engagement. That’s a good thing.
• Drop a shocking statistic. Don’t use a statistic that your audience will be familiar with. Hit them from left field. Make them go “Wow, I didn’t know that!”
• Describe a problem. Go straight into the problem your content will be addressing. Don’t just define the problem. Go deep. Lay out the pain that the problem is causing. More about this later.

Build a Connection

Content marketing is about relationship building. You produce content to build a connection with your audience, which in time leads to a sale.

To build a relationship, you must establish rapport. Now if you’ve done your homework from the “know your audience” section you should have some idea of the values and interests of your audience. Your content should be congruent with those values and interests.

For example if your target audience is solo entrepreneurs, they may prioritize saving money over saving time. For an audience of marketing executives, saving time may be more important than saving money.

Another key factor is the language that you use. Study the words and phrases that your audience uses when discussing topics related to your business. Use the same words and phrases in your content. You can go further. If your audience demographic is interested in certain aspects of popular culture, you can refer to these to spice up your content.

Once you show your audience that you understand how they think, and how they feel, they will start to trust you. And this is so important in business.

Be genuinely helpful

Building rapport is great. But you need to show you can provide value to your audience. If you can’t, why should they buy your products and services? That’s why your content must be helpful. If a reader finds your content to be helpful, they will be confident that purchasing your products or services will benefit them so much more.

Your content can be helpful in the following ways:

• Solve a problem. You provide a solution to a common problem your audience is facing. To give the most value, you should provide actionable steps that your audience can take. When they act on your advice and it works, they’ll be eager for more. However, you don’t have to tell them everything they need to know. You can hold something back which will be revealed in your paid products and services.
• Educate your readers. As experts in your niche, you’re in a position to teach your audience about niche topics. If you establish a teacher-student relationship with your audience, you’ll be in a position of authority and trust. But remember to use their language. Never use jargon that they won’t understand. And be humble. No one likes arrogance.
• Give an informed opinion. In many niches there’s an abundance of advice, many of it conflicting. Your audience is likely confused as to which option to take. They might be spending hours on the internet trying to find an answer. What WordPress SEO plugin is the best? Is cardio or strength training better for weight loss? Clear up your audience’s confusion and demonstrate your expertise. You’ll win a few new fans in the process.

Be emotional

No matter how rational your audience is, their emotions still exert a huge influence over their decision-making process. Analysis of data from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising revealed that adverts with emotional content performed almost twice as well as those with purely rational content (31% effectiveness vs 16% effectiveness).

For our purposes emotions can be broadly divided into two categories:

• Positive emotions. Joy, happiness, satisfaction.
• Negative emotions. Fear, frustration, anxiety.

In general, evoking positive emotions is going to reap the greatest rewards in content marketing. As Psychology Today reports, studies show that positive emotions regarding a brand have far greater effect on consumer loyalty than any other factor.

You can evoke positive emotions by:

• Using a lively, optimistic writing voice.
• Encouraging your audience to achieve their goals.
• Sharing inspirational success stories.

Now this is not to say that evoking negative emotions is necessarily bad. You just need to be strategic about it. Copywriters have long harnessed negative emotions to sell using the Problem-Agitate-Solve (PAS) formula.

It works like this:

• Problem. Identify your audience’s pain point. For example, say your audience wants more traffic to their website.
• Agitate. Rub it in a bit. So your audience has low traffic to their website. Describe their feelings of frustration. Describe their anxiety that they’re never going to succeed.
• Solve. Now you’ve really amped up your audience’s desire to find a solution to their problem. At this point, you reveal that you’re going to share your special marketing strategies that will skyrocket their traffic.

Make a compelling offer

Through using the tactics we’ve outlined, you’ve built a connection with your audience, helped them with their problem, and even got them a little bit emotional.

You have an audience which is highly engaged with your content.

Now it’s time for you to convert them into sales leads.

To do this, make them an offer. This could be:

• Subscribe to your newsletter.
• Download your ebook.
• Sign up to your webinar.
• Purchase your products or services.

