Bloggers, take a deep breath. Can you smell that? It’s the scent of a brand new year. So fresh and full of potential. As you start to plan out your blogging year, we have a few suggestions for core Flipboard topics that might help inspire you and keep you on track to reach your professional goals.
1) Content Strategy
There’s so much to the business of blogging that sometimes we lose track of what’s at the heart of what we do. Sure, it’s important to know how to run a blogging business and manage clients and the like, but where would bloggers be without the content they create? Follow the Content Strategy Flipboard topic to get some key insights to guide what you will write this year. You’ll find articles like this one from B2C comparing content strategy and content marketing, or this one from AdWeek on using content strategy to improve your social footprint.
2) Small Business and/or Business Planning
Wouldn’t it be great if blogging really were just about sitting in front of your computer writing words all day long? Sadly, if you want to make a living from blogging, you also have to handle the business side of things. The Small Business and Business Planning topics are full of articles with tips and information to keep in mind as you grow your blog business. Read articles like “How to Grow your Small Business in 2017” from BlogHer and “8 Reasons Being Socially Responsible is Good for Business” from Inc.
3) Digital Marketing
Whether you create posts to share your personal story, write sponsored content, or craft a healthy mix of the two, as a blogger your intrinsic value lies in your ability to create content for digital marketers. A challenge is that you are hardly the only one in this business. By following the Digital Marketing Flipboard topic you can stay abreast of the latest changes in the digital marketing space so that, when potential clients come to you for help or your employer turns to you for guidance, you’ll know exactly what they need to get ahead. In this topic you’ll find articles like “Why Context, not Content, Is King in Marketing” from Medium and “Latest Influencer Marketing Trend News” from Influencer Today.
4) SEO
In a perfect world, people would read your words just because you wrote them and you are made of awesome. In the world we live in, your words are constantly competing with the words written by thousands of other bloggers so SEO is something you need to know about in order to help your prose be seen. Whether you spend as much time making your posts SEO competitive as you do writing them, or you just want to know enough to stay in the fight, follow the Flipboard SEO topic for insights and advice. You’ll discover articles like “How to Add Keywords and Meta Descriptions in WordPress” from WP Beginner and “WordPress SEO Checklist – 13 Powerful Tips to Rank Higher in 2017” from My Blog Lift.
5) Social Media
The worlds of blogging and social media are so tightly intertwined that sometimes it’s hard to tell where one starts and the other ends. People read blogs and leave their comments when they share them on social. Or readers find posts because they’re being discussed elsewhere. For both die-hard fans who can’t bear to be cut off from the online social scene and those who only dips their toes in out of pure professional necessity, it can be argued that we all need to be in the social media know. The Social Media topic will ensure you never miss anything important in this area. Discover new sites, what’s making the news headlines, and tips and tricks to getting the most out of your social experience. You’ll read articles like “Here’s How To Add Multiple External Links To Instagram” from We Are Social Media and “Blue feed, red feed: side-by-side comparisons of social media feeds by politics” from Boing Boing.
Looking for more topics to follow? Check out 5 Flipboard Topics Every Blogger Should Follow and 5 Topics to Follow for the Blogger Lifestyle.
~JessicaR is curating Geeky Finds