You’ve achieved success! Your guest post has just been published on one of your favorite blogs.
Here’s a quiz:
What do you do on the big day?
1) Crack open the champagne and head for the beach.
2) Immediately get to work on your next guest post.
3) Take steps to get the most traction from your published guest post.
Okay – that was a trick quiz. All three answers can be correct. But if you’re smart, you will make #3 your top priority.
The hours and days after your post is published are key for connecting with readers who have read and enjoyed your post, as well as building an even better relationship with the blogger who is hosting your guest post.
Make it a point to check the comments on your post frequently and reply to them. This establishes a connection with readers who enjoyed your writing enough to comment. It is the first step to building a relationship and your prompt response gives them further incentive to visit your blog and hopefully, subscribe.
Additionally, your replies increase the number of comments, which adds social proof to your post. When people see a lot of comments on a post, they naturally assume it must be a good one. Plus they may be motivated to comment themselves, further adding to the social proof. The host blogger, of course, loves to see lots of comments which are a sign of audience engagement.
Check in every few hours if you can, on the first couple of days after your post goes live.
Get the link out there to your followers on all the social media channels you use – Twitter, Facebook, Google +, and any others. This is win-win for both you and your host blogger. Be sure to ‘tag’ the blogger in your social media mentions, so he or she sees you are doing the legwork. They may re-share the post with their own followers (great for you), and they will be more likely to invite you back for another guest post.
If you use Twitter regularly, go ahead and ‘tweet’ the link directly to strategic people who you know will be interested in the subject matter, or who will probably share it with their own following.
Continue to share the post on social media networks in the days following publication. A social media management program such as Hoot Suite or Buffer can make this a lot easier.
Go beyond social media. Tell your friends when you see them in person, and ask them to help you out by reading and sharing. Send out an email with a link to your guest post.
It’s quick and easy to ‘stumble’ your post on Stumble Upon if your host blogger uses the Stumble Upon sharing icon. Many a viral post can trace its trajectory to fame back to its appearance on Stumble Upon.
If you don’t already have a free account with Stumble Upon, you’ll have to sign up before you can ‘stumble’ a post.
Write a post on your own blog about your guest post and/or send an email to your own list encouraging them to check out your guest post.
Of course you’ve probably thanked your host blogger. (And if not, get to it!) But you can do more than that. Publicly thank anyone who tweets your post or shares it on Facebook or other social media sites.
Since not everyone who tweets your post will tag you, you could do a search on Twitter for “RT” followed by the headline of your post to see who has retweeted. Every time you thank someone, it gets the post back out there on Twitter. Another win-win.
It makes sense to devote some attention to making the most of the guest post you worked so hard to get published. Plus, it’s simply good blogging etiquette.
Okay, now you can break open the champagne!
Author: A-List Team