You might wonder what birds have to do with blogging (besides a reference to a certain blue bird online). You know who gets the worm, right? The early bird. In blogging, as in life, it pays to be the early bird.
There's only one chance to be first. When you're first, two things happen. One, there's less competition. Two, you get extra attention and buzz (and by that I mean traffic).
Here are 3 ways for bloggers to be early birds:
Be the first to participate.
Disney was the first one to advertise on Twitter's new deal feed (called @earlybird - a charming name). In the case of the reader, the early bird gets the deal. For advertisers, the early bird gets the buzz. Just about every time someone writes a blog post about Twitter's newest offering, Disney get mentioned. Not only do they get extra buzz, Disney's image looks fresher because they are connected with Twitter - which makes them look very hip.
Be the first to call a trend.
People love trends. Be the first to write about a new trend (if you're a lifestyle it could be how spices like turmeric are the newest health craze). Do it well and you might own that trend. You get to be the expert that everyone else references. Blogger Dan Zarrella did this with an in-depth post about getting retweets on Twitter. Now just about any time someone writes about retweets, Dan's post is mentioned.
Be the first to give practical advice about the newest social media platform.
Just about every new social media site starts out the same. First, the early adopters move in. Then they tell everyone else how to best use it. For example, I know someone who wrote a book about how to use LinkedIn to find a job. Since he was the first to write about LinkedIn to find a job, his book did quite well. The next fifty books about LinkedIn, not so much.
You don't have to get up early to get the worm. But you should look for opportunities be first. First to participate in new offerings, first to spot new trends, and first to give your readers tips on using the newest social media web site. Oh, and there's an opportunity to be first right now - by being the first to comment on this post!
Guest post by Eric Rea
Eric Rea is a college student from Canada who loves Blogging and Sports. He spends his free time working on his own blogs and playing sports. You can follow him at @ericwilliamrea.
Blogging Tip: Be the Early Bird is a post from: We Blog Better. © 2010. Share it freely, but please link back to this source.