Web 2.0 was built upon an architecture of participation according to Tim O’Reilly. The pillars of the social media strategies are blogs which provide a writing platform for people willing to take on the challenge. Blog writing, according to usability expert Jakob Nielsen, is really about attracting the attention of a reader through a number of techniques. Whether you are looking for Google bots to crawl your new blog or human readers to stay more than 10 seconds, the following list is a beginner’s reference to creating content that is read.
Social Media Strategies for Blog Writing:
- Format: use formats that are the most read and interesting. Top 10 lists, series of articles tied together, best of articles, lists of tips, strategies, and case studies are often the most read blog formats
- Short Writing: the best blog articles for usability are succinct, short articles of no more than 500 words
- Bold Highlighting: use the bold function to create outstanding keywords that both bots and humans can pick out easilty
- Keyword Titles: use your keywords in your title in order to describe exactly what your article subject covers
- Bullet Points: use bullets to separate, highlight, and pull out information for the reader to easily find
- Headings: create headings made up of keyword phrases to identify the following information to the reader
- Links: create hyper links with words that name the source of information
- Content: write compelling, interesting content
- Use Pictures: use pictures or video to tell your story
- Get to the Point: make your point(s) early and often. Do not wait until the end of the article
