Modern life seems to require that we include social media as part of our daily routine. And many would argue that if you are a writer and don’t have a social media presence, then you have no presence at all. And by presence they mean platform.

An important part of your social media strategy as an author can be a blog. While blogging started as a way for individuals to express themselves personally, in a sort of online electronic diary, today businesses, artists, musicians, artisans, sports figures, and more are using blogs to gain visibility, further brand development and awareness, and create a public following. In other words, a platform.

What can writers blog about?

Typically, people visit blogs for three reasons:

To learn something. For an author, providing useful information to your public may be about book releases, additional merchandise, specials, discounts, signings, exclusive content, and personal appearances. Your fans will want to know this information and so posting it on your blog will make it readily available.

To find information. Some of your readers may be other writers and perhaps are not as far as you on the writing journey. These readers may be interested in learning from you. You could write posts about your process, how you research a topic, where you look to for inspiration, books on craft that you found very useful, the best way to outline a story, your favorite editing and writing software, and more. Don’t worry about other writers stealing your techniques. By sharing your wisdom and experience you will gain respect from your peers and possibly even become a thought leader in your niche.

To be entertained. Everybody loves to be entertained. Let’s be honest, we can never laugh too much or feel joy too often. This is the time to share yourself. Funny things that happened to you, weird people you’ve met, strange things you’ve done for research, what happened in your life that led you to writing, and so on. Personal stories told by authors serve only to endear them to their readers. It makes your readers feel that you are someone they can know and relate to – and isn’t that why you write in the first place? To make that personal connection?

Make your content unique

While blogging may be new to you, it isn’t to thousands of other writers, so making your content unique will help it stand out. It’s probably unavoidable that you will touch on the same or similar topics as other authors, but if you’re willing to take it just a little further and add something different or unexpected to your topic, it can stand out from the others. For example:

Little known facts about the topic, whether it’s another writer, a book, a movie, or writing technique. Unusual facts and trivia fascinate readers.

Free or affordable resources for writing, for finding books, for going to events and more. And if you’ve done a lot of research, you probably already have tons of things you can share just sitting in your files.

Keep it simple

Authors, especially indie authors, tend to try to do too much all at once, so keep your blog posts simple – stick to one topic or one aspect of a topic so your reader can easily digest and understand your information. If you have a large topic, consider doing a series of blog posts on that topic, which can help encourage return traffic to your blog.

When done well, a blog can be a valuable part of your online marketing strategy and help build your online platform.