Young Social Entrepreneur

Our parent charity City Gateway had just launched it’s 10 year celebration blog, this aims to improve recognition of the charity using big named MP’s that are involved. You can view the blog here and watch out for some posts featuring Gateway Media’s clients soon.

I believe that people sell to people, that means getting your face out there and being honest and personal. Company blogs are fine but lack that personal touch and therefore if you can get a blog which has good links back to the business but contains enough of your personality then your on to a winner. Here are ten tips on how you could try and improve your personal or company blog to drive more people to your site.javascript:void(0)

1. Find some high ranking blogs, websites, and other sites and start exchanging links on blog roll.
2. Make sure you sign up for Google Analytics and track your web statistics
3. Submit your RSS feed and url to rss and blog directories as well as search engines
4. Comment on other blogs that are within your industry and that has an influence on their readers.
5. Post, post and post at least 3 to 5 times per week. Content is probably the number one reason a blog boost to number one.
6. Be polite by always responding to comments on your blog as well as thanking other bloggers who have linked to you. Also, always site where you got your story lead or content.
7. Don’t be afraid to interview other bloggers.
8. Use your blog to get media credentials
9. Get off the computer and network with your targeted audience. Add your blog address to your business card.
10. Promote your blog using social media networks.

It’s time to get some much needed exposure by putting our name into the press. Our first press release is about a church who chose Gateway Media to be their main media provider. I was amazed to find that although it didn’t get much coverage in the UK (other than a few local papers), it was in fact picked up on a blog in America.

I aim to put one press release out a month to try to attract traffic to the website. If you are thinking of putting a release out then here are some tips:

Click here to read our article on the US blog.

Press Release Tips

Define your target audience before writing
Define the publications you are aiming at and write in a similar style
Use short easy to read sentences with simple words
Be factual - not a sales pitch
Make sure the release is news worthy from a readers perspective
The Headline must be powerful or they will not read past it
Opening sentence - the who, what, why and when’s of it all
Make sure you include detailed information about the event or product
Include corporate info at the bottom of the release about your business
Include complete contact information
Also make sure that you put the entire release on the email as well as an attachment when you send to it to the editor to make it easy to view for them