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After you've been working on your business blog for a while, there are a number of great things that you can do to give it a boost. When you were first getting started with blogging, your primary concern was probably just getting content shipped on a regular basis so you could generate your initial momentum and begin to build an audience and readership. But after a few months of regular publishing and generating growth, it can be beneficial to give your readers some variety by creating and publishing different types of content in various formats to help your blog grow and keep the content exciting. There are many possible ways to do this, and today we'll cover three of them: integrating video content, incorporating interviews, and incorporating weekly posts covering lighter topics.
1. Integrate Video Content
You can switch up the feel of your blog and help people stay engaged for longer periods of time by using different forms of content like video. Your first video post could be something as simple as introducing yourself and the kind of topics you'll be covering. This way, you can quickly gauge your audience's reactions to video content and become familiar with the mechanisms for creating and posting video on the web. Don't shoot for anything too fancy right out of the gate. Just record something simple.
Once you've recorded your first video, establish a basic YouTube channel that is tied to your business, upload your first video, and embed it into a blog post. Include a short summary of the video for those readers who may prefer text over video. Don't worry if your video isn't of the utmost quality. Start simple and lean, learn from the experience, and build up your video marketing efforts from there to achieve maximum effectiveness.
2. Conduct Interviews
Once you've gotten the hang of creating video content for your blog, consider conducting an interview with someone, either on video if you're both comfortable with that or just in text format. Consider other thought leaders, industry experts, or even your customers as interesting interview candidates. One of the tricks for conducting a great interview with someone is to avoid scripting all of your questions beforehand and sending your interviewee a comprehensive list of questions in advance. While scripted interviews are faster to produce, they aren't as interesting to read or watch, and they limit the discussions you can have. Instead, schedule a time to talk to the person you're interviewing, and run it as a conversation.
To conduct a great interview, bring 3-4 interesting questions, and then ask 2-3 follow-ups to each one instead of just running through the drill. Done this way, you will end up with a real conversation about each topic, which is always much more interesting and insightful than shallow question and answer session. With video interview (perhaps over your webcam using Skype?), you can also incorporate visual aids and allow the viewer to get a better look into the personality of your interviewee.
3. Lighten Up
Now that you're mixing in new types of content and material, try switching up your regular blog content with a weekly lighter post about something in your industry. Find a funny news story or another topic each week, and use that for the basis of your blog post. While they may be less focused on thought leadership, these posts can be interesting reading and may be shared more often than more serious posts, leading to new readers and visitors to your blog from social media. StudentAdvisor's blog does an excellent job of running fun posts about college life, unusual activities at college, and more on Fridays, and uses that to help attract new viewers from Facebook. Another great example of this can be found on the security blog, Schneier on Security, which dedicates its Friday post to news, pictures, and facts about squid.
What other tactics do you use to keep your blog content interesting and varied?
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