“I want to build community with my blog.”
“I want to find my tribe.”
Building community and finding your tribe are good causes to start your coaching blog, but the reality of it is, many coaches start a blog hoping to find community instead of investing in building a community now before they begin blogging.
Community and tribe building is tougher than it looks and if you’re not blogging, but want to start a blog, then why not build your tribe now, one that is excited and ready for your content?
All you need is a plan of action, a plan that you can easily implement using your favorite social media platform that you’re spending time on every day. Then when you have finally release your blog, you are set up with the beginnings of a tribe who is enthusiastic about your blog!
If you’re wondering how to do that, here’s a mini training on how to use social media to build your community for your blog launch.
Pick a date to launch your blog.
This is probably one of the scariest things you can do when you launch a blog. Setting a date for your blog launch makes it real and you are forced into action. This is what I have to do when I want to accomplish a goal!
Now I don’t want you to schedule your blog launch 30 days out. I want you to schedule it between 60-90 days out so you can have time to set up your site, write a few blog posts, create a few content upgrades and make sure you have your ducks in a row before your blog goes live.
Plus you need time to create all your graphics for your social media posts about your upcoming blog launch!
Download Your Stock Images Now!
Let people know you are launching a blog.
Now it’s time to tell everyone that you are launching a blog on your favorite social media platforms!
With this being said, you want to be on the platform(s) that your audience is on and are actively participating in. Don’t be on LinkedIn when your audience is not active on there (even if your audience hangs out on LinkedIn).
Announce the day that your blog is coming out and who your blog is going to be for. Make sure you are crystal clear on this because you are now beginning to weed out the people who your blog is not for and they won’t get much use or education out of it.
Then you want to tell these people what types of content you’re planning on creating. One way to get your audience excited about your blog is by asking them, “What sort of topics would you like for me to cover? This can be a question you always wanted to ask me, a current struggle, or even a topic you’ve been wanting to know more about. Let me know in the comments below.”
Getting your audience to participate is going to give them the opportunity to get excited (especially if you can remember who asked you to write about a certain topic and then when that blog post goes live, you can tag them).
Create a landing page.
After announcing that you are going to launch a blog soon, you want to make a landing page where people can be the first to know about your blog launch.
You want to make this enticing; you want people to sign up to be the first to know about your launch and any other exciting experiences they will be the first to experience. Here are some ideas to consider when you’re wanting people to sign up for the big day of your blog launch:
-These people will get VIP access to your blog, meaning they will be the first ones to see it
-They can read a few blog posts before it becomes live
-They will get free gifts before your blog becomes live (and get the treat of experiencing that first)
-Get on a VIP zoom call where you’ll answer questions or go behind the scenes on something that your audience is struggling with (a free coaching call)
-Ask your audience for feedback for ideas so they are part of your blog
These people will be the VIP, the ones who can celebrate with you as the blog launches and they will be part of it because they have helped you create it!
Don’t make your landing page complicated, just use an easy landing page from MailChimp, MailerLite or another email campaign service. It should just be a simple page where people can sign up and receive exclusive emails from you.
Social Media Content.
As the countdown to your launch begins, some content you can begin to write and promote across your social media platforms (while writing exclusive content to your email list, which you should always be promoting), here are content ideas to put out to your audience to get them excited about your blog:
-Behind the Scenes post
Talk about what is going on behind the scenes. What are you doing? Writing a blog post? Picking out a graphic? Showcase what is going on behind the scenes and get feedback on it
-Ask for feedback
Showcase a short piece of content or a topic idea and ask for feedback. Ask people what they think you should redo/tweak/improve upon.
-Blog Ideas
Ask your audience what blog topics they would want you to write about. Getting people to participate in what they want to hear from you is a guarantee that you’ll be answering not only their question but other people questions as well inside of your blog.
-Ask for content upgrade ideas
I know some of you have tons of ideas for your next content upgrade, but asking your audience what kind or type of content upgrade to create will help you identify how they consume content and what kind of content they will actually participate in.
For example, not everyone will want ta PDF download. Some may want a video tutorial. This is great information to understand what you should be thinking about ahead of time when it comes to creating a content upgrade for your blog.
-Go Live
I know many of you are afraid to do this, but the only way to grow your blog launch awareness is to get outside of your comfort zone! Go live on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or wherever! Talk about your blog launch and your vision for it. Let people see you and your emotions!
-Promote
Have a countdown going every week. Make sure everyone knows that in X amount of weeks, your blog will go live and if they want exclusive content from you, they will need to sign up to be the first to know about your blog (and get some juicy content along the way).
Spread the word.
While you’re writing your exclusive content to your email subscribers, working on the backend of your blog, and creating social media content, you should also be working on spreading your message about your blog through other avenues. Here are some ideas to explore:
-Get into the Facebook Groups that have your ideal client in them and begin sharing that you are launching your blog. On promo days, share your landing page and let those who would be a perfect fit for it sign up to get exclusive content from you!
-Be a guest on another blogger site and write for them. This could be a good way to test out a few content ideas for your own blog on another person’s audience. Your free gift should be your VIP list to where people can be the first to know about your blog launch.
-Hop on a podcast to talk about your expertise and then announce at the end that you’re launching a blog and how people can sign up for your email list to get bonus content.
-Ask your peers to announce your blog to their audience (their audience should be your audience). There’s nothing like the power of collaboration!
Remind.
Have a constant reminder going out that your blog launch is happening soon and even have a countdown to it every week! This is not annoying, it’s getting in front of your ideal audience and that means promoting and reminding repeatedly.
Promote.
Two weeks before your blog goes live, really be promoting your blog and the VIP access your audience could be having with you right now with the list you’ve created.
Make it a win-win for you and your audience by offering a free coaching call or a discount for a special program you have if they sign up for your list.
Launch Day!
Today is the day! You’ve been leading up to this point for months! Now it’s time to launch your blog and let your VIP members celebrate with you!
Launch day could look like several things like getting on a zoom call and celebrating with your list, giving away a free exclusive gift, or sending out a video message to all of your VIPs and social media channels saying thank you and calling people out who have been your biggest cheerleaders while you worked hard putting your blog together!
This is just the beginning of your journey, but when you have a tribe and community established, the journey is easier and more enjoyable!
