Why Guest Blogging Needs To Be Part Of Your Social Strategy

Whilst many still regard guest blogging as part of an SEO strategy, as far as I’m concerned, it’s equally as much a part of your social strategy and needs to be regarded in that way by more online marketers! To those of you not familiar with the concept, guest blogging is essentially writing on someone else’s website on a topic relevant to both their blog and your expertise! In fact, this very post I’m writing for MarketMe is a guest blog post and it’s a perfect way to outline to readers exactly why it’s more a part of a social strategy than an SEO strategy!

In the first instance, let’s take a look at why I’m spending my time (yes, on a Sunday afternoon) writing a post for someone else’s blog when I could just be writing for my own. I blog regularly (at least a few times per week) on my own blog and receive great levels of traffic to each post, usually for months to come, via a range of sources including social media and organic search, however I regard myself as fairly knowledgeable in the digital marketing field and love the opportunity to put myself infront of someone else’s audience and hopefully turn them into a reader of my own blog as well!

Many people writing guest blog posts do so with one goal and that is to receive a link back from the post to their own or their clients site. Am I bothered about getting a link from the post? No, not at all! In fact, to showcase why I’m more an advocate as guest blogging as a social strategy than an SEO strategy, I’ve gone and added a ‘nofollow’ attribute to the link above to my blog which, for those of you who don’t know, means that Google will effectively ignore the link in terms of giving a boost to rankings! Unfortunately, however, too many people think of guest blogging as an easy way to get a link and focus on that more than writing a great post! It’s not to say that you shouldn’t get a link from a post because I strongly believe that readers should know who wrote a post and be able to access an easy link to their site, but it should be seen as a secondary benefit not the primary one!

Guest blogging is a fantastic way to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise and spread your name throughout the industry and, with that in mind, to me falls under a social activity! In some ways, guest blogging is no different to speaking at an event and should be seen in the same light. Would you speak at an event with the sole purpose of getting new business? Of course not! The main reason is generally to get yourself known a little better within the industry and showcase what you know! If you get business from it, that’s great, but if not, you at least know you’ve built up your personal brand a little more and stuck in a few people’s heads!

With that in mind, why not leave a comment and let me know your thoughts on guest blogging! Is it a technique you use? If so, for what purpose? I’m keen to hear the thoughts of others and see whether you too believe it’s a social or an SEO activity!

Marketme

Marketme is a leading small business to small business news, marketing advice and product review website. Supporting business across the UK with sponsored article submissions and promotions to a community of over 50,000 on Twitter.