Bloggers n' Brands

Before You Publish A Blogpost, Ask These 5 Questions.

With the rise of personal websites, blogging is staging a huge comeback in 2022 and it pays to be prepared for when you hit publish on that blogpost.

While it may be ok to write down your thoughts and share pictures or a story on that little corner of the internet that is all yours, it pays to ask the right questions to ensure your blog post doesn't become another article relegated to the 1,000th page on Google.

There are important questions before you hit 'publish'

The 5 Questions To Ask Before Publishing A Blogpost

Is this specific to my niche? Why bother focusing on a particular niche or topic if you are going to post content that isn't within the context of the niche? There are certain times you can go outside of it definitely, but it has to be contextually related to you or what you typically write about. Explain it before you jump in with your blog post.
Can my audience relate? it might be within your niche but not relatable to your audience maybe because they are 25 - 40-year-old upwardly mobile professionals in the finance sector who do not understand why 15-year-olds do the things they do.
Is this content worth sharing? be honest with yourself - is it really that interesting? is it unique? do people really want to know about it or is it just you being sentimental? It is ok to sometimes post selfishly, after all, it is your blog but always ensure there are no long-term repercussions.
Will people engage with it? not clickbait but will they actually respond to it? You may or may not know how they respond to it, especially with the rise of dark social but knowing that your audience engages is enough. It doesn't matter if it's just a huff and puff or a full-on response with a comment and share, the important thing is that they engage with it which indirectly means they have formed an attachment to it.
Is it catchy enough for people to come back? if they are attached to it they will come back, right? Ensure your post makes a subliminal promise that way, the audience can have something to look forward to.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

4 Simple Content Ideas for a Beauty brand

I once worked as a social media manager for a beauty brand. One of the recommended strategies was to work with beauty bloggers so I reached out to the top ones.

I knew all of them so it was easy to introduce myself and congratulate them on the work they do. Moving on to the brand, they were then told the products the brand would like to gift them and to share ideas of how they would work with the products.

All the bloggers replied to the email with the question 'what do you mean by sharing ideas?'

I was shocked!

I was already a brand exec then so knew about positioning, brand strategy, promotion and the like so I was sad they didn't know anything about it.

Wondering what I was expecting them to share? Well, here are 4 ideas any of them could have easily latched onto

I would work around a casual theme looking at how the products can be incorporated into a simple outing look
I focus on products so incorporating the products into a shelf shot of everyday beauty products with a blog post or caption around the different products is what I intend to do
I have an event I'll be attending this weekend. It will be a great opportunity to feature this product and show how it can easily be used for high fashion/red-carpet looks
I'm a makeup artist so figuring out multiple ways to use these products is what I'll do

The idea of being a blogger is being able to be yourself in each and every instance each time infusing whichever brand on your rooster as part of your life. Effortlessly doing this, is what will make you a professional and sought after by brands as that seamless fusion is what they look out for.

Photo by Angela Roma from Pexels

For Brands, How To

5 Steps on How To Work with Bloggers

You know how they say creative people need a little extra patience when working with them? Well, when working with Bloggers, you definitely need a little extra, but not necessarily patience. More like you need a little extra strategic thinking and a little extra time to create a plan of action + expectations.

Here are some steps to guide you:

Have A Plan: Why do you want to work with a blogger? What are your expectations of the partnership? What kind of bloggers are you looking to work with? What platforms? These are the kinds of questions your plan should have. Your plan should be concise, simple, clear and easy to understand.
Know Why: This 'why' is the expected result of the partnership. Do you want to grow sales or introduce your product to a different audience? Properly identifying this will help you select just the exact blogger to work with. They might have the same audience but different impacts on the audience so it is good to know and understand what success will look like in the end.
Start With A Bond: Bloggers are real people. They want to know you really care about them, their content and their brand. That you value all the work they put in. When reaching out, ensure it is from a position of knowledge of them and their work. Ideally, follow them and interact with their work for a while before reaching out with a business proposal.
Leave Them Be: A lot of times, brands interfere in the creative process after contracting a blogger. The brand forgets that one of the core reasons they selected the blogger was for their unique voice and style. Interfering with this will contaminate the content they produce. Give them a guide i.e. colours, style, words etc. but leave them to be the creatives they are so they can create great content for you.
Have A Great Offer: A lot of times the bloggers only have vanity metrics on their side (especially here in Nigeria), but considering that you as a brand can't boast of that, you need to decide what will be worth the bloggers while. Is it money? Is it a lifetime supply of your product? or maybe a reward or their audience or an honorary position as your brand ambassador. When you are the one approaching the blogger, you need to make sure this is sorted out so you don't get the boot.