The copy that introduces your offer is the call to action. Your call to action should be placed at one or more prominent positions on your website:

• On your home page.
• At the top of your sidebar.
• At the end of your blog posts.
• On pop-ups.

To make your offer truly compelling, you should try and incorporate the following:

• Outline benefits. Clearly state the benefits your audience will gain from your offer.
• Emphasise uniqueness. Are you offering something that your competitors aren’t? This could be the nature of your product, or it could be your unique approach.
• Inspire confidence. Use social proof by citing testimonials from satisfied customers.
• Use figures. Figures lend credibility. It could be the number of subscribers you have, or statistics that demonstrate the effectiveness of your methods.

It’s all about the journey

Content marketing is all about taking your audience on a journey. You attract their attention, hook them, build a connection, and make your offer.

At every stage in the journey, you should be increasing the audience’s engagement with your brand.

So when you finally make your offer, how can they possibly resist?

Extra bonus: I’ve created a handy “Create Content that Converts Like Crazy Checklist” specially for Jeff Bullas readers. To download it now, click here.

Guest author: Clement Lim is a freelance copywriter and content marketer specialising in B2B and legal niches. When he’s not creating thrilling content he enjoys drinking green tea and doing handstand pushups. Find out how he can help your business grow at limwriter.com.

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Uber-Targeted Social Media Strategies

In theory, more followers means more eyes on your content…

But savvy marketers know that doesn’t always work out. To be effective, you need engaged followers, people who are so interested in your content they will read it, comment, and share with their audience.

In other words:

It’s not the size of the boat, it’s the motion of the ocean.

To get your boat a’rockin, you need to build an engaged audience. Fortunately, people on social media self-identify, and you can harness that.

Finding your audience

Each social media channel has tools and methods you can use to identify interested people. If you follow them, and they are interested, chances are pretty good they will follow you back.

Here are some tools and tactics to speed up the discovery process by social media channel.

Twitter

You can follow 1000 people per day, but how? Twitter has its own search tool that I never found particularly useful, so I turn to online tools.

One easy and effective answer is Socedo.com. I used the Socedo app to run an experiment for a post I wrote here on Jeff’s blog.

On Monday morning, I set up an autoDM response, chose keywords that identify my ideal audience, and approved the 250 recommendations generated by the app. It took less than 5 minutes. The result was 40 extra new followers in one day.

Not bad!

Even more interesting was the response to the autoDM.

Mine said:

[First_Name], just wanted to say hi and thanks for connecting. If you’re interested in content marketing, here’s one of my recent posts, “7 Tactics to Write Quality Content Your Audience Will Love”

<http://ift.tt/1htmWos>

I chose that post because it’s been up for a while and not getting a lot of attention.

Here are screenshots from Monday morning and Tuesday morning.

That’s 2,955 tweets on Monday, and 2,979 tweets just 24 hours later.

Mock autoDMs all you want (we all hate them), but that’s a nice spike on a post that’s two months old… 24 tweets from 40 new followers is better than a 50% conversion rate!

Another really simple way to find and engage new followers is through Twitter chats. Active participation in industry-related hashtags not only allows you to communicate directly with people who might not otherwise respond to you (influencers with large followings), but you can also observe who responds to others. The people who retweet and respond to industry influencers are your people.

Don’t be shy. Show your expertise and avoid cliches. Then followup the next day with a clever comment, and join the chat again next week. Don’t worry if you seem to be talking to yourself at first, they’ll warm up if you join conversations.

Be sure to keep an eye on your Twitter Analytics. You can learn all kinds of cool stuff about who your most engaged followers are and what your most popular tweets include.

Scaling it back

To keep up your follow count, you have to keep up on your ratio. There are many tools online to help you manage your followers. I use Crowdfireapp.com to weed out inactive accounts and unfollow people who don’t follow me back (after a proper grace period).

Facebook

Facebook has advanced search tools built into its program. Enter a keyword in the search field and you’ll get a wide range of results: People with your keyword in their profile descriptions, professional and business pages, groups, events, and even videos and photos about the subject.

