5 tips for starting, optimizing and promoting a blog

Inspiration, relevance and engagement are crucial elements for success

Blogs don’t get talked about as hot social media players, but a Web hub of education-based information, easily created and housed on a blog, seems the ultimate social media foundation.

Here’s a handful of ideas for making the most of yours:

1) Read, follow and listen. You probably won’t get much in the way of results from blogging until you know what and how to write. The best way to do that is to read lots of blogs, follow lots of people who point out interesting reads and use RSS and bookmarking sites like delicious. Use an RSS reader such as Google Reader to make it very easy to listen to lots of content, and then get a little notebook and carry with you at all times, so you can jot down questions that customers and prospects ask.

2) Write what people search. If you’re one of those folks who has resisted blogging because you don’t think anyone would read your blog, don’t worry—they probably won’t. Most blogs aren’t read like a magazine; they are found. In other words, post the answers to the questions, problems, and challenges that you know your market is asking, and your blog content will become a great online lead-generation tool.