Photo by Marvin Meyer on Unsplash

For Brands

7 Reasons Why Brands Need Bloggers

Brands have switched outdoor billboards for website leaderboards. They've gone from paying modelling Agencies to paying Instagram models. They've also switched from press releases and briefings in the announcement of a new product or service to letting bloggers/influencers do it for them.

There's a reason why - because bloggers have a direct relationship with the audience these brands want to connect with.

Well, that's just one of the reasons though. Let me share the remaining 6 with you

2. Bloggers are trusted.

When brands share a message online, the audience already knows that they just want to sell. But Bloggers want to connect with the audience and are trusted because of their personal connection to the content they create. The audience, therefore, knows that if this blogger speaks positively about a brand, then the brand is worth checking out.

3. It helps your bottom line.

Yes, it isn't as affordable as when they first came on the scene but with the one-on-one connection Bloggers can provide a brand, they are definitely cheaper than mainstream media. So, you get more bang for your buck and more impact.

4. It gives your brand a personality.

Brands are businesses. And brands that have been unable to carve a personality niche for themselves in the class of the Nikes and Coca-Colas of this world, need help to carve this persona for themselves. Working with Bloggers can do this for you as based on the type of Bloggers you work with, the audience can immediately connect the brand to a kind of personality e.g. Pepsi - fun, loud, colourful, pop brand that loves music and football.

5. To provide you with content.

Face it, brands are there to make sales not create content. But the audience they seek to connect with want content they can consume. Bloggers create content so working with a Blogger helps you generate the kind of content your audience love thereby providing you with the content repository your brand needs.

6. It's easy to convert them to brand advocates.

Working consistently with Bloggers and developing an honest, sincere relationship with them will guarantee you a place in their hearts and in their content. Bloggers talk about the things they love so once they love your brand, they'll definitely talk about you and include you in conversations about thier favourite things.

Photo by Daniel Thomas on Unsplash

For Bloggers, For Brands

The 3 Most Important Lessons To Learn from Facebook, Messenger, Instagram & WhatsApp 8-Hour Blackout

We've all heard the phrase 'Never put all your eggs in one basket'. But it seems we never learn.

In the first quarter of 2019, Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram experienced outages for almost 24 hours which saw users and brands suffering business-wise and emotionally. Geez, I'm almost sure some had high blood pressure or even fainted.

That was 2 years ago and it would have been assumed that lessons would have been learned from that.

Alas, not, in 2021, brands and creators the world over, were once again thrown into a state of panic when Facebook and it's apps experienced an 8-hour blackout.

With the recent account loses by creators, it was a tangible worry for them that their accounts would be lost and their livelihood cruelly snatched from them in the blink of an eye and for brands, it is inestimable the losses that would have been experienced.

Well, I hope we have learned. I have. That's why I'm sharing 3 important lessons:

1. You Don't Own Anything On Social Media.

If you ever thought you did, shame on you.

Your content is owned by the platforms on which you post. These platforms are not controlled by you and realising you are subject to their whims at any point in time is the best thing you can do.

I always advise brands and creators to have a blog or an email list. When you own your own content repository or contact list, you can retrieve your content or reach out to your customers at any time with no fear of loss.

Still wondering why you should create a blog in 2021? Read this

2. Decentralise Your Social Presence.

Do you really only need to be on only Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? There are so many other platforms you can play around with and be present on.

Although these platforms have made it easier to connect with the audience by providing almost everything e.g. VR, Live, Interactive and promotional tools e.t.c., there are still other platforms that can provide this same services and other social media platforms for networking too i.e. LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, TikTok, SnapChat and more.

Yes, it will require a new learning curve, but it will definitely be worth the peace of mind in the end.