Whether you see blogging as a fun side hobby or a fundamental element of your business marketing strategy, it’s a great way to share your voice and reach new audiences. However, writing the perfect post is only half the battle—if you really want your blog to reach its full potential, you’ll need the help of social media to promote your content and build a following.
However, if things like search engines, influencers, user-generated content, share your content, social bookmarking, and social media marketing seem alien to you, then the first thing you may be asking yourself is how you can effectively share your blog articles on social media and promote your business. If you don’t think you have the social media savviness to pull this off, don’t worry. We’ve compiled a handy list of straightforward tricks to help you make the most out of each and every post and promote your blog.
Maximize Your Platforms
We know, we know. There are so many social media platforms out there right now, it’s hard to keep track of it all. Although by no means is it necessary to create an account for every trendy platform that pops up and then fades away within a few months, a few social media platforms are tried and true when it comes to marketing. In particular, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram are often referred to as the “big three.” If you can maximize engagement on the best social platforms, you have the very best chance to succeed.
YouTube is a great marketing tool (and one of the easiest ways to instantly monetize your social media content), but it can be challenging to promote your blog if you aren’t interested in shifting to video content. The good news is that there’s another essential platform that you can use to promote print content: Twitter.
Twitter is fast becoming one of the leading social media channels for businesses to promote blog posts and more, with an audience that’s popular across different age, gender, and income demographics. Unfortunately, despite the popularity of Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, pesky algorithms can leave only a fraction of your followers seeing your content on their timelines.
This is why it’s so important to maximize your platforms. By sharing your post on all three sites, you increase the odds that your users will actually see it. However, don’t just limit yourself to what’s most popular to promote your blog.
Other social media platforms may not have Facebook’s massive following, but smaller platforms can allow niche communities to thrive. If young people are your target audience, Tumblr and Snapchat are effective ways to reach out to this demographic. If your focus is a college-age crowd, then Reddit may be a source of success.
Focus not only on the demographics your blog caters to, but also the special interests you care about. For example, if your blog is focused on fashion or interior decoration, consider signing up for Pinterest; if the finance world is your area of focus, try LinkedIn.
Ultimately, expanding your social media horizons will do more than help you gain clicks and follows. It can actually help your blog find a loyal, tight-knit community with people who can offer you helpful feedback and ongoing support.
Don’t Underestimate the Power of a Hashtag
You aren’t making the most out of your social media platforms if you’re only targeting your current followers. Hashtags and geotags can help your social media posts reach a wider audience without paying a dime for promoted posts.
If your business or blog is focused on a certain community, adding a geotag (which is particularly easy for Instagram and Facebook), can help community members stumble across your account. Additionally, adding relevant hashtags (e.g. #photography, #surfing, #coffee) can help you find people who may not be familiar with your content, but are already interested in the same things as you.
Invite Interaction
You work hard to create content that people will love—so why doesn’t anyone tell you this? The truth is, you probably have more fans than you know about, they just don’t know how to interact. So, help give your followers a little extra push with some positive encouragement.
In both your blog posts and social media promotions, invite your followers to interact with your piece. Remind them to subscribe or sign-up for an email list to stay up to date and ask them questions about your blog. For example, if you run a cooking blog, and have posted content about holiday recipes, ask your followers what their favorite holiday traditions are or how they handle the stress of last-minute Christmas shopping. By inviting the conversation, followers are more likely to have meaningful interactions with your blog and feel as though it offers them a personal relationship and sense of community.
When it comes to social media promotion, understand that your followers have yet to read your blog posts—the whole point is to get them to click the link in the first place. Pose questions that will make them want to read and respond: if you created a “listicle” of DIY skincare solutions, ask which solutions your followers are the most excited to try. If your post advertises swimsuit products that are perfect for summer, ask if your followers if they would ever be brave enough to try on #5 in public. Pointed questions like these will spark your follower’s interest and offer them a little more incentive to give your piece a read.
Quality Over Quantity
If you’re super passionate about your latest post, chances are you’ll want to share as much of it with your followers as possible. The end result can be 500-word Instagram captions and Facebook spam that clogs your follower’s timelines.
Ultimately, whether it is content marketing or blogging about your latest travel journals, social media channels are there for you to share the link to your blog via social sharing. If you copy and paste the bulk of your long-form content on your Facebook page (or similar media channels), no one will click the link, taking away potential revenue and page views from your blog. Instead, think of a concise, punchy caption that will pique your followers’ interests and sum up your core message without giving away too many details of the piece you are blogging.
Of course, navigating social media can be a challenge for both veteran and newbie users. But even bloggers with a meager following and small marketing budgets can use social media to unlock their full potential and find a loyal community—as long as they know the right tips and tricks to promote their work effectively. Before you know it, your piece could be shared over and over with potential customers.
