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Time and time again, we have mentioned that the purpose of engaging in and through any sort of media, but especially social media, is to establish your expertise AND set your hospital up as a professional, yet inviting place for pet owners to bring their pets. Many of you have jumped right into the social media pool and are trying to use blogs as a means of reaching out and educating people. So...why aren't more people following your blog?
A recent informal survey of several high profile social media bloggers generated a list of common blogging mistakes. See if any of these might apply to you:
First, make sure you get the right focus. Remember, even though many pet owners love details, spending a lot of time using complex medical terminology can make your blog a difficult read. Similarly, don't try to cover a whole bunch of topics in one blog. Stick to one particular subject for each blog and remember that some topics (like nutrition) may do better if you divide them up into three or more shorter blogs.
Next, make sure that you establish good practices. Set up an editorial calendar and try hard to stick to it. VNN can help you with this with our continually expanding resources. BUT...at the same point in time, don't throw up a blog that is less than ideal simply because your Outlook Task Manager says it's time. Your readers will ALWAYS want quality posts over quantity (and the search engines will like that better as well).
It should be understood by all VNN members (who are media savvy and media-trained) that you must pay attention to the details of your writing. Poor spelling, poor grammar or worse, inaccurate information can be the death of any blog. Make sure your sources are correct and that your spell checker is "on".
For me, this final point is vital. Make sure that you engage with your readers and audience. It does take awhile to build enough of an audience so that people feel comfortable sharing their own thoughts in your space. BUT...when they do, don't leave them hanging out there in cyberspace. Engage them even if it's only to say "thanks for commenting".
This article paraphrased great information from a recent entry at the Social Media Examiner site titled: Top 21 Blogging Mistakes. The original article goes on to discuss using proper search engine optimization (SEO) techniques as well as blogging communities to help promote your work. BUT...that's a topic for another week!
If you are currently blogging,please make sure that we are aware of it . We can help share and promote your blog not only to our own membership, but an entire network that we have built in social media. The added bonus, as some of our members have found out, is that good blogging can lead to gigs in traditional media as well.
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Following in the footsteps of the recent 
