Q: Is blogging still relevant in the age of social media?
A: It’s even more relevant because you can integrate the two. Blogging can be an integral part of your social media strategy that helps grow your business, gain you more visibility, build your content marketing strategy and increase your followers.

Shani Godwin is the CEO of marketing and communications firm Communique USA Inc. and the founder of publishing company Audible Voices LLC. She assists writers in book publishing and blogging, and hosts the annual UNSTUCK Writers’ Retreat that motivates authors to reach their goals. Godwin is also the author of The Love Project: 365 Ways to Love Yourself and Get the Love You Deserve.

Q: How many times should you blog per week?
A: Think quality over quantity. Blogging is a serious commitment and people can burn out quickly. You need a consistent strategy. It doesn’t matter whether you’re doing it every week or not, but find the rhythm that works for you based on your bandwidth and then commit to it.

Q: How can blogging be used to build your brand?
A: Content is king when it comes to marketing. Blogging creates steady, consistent content of value to your customers and it’s easily shared on social media platforms. It also allows you to be more searchable on the internet. When companies are looking for products and services, blogging allows you to showcase your products, customer testimonials and fun little stories from your office or daily life. You can become more relatable to your customer.

Q: What should you not include in your blog?
A: The beauty of blogging is that it gives a voice to all kinds of people. Whether you’re blogging for your business or someone else’s, you’ll want to follow standard guidelines that reflect the culture and brand. Avoid anything that could offend customers or isolate people. You also don’t want to make posts too long. Break one long post down into two or three shorter ones for more traction.

Q: How do you overcome procrastination?
A: Create a process for your blogging. Having a structure in place makes it a lot more manageable and helps you be consistent. Once you start, people who like what you have to say are going to look for more content. You don’t want to disappoint them. I encourage you to write when the spirit hits you, save it to a drafts folder and then post when you’re ready. I’m a big advocate of a communications calendar tool – it contains all those pre-written blog posts and social media posts so you don’t have to be creative on the spot.