A couple of days ago I wrote a post on the importance of your business having a blog.
One of the main benefits I highlighted was the fact that a blog gives you a bridge to social media. Your blog posts can be talked about in various social media circles, and it gives you a point of reference when you are engaging your social media audience.
To illustrate the importance of getting your business into social circles, and having folks talk about it, I thought I would use an example from this blog about how effective that can be in getting traffic, and potential customers to your website.
The Story
On February 12 I wrote this post, which was a compilation of free business classes which could be found online.
The work involved in creating the post amounted to doing a handful of Google searches for free business classes in categories I thought would be of interest. Starting a business, entrepreneurship, marketing, leadership, etc.
Once I had links to the free classes, my “work” was basically done. I organized them by category, formatted the post so it was consistent with the blog, and published.
From there an automatic “Tweet” goes out to my Twitter followers. And I passed along the link for a few of my friends on StumbleUpon to check out.
Start to finish this took about 2 hours.
The Result
As of February 17 that one post has generated 34,615 visits to my blog, and is on target to generate nearly 50,000 visits in 7 days. The traffic I will get in one week is equal to about 2x what I would receive in a month.
I don’t share this information to brag. Really I was unaware it would hit such a chord with readers. I was just trying to provide something useful, and something that was on topic within my niche.
If Your Business Isn’t Blogging, You’re Missing Out
The reason I bring this up is to illustrate the importance of having a blog to drive traffic to your business website. If your business is blogging, you have the opportunity to get those same 50,000 visitors to your website in a week – all for 2 hours worth of work.
Wouldn’t you like to have your company or business website seen by that many people in such a short amount of time? And the possibility to repeat it is limited only by the content you create and publish to your blog.
Exploit the Numbers
As we’ve discussed before, business is a numbers game. And while many of the 50,000 visitors will only blow through the site, numbers will eventually work in your favor. Of the 34,615 visitors so far nearly 500 have subscribed to my RSS feed, or newsletter. That’s a little less than 1.5% of all visitors, but they are subscribing.
How would you like to generate 500 new leads each week for 2 hours of work? How would you like to build your mailing list, and have people opt-in to receive more information about you and your company?
Key Takeaway
This sort of traffic to your blog is possible and feasible for you and your business. Anybody who has been publishing blog posts and promoting them through social media will tell you it certainly happens, and it can happen over and over.
As you become more in tune with what strikes a vein within your social media circles your chances of recreating a flood of traffic only increase as you can write content pertinent to them.
All of it starts with a blog though, and hopefully this example illustrates the power of having one for your business and using it as a bridge to social media.
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Photo Credit: Kristina B
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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Fantastic tip! I will implement it tonight. Hopefully, I will get half the traffic you got.
Blogging is vital for any business with public exposure these days. It gives you potential for what can often appear as random bursts of popularity.
Who would give up on that? If someone offered you free advertising you wouldn’t refuse. Why refuse to blog?
I am so proud, Matt. You deserve it, bud. It’s a lot of work to put those things together.
I hope this serves as a launching platform to all the things you’ve hoped to have with SmallBizBee.
Rock on!
George
@Jerrilyn Thomas
Best of luck, my only advice is to write for the benefit of your audience. Always ask yourself what you can give them.
Thanks for coming by,
Matt
@Guffin Mopes
It really is a great way to “advertise” for free. Really what you are doing is building authority, trust, and a relationship. From there your product or service will speak for itself.
Matt
@Tumblemoose
Really appreciate the kind words George. You’ve been so supportive of this site since day one.
If you haven’t had a chance you all should go check out what George is doing at Tumblemoose.com – it can be habit forming!
Matt
hey Matt,
Thanks for sharing these numbers. They are stunning. Wow.
I checked out your post and I’m impressed you got it done in two hours. It looks to me like it would take at least two days. Nice job! ~ Steve, trade show booths
PS. To follow-up on my previous comment, I was joking about getting news from blogs, but that’s the problem with attempting “humor” in comments. I agree that “some” blogs are a great source of news, it just depends on which blogs! I’d count your blog as a great source for small business information.
@Steve
LOL, yeah I guess that’s what we get for trying to be funny in print =) I wasn’t joking about you showing no signs of stodginess though.
I think this is a good demonstration of the power of social networking. I think for any business trying to build awareness a blog is a tremendous resource when coupled with social media.
Thanks,
Matt
It’s always good to reinforce your motivations and acknowledge your success. I know about blogging, I blog for more than 3 years now, I just wanted to give you a positive vibe here, for keeping your game running
@Dragos Roua
Thanks for the kind words. I really wasn’t trying to highlight myself here, or this blog per se, but wanted to show how powerful blogging and social media can be. I know for some sites 50K in a week is no big deal, for me that’s a lot. So even a small business, with a small blog, can get big numbers.
Don’t be a stranger,
Matt
Good stuff; nicely done. We never know which post of ours is going to be the one to take off, so I’m glad that one worked well for you.
@Mitch
Thanks! That’s true you just never know, and what it demonstrates is by just having a blog and producing content you open yourself up to the opportunity.
Thanks for coming by,
Matt
Very good post – thank you for giving us some SPECIFIC ideas for getting our blogs out there. I was actually happy to see that your two main dispersal techniques (Twitter and stumbleupon) are the same things I do after I blog. However, I’ve yet to get the kind of numbers you’re getting! Impressive! I’d love to hear about other specific ways for getting a blog post to be seen. =)
BTW – I find your site through Tumblemoose’s. Great stuff! I’m adding it to my feeds!
@Monica
Thanks for coming by, I’m glad you find us through Tumblemoose. He has a great site there!
Maybe I’ll put together a post on promoting online content, and focus on how to promote blog content. I’m nowhere near an expert, but I can at least relate what has been working for me, and what to avoid.
Matt
How do I advertise my Blog about Helping the Homeless in L.A.? Please read my blog at http://rothsteinjewelry.blogspot.com/
“As you become more in tune with what strikes a vein within your social media circles your chances of recreating a flood of traffic only increase as you can write content pertinent to them”
Striking a nerve is so critical. What you also hinted at is ‘You’ve got to keep trying’ and to be persistent in your “work” to be of value to your readers.
Awesome! Thanks for sharing the details…that really helps!
sheila b
,..] smallbizbee.com is another nice source on this topic,..]