It’s Wednesday so you know what that means – it’s workshop day! Today we finished Part IV: Launching or Relaunching Your Blog for Success. This session was particularly enjoyable mainly because Stelzner used a lot of examples from his successful site, Social Media Examiner. It was also an encouraging reminder that even if you’ve let your blog sit on the back burner for too long, it’s never too late for a relaunch!

Stelzner focused on five points during the session:

• Your Launch Strategy
• Targeting “Fire Starters”
• Creating Content
• Preparing to Launch
• Planning a Launch Event

Whether your last blog post was in 2008 or you have yet to blog at all, it’s time to launch! Start formulation a strategy and ask yourself, “How will my blog support what my business or my mission is?” Then determine what your readers want, who your industry role models are and if you have systems in place to help you find content that can serve as inspiration. And remember this most important part of your strategy: great content + other people – marketing messages = growth.

So what exactly is a fire starter? A fire starter is someone that is well-connected and has a significant  influence in your industry. When these people recommend your blog, your audience will greatly increase and new opportunities will arise. Where do you meet these “fire starters”? Start online then eventually begin attending networking events. Always be open to meeting new people! You never know how they may be able to help you and your blog. As an influential DFW social media agency, we consistently seek out opportunities to meet new people, especially at awards events and industry seminars.

As we discussed last week, content is key for a successful blog. Before a launch or re-launch, you need to have a clear idea of the kinds of content you’ll be producing, the experts you’ll reference for inspiration and who your writers will be. Not only is this kind of preparation needed, but you will also need to have at least four articles ready to go the day of your launch. “Seed content” will help your content stream run smoothly and keep you ahead of schedule.

Then comes the fun part – the launch (or re-launch) event! Social Media Examiner had live interviews streaming the day of their launch; every hour, a different social media expert was on the screen with Stelzner answering questions submitted by Twitter users. All you needed was internet access to participate! If a live interview doesn’t seem to tie into the focus of your blog, Stelzner offered other suggestions for your launch event: webinars, Facebook events, podcasts or a contest.

Next week will be our last week of the Social Media Examiner workshop so we’ll be bringing you the Part V summary and workshop wrap-up!