The first thing we suggest to companies that want to utilize social media is to create a blog. It is becoming common now for small and large companies to have a blog attached to their main website. The advantages of having a company blog are numerous. Blogs are dynamic, while websites are static. Blogs are engaging and conversational while website pages tend to be more formal and they do not typically engage the user.

With the explosion of other social media, blogging has become stronger, not weaker. Now you can connect your Facebook Fan Page to your Twitter account, and your blog to both. The interconnectedness of all social media around your blog and company website is the definite trend.

But simply setting up a blog and making the occasional post will not gain much traffic to your website. Through trial and error, bloggers have learned the most effective ways to build traffic. I will share some of these tips and tricks now.

1. The more posts you make on a weekly basis, the more traffic you will get.

This is the hard and fast rule of blogging. Nothing is more predictable. The more you post, the more traffic you will receive. Granted, if the quality of your posts are poor, you may be better off making fewer, high quality posts. But in general, a steady stream of useful and interesting information will gain traffic to your blog/website.

2. Read blogs that are similar to yours and comment on them.

This is another fairly predictable way to attract attention to your blog. If your company blogs about local coupons and discounts, then discover some other blogs in this niche. When you comment on a blog, you leave your name and website. Most people click on the links to learn more about who made the comment. Not only will your comments attract the blogger whose blog you commented on, but also the readers of that specific blog. If the information on your site is similar, people will also be interested in your blog/website.

If you frequently comment on a handful of blogs, you may get to know the bloggers who run the sites. This can lead to link exchanges and other cross-promotion opportunities.

Lastly, reading blogs in the same niche as your company helps you to get to know the community. This community will turn out to be much more important than you originally thought. Business on the Internet differs in some significant ways from business in the “real world”. One difference is the huge importance of community. To get traffic, you have to be connected to a community. You have to know people with similar interests. Later comes “fans” and “followers”.

3. Use Keywords

This may seem obvious, but keywords are often used in the wrong ways. For example, when I first started blogging I used too many keywords. After you create a blog post, review the content and pick out two or three words that summarize the topics you cover. If you make a blog post about wonderful travel locations for fly-fishing, then make sure you make “fly-fishing” one of your keywords. Also use the exact location names as keywords. Your keywords should be repeated only four or five times in your post body, depending on length. Don’t try to trick Google by stuffing your posts with keywords because it won’t work. Lastly, make sure one of your keywords appears in your post title.

4. Social bookmark your posts

After you make a post, it may go unread for two or three days. The best thing to speed up the process by which somebody sees your post on the day you make it is to use social bookmarking. We suggest you set up an account on Twine, StumbleUpon, Delicious, Reddit, and possibly Digg. Every time you make a post, share your post on three or four of these social bookmarking sites. A couple things to keep in mind: The category or tags of your post is important. Make sure you list the most accurate category for your post. Also join groups on social bookmarking sites. Without joining groups, you may not have much of an influence. Reddit, specifically, has sub-categories of smaller Reddits, such as SEO, Art, Photography, Travel, share your post to these smaller categories rather than the main Reddit. Twine, too, is an excellent way to get traffic. Join twines, make contacts, and submit your posts to the appropriate categories.

Like social bookmarking, Twitter is an excellent way to boost the traffic to your blog. Every time you make a post, you can tweet it on your account. If you are curious about Twitter and want to learn more, try “Twitter Etiquette: Ask the Experts“.