If you’ve been a reader of our InTouch blog for some time, you may be asking yourself “is blogging something I should do.” After all, what better way to share your knowledge and experience with your customers and get feedback than blogging? If you’ve been on the fence about starting your own blog, here are some good reasons why you might want to take the leap.
Establish your expertise: Your blog provides you with a great opportunity to establish your expertise, particularly in a modality that’s your focus.
Connect with others: A blog can help create a community of like-minded individuals. You share your thoughts and opinions and others respond. In this way, everyone continues to learn.
Stay current: Blogging forces you to stay current on your topic or specialty. In order to provide fresh commentary, you need to keep to keep up to date.
Demonstrate your commitment to your field: It takes a commitment to keep a blog going. It’s a great way to show your clients and associates that you are committed to making a difference in your field.
Build your brand: People who value your posts will share them. You can build name recognition within an audience that may be far greater than your own immediate circle of associates and clients.
Grow your business: Your opportunity for new business increases as more people know you. Also if you adhere to Search Engine Optimization – that is using words and terms that prospects search for when looking for a new massage therapist or skin specialist – your blog will come up in search. There are a lot of articles online about Search Engine Optimization to familiarize you with how to find terms and how to use them in your posts. You also might want to read “Get to the Top on Google” by David Viney. It’s a very helpful book on using SEO for your website and your blog.
How to get started Blogging
Once you get started, try to keep a regular schedule of posts. Ideally you want to post something at least once a week so your readers will continue to be engaged. The fact is the more you post, the more you will be read. But if you only have time to post a few times a month, that’s fine too. The key is relevance not volume.
As for where to post, that’s easy. WordPress and Blogger from Google provide free blogs. If you don’t feel particularly comfortable setting up your blog, there are lots of people who you can hire for a few hours to set it up and show you how to post. The blog tools are very easy and once you post a few times, you’ll feel like a pro.
Take it from someone who took the blogging plunge two years ago, go for it. Once you enter the blogosphere, you’ll be glad you did. More importantly, so will your readers.