Top 10 Things to do after Hitting Publish on a New Blog; Online Reputation Building

By: Dr. Thomas R. Reich

Simply hitting publish is not the end of your work as a blog author if you goal it to improve your online reputation.  Today’s online reputation marketing involves many steps to get noticed.  With the newest standards set by Google Hummingbird, content marketing and online reputation is all about link building.

SEO has evolved to the point that simply posting blogs on a timely basis is not enough, and picking just any link in a stream will hurt you rather than help you!  Quality blog posts that increase online reputation of your specific market, get noticed by search engines. Quality back links go to quality well written blogs that help improve the online reputation of the linker.  Buying back links and joining random blog networks will no longer get results; in fact, these practices will hurt your total targeted quality views.

A good blog in today’s on line community must give the reader real value and answer some real questions in your targeted industry in order to increase your online reputation.  You must weave your brand into the blog but not in an overly selling’ way, give true value and honest questions and comments will be left, true back links will be generated, and there will be an honest uptick in online reputation as a result.

Hitting that publish button begins the content marketing and online reputation building process.  The truly time consuming part of any great blog is the time spent promoting it properly.  The Publish button begins the process that content creation started, now prepare to create many more spins and entries to get your hard work noticed, and as a result improve your overall online reputation over the next few weeks and months.

Yes weeks and months, a well written information packed blog can still get significant hits months after being published.  Let’s look at the top 10 ways to promote your blog in a process called content marketing:

1)  Even before you publish make sure to optimizee your post with Keywords:  You should be familiar with target keyword search, and pick a keyword that relates completely to the topic the blog is related to.

It is no longer advisable to use the ridiculous rules of the past few years, such as repeating the keyword or phrase so many times the blog becomes un-readable.  However, a keyword or key phrase such as “Online Reputation” must be included in the Meta Title, Meta Data Description, H1, First Paragraph, and as anchor text (at least 4 times in the body of the blog including the last paragraph)

2) Use internal links and make at least 2 from your anchor text keyword or key phrase:  What is an internal link?  It is simply a hyperlink to another related blog within your own website, either a blog or page if that page contains quality information about the subject of the blog you are promoting.  An example might be linking Online Reputation to an article about Building LinkedIn Reputation on this site.  (Another advantage of this tip is if your blog is re-posted as a direct copy by another blogger, it is now linked from that location to your website!)

3) Very Important; share your post immediately to your entire social media and friend’s network which will help to increase your online reputation with your own network as well as potential new followers.  I use Sharebar, a  Word Press plugin, which lets you share your blog to your entire reach of social media and blog sharing networks from one place right within your own blog. Remember to not only share your new master piece on LinkedIn but to every one of your groups on Linked, however make sure that the blog you are promoting relates to the interests of each LinkedIn group you share with.  Make sure to customize a personal message to each group and node in your network, make each group feel as if this blog was meant just for that particular group of insiders, this also adds to you online reputation as a blogger people will be interested in reading.  Do not use an instant sharing service, it is easier and quicker, but the time spent on a personal line for each social media site and group is worth the effort.

4) Look for other blogs and articles covering the same topic as your unique blog and post teasers with a link back to your blog: This is where being an active member of forum communities pay off.  First you can link your latest blog post to your signature on the forum and generate some clicks back to your blog.  Post questions and comments on LinkedIn or Facebook group chat with links back to your blog, but make sure the blog you are linking is full of knowledge, remember the first rule of building your online reputation; A blog must give the reader real value, answer some real questions in a targeted industry or discipline.

5) Make sure to Syndicate your content:  Many sites will re-publish your content if you give them permission and set up an RSS feed. SocialMediaToday is a great one and re-publishes many of our blogs, Business2Comunity is another that will automatically grab your newest blog from your RSS feed when you sign up and grant them permission.BuzzBlogger has a great list and lots of great instructions on how to proceed and find the right sites to syndicate your blog and advance your online reputation building efforts.

