Jumpstart Your 2013 Pet Blogging Business

Guest post by Blog Manager Robbi Hess

What's all the barking, meowing, and cackling about? It's about social media and the need for you to jump right into the fray and get your voice heard! The New Year is still young. What are you waiting for?! 

Here are my top ten tips to get you started:

• Buddy up. Do you have a pet blogging friend that you admire? Ask him or her for their best practices and tips. Learn from the best in your social circle! 
• Build your pack by connecting with fellow pet lovers and friends and colleagues. Are you particular to a certain breed? Like or follow a page about that breed. Sign up for Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, the BlogPaws Community. Get involved! 

 Blog. Blog. Blog. Write creative posts. Put together a video. Put some pictures in your posts. Make your blog exciting. 

Do you have a sense of humor? Share it in words or pictures. Who doesn't love to laugh? 

What do you love most about your pet? Blog about that. Your love will show through. 

Something interesting going on in your life? Is your pet celebrating a birthday? Anniversary? Will you be speaking or going to a Meet-up? Blog about it! 

Don't forget to Tweet interesting information! 

 Become friendly with those you follow and like on your social media platforms, will garner you more followers and likers! 

Don’t over-blog, flood your Facebook page or tweet non-events every hour. One or two good updates per day are ideal.

Read up -- or follow -- social media mavens that you love and try to emulate them! 

If you have a product or service to sell, consider using advertising or sponsors on your site to grow your readership. 

What else can you think of that you can to do make 2013 the best year ever for your blogging? (Oh, that reminds me... don't forget to sign up for BlogPaws 2013!)

Comments

[Mary Hone]

Great advice to start the year off.

[Carol Bryant]

"One or two good updates per day are ideal." - I do more than that on Twitter, though - as I retweet and out more on Twitter than Facebook.

However, goal planning to get things going is great. Happy New Year!

[Jessica @ YouDidWhatWithYourWeiner]

Hi Robbi. I am in the middle of earning a social media technologies and implementation certificate. We talk a lot about the ideal posting frequencies for each channel.

I agree with your recommendation to not "flood" your social media followers with status updates. One or two updates a day for Facebook is a good rule of thumb. However, 3 to 10 updates is ideal for Twitter because the feed is so dynamic.

I am not clear if that 3 to 10 figure for Twitter also includes RTs though. I don't think that it does. Do you have any thoughts on that?

[Yvonne DiVita]

As they say, everything in moderation. One needs to understand their community and their market - to figure out how often to post on any channel. It's okay to let 'experts' or pundits advise you that twice a day is enough, or it's best to post between 3-5... but, YOU need to be a participant in your community and YOU need to determine what works for you. A great way to do this is to partner with one or two others and share - then, look at a week or two of your 'work' and determine what value you got out of it, and whether or not you brought value to others.

[Robbi]

I would think that your 3-10 updates on Twitter would include your 'fresh' content as well as the re-tweets, Jessica.

Great advice, Yvonne.

Thanks, Mary and Carol!

[Jessica @ YouDidWhatWithYourWeiner]

Yvonne - I would agree because I often post on my Facebook page more often than three times a day and get a lot of response from my fans.

I usually stick to under 10 on Twitter but that is really limed by my time available to spend on it.

[Kelly]

Great tips! I hope to pay more attention to my blog and post more frequently this year.

[caren gittleman]

loved this in particular "Don’t over-blog"...can't begin to tell you how irritating it is to me to receive blog posts (and often over 5 a day from some blogs) where I can tell the person is simply posting to post. I would rather read 3 quality posts per week (even if sometimes that just includes a photo) than to be barraged with posts that don't interest me.

9 out of 10 times when I receive an email from a site that has more than 3 blog posts I read the first one and am on my way.

[Glogirly and Katie]

Yikes! I can't even imagine posting more than once a day! : )
I would agree...too many emails and posts are overwhelming.

I would like to do a better job of partnering with blogging friends for sharing and support.

I've really been enjoying using my Facebook Page as an extension of my blog and making updates relate to the subject of the day's blog in some cases. But I still haven't embraced Twitter. ...like the New Years Resolution post said, focus on what you can do well.

: )