Blogging has moved from a personal venting mechanism to a celebrated business tool. For the first time in marketing history, a company can have a clear voice that’s easily accessible by customers and potential clients. A blog can be quirky, informative, professional, and innovative, and all these traits can showcase a business’s knowledge and creativity in the eyes of consumers. One of the easiest ways to set up a blog is through WordPress. It’s professional, respected, and easy to use, although it may seem intimidating at first glance. Below are three ways to move beyond the basics and truly personalize your blog so that your content can shine.
1. Embed, embed, embed
WordPress already offers plugins that let you add external media or images to a post, yet adding social media or video that offers interaction without needing to leave your blog page will boost your views and increase the functionality of your site. You don’t have to be an HTML wizard; simply click the Embed option from the Tweet, YouTube video, or SlideShare presentation you want to include. (It’s often found under a Share menu.) A few lines of code will appear that you can then paste directly into your blog. You can even adjust the size as well. No need to learn HTML; the height and width will be the only numbers in the code you’ve copied.
2. Avoid slip-ups
Thanks to screenshots, a mistake on the Internet is forever, no matter how quickly it’s taken down. To reduce the risk of publishing an unfinished piece or accidentally sharing the wrong picture, you can take certain precautions in your WordPress setup. Change your settings to Schedule, instead of Publish, when you begin writing and creating a post. As an added benefit, you can finish a post at two in the morning and have it go live at a much more respectable 8 A.M.
3. Use the cloud
By taking advantage of WordPress hosting on the cloud (which consists of virtual servers accessed online), you can leave the scalability, updates, and speed optimization to the hosting experts. You only pay for the services you use, and your website is far less likely to go down in the event of a crash. In addition, a sudden influx of traffic can be managed by the server by adding capabilities either permanently or temporarily, and then be celebrated by your business.
Summing up: Great content is key
Readers aren’t coming to a blog looking for flashy graphics or edgy design tricks (unless of course that’s the focus of your business). More often than not, the tips and insights given will be enough to draw readers in and encourage them to engage. Building a user-friendly, adaptable blog through WordPress simply makes that process easier for both the customers and the blogger. Instead of concentrating on setting tables and finding the perfect color codes (does #0174DF say tranquility?), you can develop valuable content. Frequent posting of useful information has been proven to do more to increase SEO and page views than any optimization trick or keyword. Use these simple tricks to launch your blog and achieve marketing success.
Amy works in marketing and digital strategy for a startup in Indianapolis. You can connect with Amy on Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn or Pinterest.
