Special thanks to Kat Mayerovitch for writing this post for me, when I just couldn't get it together. You are my true online love.

Are you writing blog posts, either for your own website or for the MassageSchool.org Blog Post Contest? Are you confident in your writing ability, but not sure how to spread the word to get your post all the social love it deserves? There are two factors in helping your post shine in the world: the first is creating a blog post that is begging to be shared. The second is sharing it effectively. Put both together, and you’ll see your blog post take on a life of its own as it’s passed from person to person, spreading your words across the world.

Crafting a shareable post

Make it important. Has our knowledge changed? Can your topic be related to current events? Is it vital information for people at a particular stage of their lives or careers? Well-written isn’t enough for people to want to share it. The content itself has to really matter to someone. The Massage Therapy Foundation blog is a great example. Is it full of hilarious stories by celebrities? Nope. But people know that the information is going to be helpful, accurate, and as recent as it gets. So their posts get shared.

Generate discussion. Is there a bit of a controversy about your topic? An ongoing debate? Are you posing important questions? Responding to something written by another blogger? People love to feel that they’re a part of a larger discussion, but not everyone’s a writer. So many people will participate primarily by sharing links and commenting on them. One could be yours! Laura Allen does a great job of this on her blog. She’s always taking the discussions of the big massage organizations and bringing them to the level of individual therapists, and she’s not shy about sharing her own opinion along the way. The result? Her posts generate a ton of conversation, and that in turn generates a lot of sharing.

Present information in a new way. Some information is always important to review, but it’s important to find a way to make it fresh. Can you share information as part of a story? Can you take a story and make it a list? Take a list and make it an infographic? Adding your personal spin on a familiar theme can be enough to make it shareworthy. Don’t believe me? Remember Andy Warhol’s soup cans. There’s no more compelling argument than that.

Make your post visually interesting. Some of this is about writing style. Lists, bullet points, and short paragraphs all help break up large blocks of text on the page. Some of it is about using images in your posts. Photopin is a great source of Creative Commons licensed images. While it’s not a blog, the Anatomy in Motion Facebook page does an amazing job of presenting facts about the body in a visually stunning way. The social love they get attests to it!

Sharing your post

Post regularly, but don’t be a spammyface. It’s okay to post your link on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, if you happen to use all of those. It’s okay to post your link multiple times in the same place (especially on Twitter, where things are reposted all the time. But it’s NOT okay to send private messages to everyone you know begging them to “like” and share your post just because they care about you. Follow the Golden Rule on this one: if you wouldn’t want it done to you, don’t do it to somebody else.

Include a comment or quote. When you’re sharing, don’t just plaster a link. People want to know what they’re clicking on! Make sure there’s a title and not just a URL. Make a comment on what the post is about, or quote a short sentence from the post that will capture people’s attention. People only take a moment to decide whether to follow your link. Don’t waste your first impression!

Make sure your posts are public. It’s a good idea to keep some of your online life under wraps. But if you want your Facebook updates that are promoting your blog post to be seen by anyone beyond your immediate friends, don’t forget to adjust your settings so that everyone can see them.

Start a conversation. “What do you think?” isn’t just for your blog post, it’s also meant for your social media sharing. The more conversation you can drum up, the more often people will return to your post, and the more likely they’ll decide to pass it on to their own friends.

Ask for the share. You wouldn’t let your client walk out of their appointment without asking them if they’d like to rebook. Why would you feel nervous about asking them to share your writing with others if they found it helpful? People like to be able to do nice things for each other, so give your audience what they want and let them know that you’d love for them to click that share button

Ready to write?

You’ve got everything you need to write an amazing blog post, so get to it! Give the world a sneak peek inside your brain, and boost your business at the same time. Good luck!

Image courtesy of xedos4 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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You could win $500 and perfect your blogging and social media skills at the same time, woot woot!

Kat and I do some writing over at massageschool.org, and they’re having a blog contest. You can get the details over here, but in a nutshell: you submit a blog post (directed at massage therapists, students, or massage consumers.) Once it's published, share the heck out of it in all your social media platforms. If your post gets the most social love, you win $500. You can submit more than one post, each is a separate entry that stands on its own (ie, social love can’t be combined among posts).

