Blogads sponsored several excellent forums during Social Media Week NYC including Expanding Your Blog Across Multiple Platforms at Manhattan's Helen Mills Theatre. Blogads' Paige Wilcox (far right) moderated the discussion with panelists (l-to-r) David “Rev” Ciancia of Burger Conquest, Ladygunn’s Koko Ntuen, Jenni Radosevich of I Spy DIY, and Gala Darling who offered great insights about how they developed and diversified their blogs into brands to bridge platforms and media.
Each panelist has expanded their brand in several very
cool ways: Rev has a restaurant, bar and is readying to hip the world to Creature Butcher; Ladygunn is reinvented as an internationally distributed magazine; Gala
Darling is responsible for the international Blogcademy; and Jenni’s prepping
her next book and hinted at more big plans for TV.
So how can you grow your blog possibly translating it
into bigger things for your brand?
Here are several sage highlights from the panel:
- As you build your blog, decide what makes your blog different. What does your brand communicate? What makes your blog unique? What content can you provide to keep your readers intrigued and interested?
- Clarify your voice. Though you may be interested in Christian Louboutins and goats, not everyone else will be. Separate your blog interests to find your ideal, most passionate and distinct audiences per focus. If the passions are related i.e., designer shoes and footwear designers, a unified site could work.
- Focus on a tangible skill or service that you can provide and build around it in complement of your blog.
- Tweak your tone and concept until you find the right balance of what you want to talk about and what your followers are hungry to consume. Decide what your persona is. Make sure that voice and personality is evident throughout your opinions, ideas, services, expertise, merch, etc.
- Once you commit to a blog, grab the corresponding name on Twitter, Instagram, etc., to maintain brand consistency across platforms.
- Announce your blog. If a blog falls in the e-forest and no one knows it’s there… zip.
- Write regularly about your passion, but not excessively. Write about what you love and keep at it as your audience finds and connects with you in their search for the shared passion.
- Be positive. No one wants to read a weekly whine-fest from a biased complainer. Friends and strangers generally follow what they like and skip what they don’t.
- Experiment with media in your posts. Include photo, video and audio to uniquely communicate your message to followers across the various available platforms.
- Check out your blog across in various devices. Does it flow well regardless of whether it’s opened on a desktop, tablet, or mobile? Ease of access and interactivity is key.
- Tweak, do not merely reformat and repost, your message across social media sites. What works for Facebook is not guaranteed to work for Twitter in the same way, likewise for YouTube, Vimeo, Vine, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. Iterate different aspects, details and visuals of your stories across your various sites. Cultivate demand across your sites?
- Include YouTube, Wikipedia, etc., as an official part of your media strategy and presence.
- Create an editorial schedule for blog posts to avoid rushed and last-minute ideas, and more easily facilitate layout, themes, media needs, etc.
- Grow your brand in ways consistent with your core. If you’re more couture than trailer park, your own line of trucker hats might not be the ideal joint venture. Know what makes you unique and makes sense for your brand. Establish different threads as it makes sense. Consumer confusion is costly.
- When you're ready, reach out to other brands for sponsorship and growth opps by pitching the ways you can assist in the promotion of a subject or POV, but don't jump prematurely. Once outside brands take a look, you’ve got one chance to make an amazeballs first impression. Get ready. Be ready.
- Have fun!
