Business Blogging - How to Build A Better Blog

Bloggers: Are you using video?

I've been experimenting with 12seconds.tv, a free video site that is being called "twitter for video." I've written a couple of posts on Biz Tips Blog about why I'm playing with 12seconds.tv and some tips about how to create 12 second videos. My focus is creating micro tips on business blogging.

So far I've posted 7 videos. They are automatically pushed out to my twitter followers and posted on my Facebook status. Next, I'll upload them to Tubemogul and get them distributed to multiple video sharing sites. I'll also post them to my Facebook profile.

BlogSquad on 12seconds.tv

Why do all this?  Because it creates massive visibilty. I may not be able to say much in 12 seconds, but by sharing info and allowing all my readers, followers and friends to see me, it creates a faster connection and invites more interaction and intimacy.

It takes only a a minute or two to create a 12 second video. If you share a tip several times a week with your readers, what will that do for your business?

Twitter Helps You Build Blog Traffic

If you read Biz Tips Blog, then you know I've written about Twitter quite a bit in the past.  One thing I want to make sure you know is that you can drive a lot of traffic to your blog with Twitter and get even more online visibilty.

After you set up your Twitter account, you need to set up a free account on Twitterfeed.com. This application allows you to push out your blog posts to your Twitter followers. (I wrote a bit about Twitterfeed here.)

You simply connect your Twitter account and add the RSS feed for your blog. Then, choose how often you want Twitterfeed to "look" for new content. I have 5 blog feeds connected to my account so whenever I or Patsi posts new content, it gets pushed out to our followers.  I'm finding that about 30% of our blog traffic is coming from people who click through from Twitter! And they are more likely to comment, either on the blog post or on twitter.

CAUTION: While it's important to push out your blog posts, it's even more important to engage with your followers on Twitter. If you don't, then you defeat the purpose of the tool to build relationships and eventually people will stop following you if all you do is push content.

How to Automate Your Business Blog Marketing

Coach Deb Micek talked about business blog marketing essentials last week to over 700 of our listeners on the teleseminar: How to Make Your Blog An Automated Marketing Machine.

If you missed it, here's the audio replay: www.buildabetterblog.com/push-button-marketing.html.

We are all in favor of systems and blog platforms that can automate some of your marketing tasks. It's like having a magician behind the scenes working for you on your blog!

BLOGi360 offers many advantages to some of the other free and low-fee blogging platforms, especially if you use a blog for business and marketing.

So many professionals start a blog and then don't take the time to learn how to optimize it for business. Then they wonder why they don't get results. BLOGi360 offers many features that most blogging platforms don't include such as search engine optimization, sales pages, and training and support. And, they'll train you on what you need to know. They'll even set up your blog for you to get you started. Can't beat that. Check them out here.

P.S. We're not abandoning TypePad! It's our responsibility to let you know about software and systems that can serve you and best meet your business goals.