Guest blogging in the humanitarian sector
Coming up with fresh, relevant blog content when you’re working in an understaffed nonprofit can be a challenge. That is why looking for partners, clients and community members to help share their content can be a lifesaver for the busy humanitarian leader.
This week, we welcome guest blogger, Caitlyn Scaggs. Caitlyn is the Founder of Blue Mobius Marketing. As a guest blogger herself, she is knows the ins and outs of being effective with your guest blogging techniques and practices. Read the original post here.
What’s the Scoop on Guest Blogging?
We have a good time engaging with our friends and clients over social media. Recently, we asked our Facebook followers to chime in with a marketing question that’s been on their mind. This is a fun way to get new ideas for topics to blog about.
One friend, and the brilliant creative behind Make a Mark, asked us to discuss the value and process behind guest blogging. What a great topic! Often people are aware guest blogging is a “thing,” but don’t understand the strategy behind writing or receiving one.
Why Guest Blog?
You know us, we always start with why. So, why would someone guest blog in the first place? Guest bloggers can be motivated by a number of goals. Often, it is to receive an inbound link from your website to theirs. This is a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tactic that can help strengthen their website and a potential conduit for website traffic.
Another reason might be that the writer is seeking exposure and wants to develop a portfolio. Getting published on another person’s blog is a sort of an endorsement and living work product example. It can also help those seeking to become influencers on social media, as they are shown as a thought leader on a particular topic through their guest blog.
Why Receive Guest Blogs?
Receiving a guest blog can result in free content for your blog–which is great when the content is high quality and brings value to your audience. It also demonstrates the connections your company has and that you are part of a bigger thought leadership community.
We like guest blogging as a way to supplement our strengths with other complementary disciplines. For example, Kate Rancourt, a brilliant creative based out of the San Francisco Bay area, guest blogged about designing spaces to foster creativity and productivity in the workplace. We do not have expertise in space configuration and design, but do know that Kate’s expertise brings relevance to us and our client base. That was the impetus for us requesting a blog from Kate on that topic.
It Can Be a Win-Win
For both the writer and the receiver of the blog content, it can be a win-win when the relationship is navigated appropriately and the content is great. Especially in regards to social sharing. The writer is going to be motivated to tout their guest submission, therefore sharing the link with their social media audiences. The receiver is going to be eager to tout the fresh content, thereby sharing the link with their social audiences. The guest blogging relationship magnifies the reach for each party involved.
How to Ensure Success
First, before even considering receiving a guest blog submission, make sure you are clear on your editorial guideline. That is a semi-fancy way of saying: set expectations. What is the typical length? Is there any particular tone or writing style you prefer, such as first person as opposed to third person? Are they required to submit an image? Having these clear guidelines, and sharing them with an interested writer, ensures that everyone is aligned with expectations. For one of our clients, there is an editorial expectation of a clever hook in the intro paragraph that is witty, if possible. Talk about a fun editorial guideline!
Identifying Opportunities
Our favorite way to identify opportunities to both write and receive guest blogs is by simply valuing and fostering relationships, and then seeing where that takes us. With that approach, the guest blog comes across more authentic and natural as opposed to something that has been forced for the purposes of overarching marketing goals (SEO tactic).
For some though, there needs to be a more overt and aggressive approach, rather than allowing opportunities to present themselves. For those that fall in this camp, you can pitch your blog idea to a company or organization as a starting point. Ensure that you are clear about the topic you would write on, why you are qualified to write on that topic, and the value it would bring to their audience. There are also guest blogging communities you can join to proactively seek out opportunities.
A Word of Caution
We regularly get requests for guest blog submissions that are extremely spammy. Since we see these requests so often, it is easy for us to spot them. Typically, the writer says they have a great idea for our blog, they may share a link to our blog (trying to convince us they’ve really been to our site) and then they suggest they have great unique content they want to share with our readers–but never say what that content is. Don’t waste your time on those hollow and spammy pitches–just delete them.
So, how do we feel about guest blogging?
We really like it! Guest blogging is a great way to strengthen relationships between people–the two businesses that agree to engage in a guest blogging relationship. It magnifies the reach of the blog itself and creates an additional dimension of thought leadership for the both the writer and the receiver of the content.
Connect with Blue Mobius Marketing on Facebook or Twitter, or send Caitlyn an email at hello@bluemobiusmarketing.com.
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