At first I was blogging to Penelope and a couple loyal friends.

And now FreeSocialMediaHelp.com is…

• Listed on Alltop

• Syndicated through Networked Blogs via Facebook
  

• Distributed to 2,500 people subscribe via email

• Shared with over 6,500 via Twitter

• 392,429 Alexa Traffic Rank (under 1 million next goal is to get this under 100,000)
  

At the beginning, it was such trouble to think of things to write about, to get motivated by my loyal audience of Penelope and friends.  So, I found myself letting a day, or two, or three go by without making another update because after all Penelope wasn’t going to say anything to me.But I found that when I committed to publishing blogs two times per week and promised myself that I would sit down one Sunday afternoon a month and force myself to write the 8-10 blogs it would take to cover myself for the month that something shifted.

It was subtle at first and now I can see everyday its fruits.  The process has become less strange, weird and uncomfortable and is now just a routine part of marketing my business now.

With each new follower, subscriber and blog commenter- I see something beginning to take shape that is much larger than myself. That is pretty awesome! It took a lot of trust at the beginning.

So to all of you out there who are stuck in that weird space of blogging being uncomfortable or foreign, I encourage you that if I can do it…so can you! If you need a little help figuring what to blog about-feel free to reach out.

To Your Social Media Success (and that means regular blogging),

Mande White

P.S. The point here is to get started. Its the discipline that creates the evolution into something that’s powerful. With each passing day there is more clarity in what I’m saying to who and why. I promise that it will happen for you too.

With the advent of social media, it no longer was necessary for someone or a company to have lots of money to have a readership.  Now we have “Influencer Marketing“.  Influencers are people who exercise influence over a group of buyers. The Word of Mouth Marketing Association defines an influencer as ‘A person who has a greater than average reach or impact through word of mouth in a relevant marketplace”.

In the case of HOW you reach out to the “influencers” I’d say things are the same BUT its the “influencers” who have changed. Today getting the attention of a top industry blogger might do more for getting your product or business noticed than an interview by the local television station.

Let’s look at some quick tips for how to reach out to bloggers–espeically if you have NO idea how to get started.

First, do your homework.  Find out who the bloggers are in your industry and subscribe to their blogs.  Spend time reading what they write about and HOW they write about products.

So how do you find out who blogs about your industry? Check out these sites:

• Alltop – the Internet’s magazine rack.
• Google Blogsearch – search by topic.
• Twitter Search – find bloggers by what they tweet about.
• Postrank Topics – search by topic.

Next, its time to build a relationship.  In the Web 2.0 world that’s pretty easy.

1. Start by following them on Twitter. (Quick tip…to find out someone’s twitter name google ” ‘their name’ on twitter” and the first thing that will usually come up is that person’s Twitter link)
2. Listen to their tweets. ReTweet (RT) their message to your followers if you find the information valuable and useful.
3. Comment on their blog posts
4. Set up Google Alerts and comment on articles they write

Spending a few months ‘listening’ and responding to what they talk about will make it all that much easier when it comes time to send an email asking for help.  Don’t try to push your product or agenda on someone until you’ve done steps 1-4 a few times.

See its just like when you used to read articles in the local paper by the business writer and study their style before reaching out to them.  Same process different medium.

My Challenge for you…Can you add 2-3 hours per month to your marketing mix to start researching influential bloggers in your industry? If you spend 30 minutes today finding and subscribing to their blogs then next week you can spend 15 minutes reading their posts.  Week after that read for another 15 minutes.  In a month you should have a good handle on what type of style the blogger has and have the confidence to start conversations with them on Twitter or leave comments on their blog.

Good luck!