CALLING ALL EQUESTRIAN BLOGGERS!!!
The equestrian blogging community is larger than I originally thought it was, and there's no easy forum for us all to interact and discuss the world of blogging. I'm a member of 3-4 blogging groups on Facebook, but often find my equestrian niche is just too niche to connect with their members.
As such, I've set up a closed group to bring us all together. The purpose of the group is not simply just to post up links to your blog posts, although there will be opportunity to do this via specific threads.
The main concept behind the group is for knowledge sharing - so anything from people asking for tips & support on reporting on your blog through to more technical question to implement elements like Twitter cards across your blog, for example.
I work full time as a Digital Marketing Manager for a big European travel brand. While I don't get to roll out and put into practice a lot of the elements that can help your help on my own blog, I can certainly help others.
& so can you!
We are all active in this field, and we can all help each other. The group isn't designed so that only I post - everyone can post and everyone can answer. It's a community - all I've done is set the group up, will be running some common threads & will accept you all in!
Just use the link or search 'Equestrian Bloggers' on Facebook, & request to join! (Don't forget to email your URL to the address in the description for validation)
Example threads that will be in the group:
- New blog post thread (weekly)
Designed for you to add your latest blog post to throughout the week. If you post more than one post in that time, you can add multiple comments, but really they aren't designed to post the same blog over and over - Sunday Stumble (weekly)
If you don't use StumbleUpon, you should. It's a great traffic source if you use it right - & it couldn't be easier when you use it with the Chrome extension - Facebook threads (monthly)
A place for you to promote your Facebook page once a month for others to follow along - Twitter threads (monthly)
As with Facebook, but for you to showcase Twitter - Insta-pods (monthly)
A post to ask anyone who would like to join the Insta-pod to push your key Instagram posts (not all) - Pinterest board (ongoing & posted monthly)
I have also set up a Pinterest board that I would like anyone active on Pinterest to become a contributor to. You can pin all of you blog posts to it at anytime - it must be your blog that is pinned only (not other blogs or social media accounts/photos)
You must be a member of the group to become a contributor of the board - Crowdsourcing for blog content (ad hoc)
This is a great way to generate content between us and link back to those who gave the answer. For anyone not familiar with this, here's an example. I may do a shout out for you to comment with answers on 4 things, and anyone can reply. I then include these in my post, crediting you fully, and add a link back to your blog. This enables the poster to have content, & those who contributed not only get a link back but will also get social tagging in any promotion of that content. It's a good way to reach a new audience - Twitter account (ongoing)
I have set up a Twitter account specifically to RT content that is tagged to is - @equineblogchat This account will also monitor the hashtag #equestrianbloggers
Bear with me, I work, have my horse, my own blog & general life, so this isn't monitored 24/7!
Of course, everyone will be posting in between that too and helping each other out, so there should be a good level of activity that everyone should find useful & enjoy.
Remember though, if you do Join in, please take the time to read/comment/like others' content and not just use it as a means to get traffic to your site.
Once you join the group, please read the pinned post (group rules) & give a little intro - there's only me as a member on launch, so don't expect huge interaction as soon as you join from the start (except from me and a few others). The pinned post is here but you will not be able to see it until you are accepted.
I want this to be a really engaging forum or us all, so I hope you enjoy it. If you've any queries, you can always leave a comment below, and I'll come right back to you 😀
