How to Blog Without Losing Your Mind

Keeping up with social media, finding the time to visit other blogs, and knowing which social media networks to be on are three of the most common complaints of bloggers. In the BlogPaws sphere, we hear these concerns on a regular basis. You need not lose your mind (or waste time worrying) at something you should take pleasure in doing: blogging!

Ease your troubled mind, there ways to blog and “keep up” without losing your mind…or getting the dreaded “writer’s block” in the process.

Keeping Up With Other Blogs

One of the best ways to get traffic to your blog is to be social on other blogs. It sounds like common sense, but many bloggers overlook this. When visiting and leaving comments on other blogs, you are letting folks who may not know you (or your blog) that you exist.

Be social but don’t be spammy.

How to Know Which Blogs to Follow

Join the BlogPaws Community.

Be an active member of the BlogPaws Facebook News and Boost Group.

Grow your own engagement and get tips in the #BoostYourBlog10K Challenge

BlogLovin: Add the blogs you want to follow and you’ll get all of their new posts in a feed on Bloglovin! And yes, you can add any blog.

Feedly: A tool that helps you organize, read and share the content of your favorite sites.

Set Time Aside

I don’t spend my entire day reading other blogs; I would love to do so, but time, a full-time job, wanting to have a life and step away from the computer all prohibit me from doing so. Can you relate? (insert nod of “yes” here)

Block out time to specifically read and comment on other blogs. There is no magic formula here: If you build it they may not come. You must be known, be active, and be in the loop. This could mean 15 minutes twice a day or maybe even an hour three times a week or even an hour on a weekend. Put the social in social media: This is a key to managing a blog, growing a blog, increasing YOUR engagement, and being seen.

Which Social Media Networks Are For Me

You do not have to be everyone and be everything to everybody. You should have a social media strategy. Plan your social media and use tools that make it easier for you. Some of these tools include Buffer, Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, etc.

You should, however, respond in real time. Do you like canned responses such as “hey, thanks for your comment, and be sure to find me on Facebook, too.”

Those comments sound canned because they are: Most likely, an auto responder.

Talk to people on social as you want to be spoken to: With respect, as a real human, and in real time.

Click This: Which Social Media Networks Should I Use

Keeping Up With Social Media

Simplify: This is my key word for 2016 and it can be your best friend, too!

Social media can suck you in. I know all too well about the bright shiny object. Did you ever click an article or post, which leads to another post, then something comes across your feed, and, and…an hour later and what just happened?

I know…been there, done that. I crack the whip at myself. How?

I won’t tell you to knock it off or get more discipline. There are, however, actionable things you can do right now to “keep up:”

• Allocate a certain number of minutes/hours per day to social media activities. Period, no excuses. Those are your hours.
• Do what you need to do to accomplish your pre-planned social media tasks within that portion of time.
• Prevent distraction by turning off anything that can lead you down the foxhole. This means close windows you are not using (the electronic kind, that is).

Where is your blog’s target audience? Do you have a traditional blog or a microblog? A microblog is a social media network like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.

Do you know who you want reading your blog? “The whole world” isn’t the correct answer, although that would be great.

You go to the hardware store to get nuts and bolts. You go to the fishing supply store for a new reel or rod. You shop at the candy store for candy. You go there because you know what they can provide. You don’t go to the candy store for live worms to fish.

Your blog is a candy store: Supply your target reader with the candy they want; the stuff they crave; the stuff they have to come back for time and again.

Click This: Is Facebook Advertising Worth It?

You don’t need to be on every social media platform. Your target audience may not be there.

How to keep up with social media? Use the same steps as noted in the Keeping Up with Other Blogs section. Love it or hate it, social media is here to stay for keeps. Stay ahead of the curve with a plan, some common sense, and a focus.

I’ll be at the BlogPaws Conference in June, where Robbi Hess will be leading a session on Time Management for Bloggers. Check out the entire BlogPaws 2016 Conference Schedule here.

Image: RawPixel/Shutterstock.com and Alexander Image/Shutterstock.com

What’s your biggest online social media challenge?

About the Author: Carol Bryant is the Marketing and Social Media Manager for BlogPaws and runs her own blog, Fidose of Reality and its fundraising arm, Wigglebutt Warriors®. When not busy playing with her Cocker Spaniel, Dexter, she stays far away from cooking. Her trademark is her mantra and is tattooed on her arm: My Heart Beats Dog.®