20 Tips to help your ActiveRain blogs go viral.

ActiveRain is the hottest online community geared toward real estate agents, loan officers, brokers, and other related professionals like appraisers, stagers, home inspectors, etc.  It's an invaluable social network by Trulia that allows you to interact with peers, share education, and form relationships. They currently have well over 258,000 members from all over the country!  Blue Water Credit posts regular blogs to ActiveRain to try and help real estate and mortgage professionals, and have had great success with some of our blogs going "viral" - meaning they garnered a huge number of reads, shares, and comments in a short time.  Based on our blogging success, here are 20 tips to help your ActiveRain go viral, too!

1. Give it a snappy, interesting title.

Remember that a potential reader will only see your title, and maybe a thumbnail photo first, and they need to be motivated enough to click -- so make it a good one. A play on words or reference to popular culture works fantastic -- it evokes familiarity, but deviates enough to draw interest. Question-based titles work great, as do numbered lists and “negative” titles when pointing out mistakes or corollary information– like, “10 Ways to make sure your blog posts get zero readers.”

2. Keep it short.

A blog is one thought, one question, or one idea. The more direct and succinct you are, the better.

3. Lead, don't follow.

You should write your blog with the genuine intent of making your reader’s lives better -- not follow around popular stories and emulate drivel because you think it will go viral or sell.

4. Produce original content.

Create content that you would want to click on, read and share -- nothing less.

5. Use photos.

Use photos with every blog you write, without fail. They catch our eye, anchor our attention as we process what's in the photo (see mind mapping below) and blog links are far more likely to be clicked if they have an engaging photo. The same concept applies for sharing your work on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook to attract an audience. Remember what they say, a picture is worth 1,000 words!

6. Include a call to action.

Your blog should motivate the reader to do one specific thing -- click on a link, answer a question, submit a contact form, take advantage of an offer, sign up for updates, etc. Blogs that offer interesting content but don't have a call to action are like perfectly paved roads that lead nowhere.

7. Engage.

A blog should never talk to your audience, it should be a forum to talk with your audience. So use your ActiveRain blog as a conversation starter, to engage readers and begin a great professional relationship.

8. Don't be "salesy."

Never overtly push a transaction at them. Instead, solve problems, fill needs and gauge opinions. Explore issues, values and challenges your target demographic has, but never use a blog as a chance to talk about yourself and barrage them with sales messages -- that's what billboards and cheesy infomercials are for.

9. Break up the text with mind mapping.

No one wants to read text these days. Opening up an article and seeing line after line of words will ensure your ActiveRain blog never gets read. Instead, make your blog psychologically comfortable for the reader by breaking up text into manageable chunks with photos, subheaders, bullet points, and lists as eye anchors.

Mind mapping is a concept that tracks how our eyes and then our brain views, perceives, and processes information, and assigns it context. In the field of blogging, mind mapping will help you incorporates physical cues to keep your audience engaged, like photos, headers, sub headers, bullet points, indents, and even changes in color or font.

10. Link it up.

Include links to plenty of other blogs you've written on ActiveRain, outside articles, your business and referral partners and community resources.

11. Give something away.

Offer the readers something for free in your blog.  It could be a special report, an eBook, a free consultation, etc.  If you give people quality content that provides value, they'll reach out to you, spread the word, or come back to order more in the future.  Give 'em the good stuff and leave 'em wanting more - the first rule of show biz.

12. Write evergreen information.

Sometimes you want to be on the cutting edge of breaking news but don't neglect writing blogs with "evergreen information" that isn't based on current events so it won't become irrelevant quickly. ActiveRain blogs with evergreen information never become outdated so they can be read, shared, and grow an audience over time without limitation.

13. Also, post around notable dates.

Timing is everything when writing your business blogs, so keep informed of notable dates, events, and holidays. There are also plenty of whacky days (National Peanut Butter Day) and months to raise support for a cause (Breast Cancer Awareness Month.) Planning a blog around an upcoming holiday or season change (like back to school, spring cleaning, etc.) gives you plenty of time to get it posted and gain exposure with readers as the date approaches. The media also starts looking for these stories on short notice and may pick up your blog.

14. Write content rich in key words.

Incorporate plenty of key words into your blog, the same ones a reader might type into a search engine like Google. Mix it up with some quotes from notable people, clickable links to other articles (or blogs you've written) and mentions of famous people, organizations, companies, etc. But don't go overboard until your blog is no longer organic and easily readable -- "Do it, but don't over do it," is the general consensus of social media and SEO experts.

15. Share the link.

Once your blog is completed, clip and paste the link and share it with your trusted referral partners, online associates, and past readers.  Do a search for the topic on ActiveRain and post your new link as a comment on other popular blogs – ONLY if it’s appropriate, adds value to the conversation, and doesn’t compete with that blog’s writer.  ActiveRain also has some great social media sharing capabilities, so you can offer your blog to a wider audience of potential clients.

16. Think about hiring a professional to help. 

If you want your blog on ActiveRain to truly serve as marketing that will help your business, you may want to hire a professional blogger.  Of course you are smart enough to write blog posts but I’m guessing your To Do list is pretty full as it is.  The difference between a blog post going viral – and opening up valuable new business opportunities – and only a few people reading it, lies in the details and hinges on consistency and tone.  A professional will know how to consistently manage your blogging campaign for best results, and also can share that information via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. for a comprehensive social media marketing campaign.

17. Interact – don’t just post.

Remember that ActiveRain works as a true community, so you should read and comment on other people’s work just as much as you post your own content.  That way, your visibility (and ActiveRain points) will rise, helping your blogs get noticed. 

18. Educate and entertain.

The goal of a blog is not to give so much technical information that you make the reader an expert, but to demonstrate that YOU are the expert, and can be trusted as a credible and honest person to solve their problems. Write technical posts on ActiveRain but also reader questions, testimonials and plenty of blogs that are just interesting or entertaining, as well.

19. Stay human.

Be authentic, funny, self-deprecating, admit your mistakes and be genuinely human. Write from the heart. People don't want to read something written by a robot, especially on a peer-based site like ActiveRain. Of course, you'll want to be personal without being inappropriate or crossing the line into politics, religion or anything offensive or too polarizing.  Got it?

20. Remember that it's not about you.

Your blog is not a forum for you to talk about yourself or your company, complain or blab. It should be a haven for your target demographic to come read content that is interesting, helpful, entertaining, universal and fascinating to them.