6) Use Your Email list to market your blog several times:  Your website should have a newsletter sign up on the home page, the landing pages and the blog page.  As you build up an email list, make sure to announce each and every new blog.  I suggest a thumbnail picture, hyper-linked to the blog, as well as using the Deep Rich Data protocol and include the title, and a summary/teaser of the content in the alt link information.  You want your followers to read the blog on your website; do not email the entire blog.  You should also include a “CLICK HERE” to read button as well as links to your last two related blogs.  Try to have some personal message to your followers included in the email, as well as an the email newsletter update section and have a sign up your friends entry form for good measure.

7) Make it a point to Bookmark your blog:  This should be done as soon as you publish your blog, and can be done through the aforementioned Sharebar plugin for wordpress, or any number of programs or just go to each site manually.  At a minimum create unique  synopsis for each bookmarking site which enhances your online reputation, pick one representative picture to represent the blog, linked back to the blog where it originates in your website and post to Stumbleupon.Reddit, Digg, Scoop.it.  Take the time to completely fill out all available blanks in each social bookmarking site, do it the right way and begin to see reputation building results right away.

8) Use pictures to promote through Pinterest and image search engines:  Always use pictures that are Public Domain or owned by your firm.  Find many of these by going to Flickr.com, search for what you are looking for as always, then click advanced search and check show only CREATIVE COMMONS.  Use whatever you find eye catching to add punch to your blog.  There is an even greater reason, make sure to URL link each picture to your blog, and share to Pinterest, then make sure the URL link directs whoever clicks on the pictures to you specific blog.  Within Pinterest, SEO the caption of the picture to the keyword of the blog.  Finally share the URL linked and newly optimized picture back to Flicker, re-pin to other users Pinterest sites as well as any other picture sharing service you find such as flicker and Facebook.

9) Use your online reputation building efforts to create additional pieces of content:  Spin the content for another blog site, make it similar but totally re-written.  If the blog is newsworthy, cut it way down in size, keeping “just the facts” and turn it into a Press Release,  on line submission services such as PRWeb are a great place to start.  Expand the blog into a full on article with larger pictures and formatted into a magazine style, submit it to article sharing sites and submit to on-line magazines covering subjects relating to the blog.  If the blog proves extremely popular you may want to  re-purpose into a much longer and more thorough white paper.  Finally, consider turning the blog into an info-graphic.

10) Comment on other related blog posts and ask other bloggers to share your post:  Part of online reputation building is to share your knowledge with others looking for what you have to say.  What better place than other blogs covering related topics, reach out to other bloggers and try to get them to post your blog on their site (with your back links in place) and agree to do the same in exchange.

This may seem a lot harder than you had in mind and take more time than you are willing to spend, however Professional Marketing Associates has a fill line of Online Reputation Building services available at very reasonable prices, considering the value of your time and the value of a great reputation.  The reality of 2014 is; to get attention from the search engines you must use content marketing and that content must have thought put into your online reputation building.  Think about it, isn’t that the way we all want it?  How many times have you searched for, let’s say, how to add a link to my blog and gotten “Hi, I have a Rolls Royce, buy my system and you will have all the back links in the world”.

The reality is that Google, Bing and Yahoo are trying to make the internet search process better for the knowledge seeker, and YourPMA is here to help you do just that with your firm’s online reputation.  Try a little research today; I think you will find it a bit more accurate, or at least a bit less spammy than last year.

Remember, agree or disagree, Content Marketing is now a reality and online reputation building is part of it.  We at YourPMA suggest you try some of these ideas and see if you don’t get a lot more traffic for your newest blog.

We at YourPMA see ourselves as Central Florida’s Marketing Experts, as guides in the vast and unfamiliar realm of both digital marketing and traditional marketing and promotion. Our Marketing Experts work together to gain targeted prospects for your product or service.  Many can deliver traffic to your website, but often with little or no results.  As Central Florida’s Marketing Experts we at YourPMA deliver targeted traffic, quality not quantity.

One of our specialty’s and the one element that makes us stand out as Central Florida’s Marketing Experts is our willingness to understand your business, your brand and how you look to potential customers that may see you in the market.  In order to make a sale, you must not only convince the customer that you have the best solution to their problem, but also that you are a credible conveyance to that solution.

Phone: 407-801-1PMA (1762)

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