When you spend time writing blog posts, creating videos, and more for your business blog, appreciation feels great.
You might get a blog comment where someone thanks you for your article, and you can’t help it.You smile instantly.
You also might get some tweets about your content, and that feels good too.
Problem is that these feelings lead you to make one big mistake.
“Whatchu talkin’ ’bout, Willis?”
Kind words can get addictive (as can obnoxious words).
Before you know it, you’re spending all day checking your @ replies, Facebook messages, and comment moderation queue. What’s that do for your business? Nothing.
There are people who make the excuse that “Social Media is a GREAT source of traffic,” and it’s true. But who says you need to participate on social networks to get traffic from them?
Not me… All you need to do is write content worth sharing (like videos) and you’re set.
For example, I’ll never forget when I wrote an article back when I had less than 1,000 Twitter followers, and I proceeded to get more than 30,000 unique hits from Twitter.
How did I do it? I focused on creating an awesome piece of content, and then found the right people on Twitter to promote it to, and it took off.
“But Derek, who doesn’t love compliments?”
I won’t lie to you. I like appreciation as much as the next guy.
However, that appreciation is often a poor indicator of how you’re really doing.
“Wait, what?”
Yep… you read that right.
You can’t spend blog comments or your tweets. When you’re running a blog for a business, you need to focus on “spendability.”
(That’s a word I made up for things that actually generate revenue).
And what metrics have the highest “spendability?”
Keep reading.
You Need To Focus On “Spendability”
Now that I’ve slammed the importance of social media—for the second time—I’m going to tell you what you should focus on.
There are two main metrics. First, you must increase the amount of people who visit your website, and then the amount of time they spend interacting with it.
Yes, your social media profiles are extensions of your site, but if you don’t get those people from social media to your site, you’re competing with distractions you shouldn’t have to deal with.
For example, you might focus on a Facebook page, but what’s more important to people? Your Facebook update or an invite from a friend to go to a party?
The latter obviously.
However, when you focus on the two metrics with “spendability,” you no longer have to compete in situations where you can’t win.
That’s the trick.
Now let’s talk about how you get more traffic and more interaction.
How to Drive Metrics With “Spendability.”
There’s two ways to drive these “spendability” metrics (traffic and interaction), and while it may seem so simple, it’s the truth.
First, let’s talk about traffic. How can you get more of it?
That’s simple. When you write an article, aim to help people. Write something that you yourself would want to read. As a matter of fact, make it your goal to teach someone something new every single time you write. Keep the fluff away from your content and you’re set.
Now let’s talk about interaction. How can you get more of it?
Right now, the single best way to build interaction is by building a high quality email list. As big as Twitter and Facebook get, email still has more than triple the users.