No excuses here.

I know you can do it. I know exactly who bought my Blogging workbook, I know who participated in Kelli Wise’s blog challenges. I know who you are, people, and I’m coming for you. Jump in before I call you out. (Do I sound all badass? I just spent 20 minutes on ThugKitchen.com and I can’t control myself.)

Why the hell should I spend time blogging?

Seriously. Do you think I would throw you a challenge for no good reason? Whatever. Here’s why you should blog:

• Blogging is a way to educate your audience. It's a tool to teach people why and how massage is great.
• Blogging allows you to become a trusted resource. You have taken the TIME to educate your clients about a particular issue.
• Blogging allows you to make yourself, the massage therapist, look smart and trustworthy. (Because you are!)
• Your blog will weed out the suckers. There will be people who don't like your style. They will not call you to book a massage. Believe it or not, this is a good thing. These are the clients who will drive you crazy and waste your time. You’re so much better off when they self-select by avoiding you after they read your blog.
• Blogging will make you smarter. Really. Even Seth Godin says so (this is a short video, just 1 minute & 37 seconds. It’s well worth the time, please watch it). When you actually read and write about topics, you become better able to discuss them live with your clients and potential clients. If you just wrote a post about pectoral stretches, the words and ideas will zip right to the front of your brain the next time you bump into an old friend in the grocery store who immediately begins whining about a sore left upper quadrant.
• Blogging is personal. If your website is greeting your guests at the formal front door, blogging is gabbing with Wilson over the back fence.

I said no excuses. So let’s nip some Blogging Myths right in the bud, okay?

Blogging for your massage business isn't about creating long soliloquies to tell the story of your four hour walk in the woods, complete with a description of every dandelion and butterfly. Blog posts can be short and sweet. They can be text, images, video, or even audio.

You don't have to post to a blog every damn day. Weekly is awesome. Twice a month is fine. Monthly is okay. As long as you're getting content on your site regularly and creating a foundation of information, you’re doing it right.

 You do not have to be a highly skilled writer. Spellcheck and grammar check are great tools. That friend of yours who’s always complaining about people’s spelling and grammar mistakes on Facebook? Bake them cookies and ask them to proofread for you. (People like that secretly LOVE to be asked to proofread. It’s like catnip for Type A grammar freaks.)

Finding topics

The biggest challenge in starting a blog is the “What will I write about” questions. Once you get on a regular schedule it gets easier, I promise. You’ll start to see blog ideas in every interaction and event, really.

Until then, here are a handful of ideas for you. Need more? You can sign up for my emails at the top of this page (or here, if you’re reading this in an email), and get all 101 Blog prompts in one easy download.

• Give tips to a massage student who is just starting school.
• Give tips to a massage student who is just finishing school.
• Talk about one of the common sources of pain in your clients.
• Write a trivia post, with little known facts about the body or massage.
• Talk about the most recent class you took and how you plan to integrate it into your practice.
• Talk about what’s on your medical history form, and why.
• Why did you decide to become a massage therapist?
• What’s the best or worst massage you ever received? Describe what made it great or awful.
• List community resources for general wellness, or people with specific issues.
• Write about wellness for a population related to a holiday (mothers, workers, veterans, etc.)
• Make a Top 10 (or 5, or 3) list related to wellness.
• Tell a story of an ethical dilemma you’ve experienced and talk about how you handled it.
• Write about the best Continuing Education class you’ve ever taken, and what made you feel that way about it.

Have I convinced you to write a few posts and submit them? Good. Get on that. FYI-Don't be copy and pasting stuff you've already published on your site (or anywhere else) and submitting that. Come up with something new, or take a topic you've covered and make it fresh with a new angle. Be cool.

Next week we’ll teach you how to promote the living tar out of ‘em.

PS- Kat and I will be contributing posts to the contest, but neither one of us is eligible to win, so you won't get ousted by our major social love-ability.

Image courtesy of Surachai/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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• Earning Social Love
• Marketing Mondays! Travel! Budgets!
• Stealing is stealing. Even if you do it on the internet.
• Resist the Urge to be Fancy
• Rhythm, lists, and more goals!