Promoting your business on Facebook is tricky. While you can connect directly via a personal page, you’re limited to enticing people to follow a business/professional page. Depending on your industry, one good way to build an audience is to let your people be the face of the business. Paid promotions can help you get noticed, but nothing beats personal engagement.

You can really uber target ads and boosted posts, though. Get local by specifying country, state/province, city, and language, then specify age, sex, and interests.

Target got my attention recently by featuring items I’d left in an abandoned shopping cart. Brilliant!

And also effective; I went back and finished my order.

To analyze and optimize your page impact, Facebook offers Insights, a collection of reports that shows you such things as who your followers are, where they are located, and what they respond to.

Linkedin

Linkedin is the go-to social site for B2B, and just like the other sites, the key is engagement.

In 50 Ways To Get More Linkedin Page Followers, Jayson DeMers says “Growing your LinkedIn presence all comes down to two main strategies: promoting your page and producing engaging content that drives shares and increases your visibility.”

The same advice holds true for all social media sites. Even if you’re writing a simple tweet, make it a good one. Find ways to promote your content without repeating the same post over and over – choose bullet points from the post or report, ask a question, use a different graphic.

Ground floor video opportunities

The live-streaming trend is blazing hot right now, and it’s still early enough to grab a big share of the audience. Pick your poison: Meerkat, Periscope, and Blab are all gaining traction. Just remember, trends come and go, and audiences are fickle. Don’t get too invested in any one social site that may not last. When was the last time someone mentioned Vine?

Got the hang of if? Good.

By this point, you have figured out that you can’t just build it and they will come. You have to search for your followers, reach out, and give them a reason to follow you. No matter what social media site you’re targeting, your content has to be on point, your bio has to be interesting, and you have to interact quickly and cleverly.

Tips on improving your social media strategies

Beef up your bio

Consider your profile bio a personal ad for social media sites. It helps people find you and influences them to follow you. Use searchable keywords and make it interesting. It doesn’t have to be a dry list of qualifications. Include some personal details and make it personable. You can fit a surprising amount of information in a short paragraph.

In order: @morgancarrie, @MarcGuberti, @MrRyanConnors, @HillaryClinton

Show some love

Here’s the part a lot of businesses don’t seem to get. The more you spread the love, the more you get in return. It’s a little bit thrilling when a big name or a brand with a ton of followers responds or retweets an ordinary person.

Brands that really engage in conversations and reshares tend to be talked about and written about. My current favorite social media account is @Applebees, and not just because they tweet mouthwatering bacon cheeseburger pictures at me. Their social media team is clever, responsive, and funny.

Lure targeted followers (AKA inbound marketing)

Targeting people on social media isn’t always about finding them. It can be about helping them find you. The same tactics used for linkbuilding can be effective for audience building. I do a lot of blogging on high traffic sites (like this one, for example), and each one has a bio with my contact information.

It’s a win-win. I write about what I know best – writing, social media, marketing, and all things associated. People who read it and like what I have to say connect with me… and that grows my audience.

It has other perks as well. You build authority by sharing your knowledge, make friends in the blogging world who are likely to help spread your fame and put your name in front of a targeted group of dedicated readers. All very worthy goals.

Deliver the goodness

Building a targeted audience becomes easier over time. The more exposure you have, the more people find you, it’s a natural progression. That doesn’t mean you get to relax. Instead, you should turn up the heat. Your goal is not only to find a new targeted audience, it’s to provide the content that keeps them interested.

As you get to know your audience, you can better understand what makes them tick. What content they are most likely to read and share, what they want to know from you, and where to find them.

Targeting your social media audience is all about answering their needs, sparking their interest, and being a resource they can count on. When you engage enthusiastic followers, they are all too happy to help you spread the word – and your fame.

Guest Author: Sherry Gray is a freelance content writer from Key West, FL, currently suffering the burbs of Orlando. She’s a science geek, a business and marketing writer, and an unapologetic fan of all things bacon. Connect with Sherry on Twitter@sherisaid or on Linkedin.

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