How to Blog: Step by Step

Let’s go through creating the perfect blog entry.

• Step 1: The easiest, simplest, most important thing to do is to have catchy, attention-grabbing, click-worthy titles. Make your title easy enough to figure out what the blog post will be about. Show the reader that they will somehow benefit by reading your blog. Use words to evoke an emotional response, like awesome, crazy, stupid, free. Set expectations, there's nothing worse than clicking on a blog post and reading content that is completely unrelated to the title, or doesn't give what reader expects. Don't mislead your readers by posting catchy, but an ultimately empty title.
  
• Step 2: Writing your own, original content is highly advantageous. Your present your own opinions, as well as satisfying Google’s duplicate content rules, that is you’re not adding duplicate content. However if you don’t have time to write an original post, then you can take articles from other sources, like Trusted Choice, Insurance Journal, local newspapers, community newspapers. Just remember to cite the source at the end.
• Step 3: Add Anchor text to your post. Anchor text is the link label or link title that is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink. For example link the words Dallas auto insurance, instead of Click here or www.ABCAgency.com. You can link to other lines of business pages, quote forms, customers service forms, other blog entries and other websites. Make sure your blogs are not always entirely self-serving. Providing information rich content, rather than sales-heavy content will result in more visitors returning to the site.
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  Step 4: Add pictures to your post. This helps to make your entries more interesting, as well giving your audience a clue as to what your blog will be about. If you take pictures from other websites, don’t forget to cite the source at the bottom.
• Step 5: Guide your reader, they’ve stuck with you by reading the whole post, so tell them what to do once they’ve finished. Fill in a quote form, join our newsletter, subscribe to our blog feed, like us on Facebook, prepare a disaster kit.
• Step 6: Get your readers to interact with you by asking questions. All blogging platforms allow reader comments, so get some feedback from by asking for comments, or say something controversial to get a reaction.
• Step 7: Don’t forget to tell people about your latest blog. You can do this by sharing the link on Facebook and Twitter, you can send out an email out with all the posts on a certain topic to show your expertise in that area. You could even submit your post to sites like Technorati.com or a social bookmarking site like Stumbleupon.com or Delicious.com.

Now get blogging!

Masters of Marketing: Website Content

Here's another presentation in  our Masters of Marketing webinar. This presentation discusses content on your website, how to do it, when to do it and why you should add content. If you would like to join us every Thursday at 12:00 p.m. Central when we discuss marketing tips, you can register here.

Masters of Marketing: Website Content

View more presentations from Darmini Kara

Follow Their Rules or You Might Lose Your Facebook Page

You created a Facebook page for your agency. Looks great. It would be a waste if it disappeared suddenly...

Sound intimidating? It should. If your page violates the Terms of Service, your agency's page could get kicked off Facebook. It would be absurd to lose all of your hard work and time you put into building a following and engaging with your audience.

Facebook means business when it comes to their Terms of Service. If your agency's page is removed for ignoring or or not understanding the policies for business use, the consequences are substantial and permanent. You will no longer be allowed to use that email address to create another page.

Now that the social media giant is public, it is quite possible that Facebook will be taking a closer look and checking for compliance. If you're not sure if your agency's page follows the guidelines, check it now before it's too late.

These are three of the most common Terms of Service violations that could cost your agency your Facebook page and your audience.

1. Profile vs. Page

Profiles are for individual people to use as their personal space. Pages are for businesses to create a Facebook presence for the company and/or individual products. What Facebook has to say about Pages: "By leveraging the real connections between friends on Facebook, a Page lets Fans become brand advocates. Posts by the Page will start to appear in News Feed, giving Pages a stronger voice to reach their Fans.” Basically, the activity from your agency page will appear in the news feeds of people who have liked your page just as if you were posting from your personal profile. But using your personal profile for business purposes violates the rules. There are more reasons why you want to create a page for your agency and not a profile:

• A page can have an unlimited number of followers, while personal profiles are limited to 5,000 friends.
• You can customize tabs and apps for special marketing campaigns.
• Analytical tools are available to help you determine the effectiveness of your Facebook activities.
• You can connect your page with your other social media profiles.

2. Timeline Cover Photos

With the roll out of Timeline to business pages, came the cover photo (that large photo at the top of your page right above your profile picture). But there are rules regarding what you cannot include in this image. Did you know you are not allowed to put contact information, URLs or any kind of marketing promotion in your cover photo? Also forbidden: calls to action and any effort to get people to like or share your page. (Our blog post about setting up Timeline included these rules.)

3. Promotions Based on Facebook Features

Contests and promotions that include sharing or liking are not allowed. It’s okay to build likes and shares by offering fantastic content. You can also have contests, drawings and other promotional games. They just can’t be based on actions that involve Facebook’s proprietary functions, such as Like and Share. Next to using a personal profile for your agency, this is possibly the easiest way to lose your agency's page.

Facebook can be a fun way to engage with your customers and build awareness for your agency online. But to avoid losing all that time and effort, check to see if your agency page complies with the Terms of Service.

And if you haven't already, Like our Facebook Page for Insurance Website Builder for the latest news from ITC and Insurance Website Builder, marketing tips and an occasional look behind the scenes here at ITC.