Do you devote a significant amount of time to creating high-quality material for your blog? Do you get the most out of your content marketing? If not, you may not be properly selling your content!
Paid advertising does not make sense for a blog, unlike for a corporate website. But what other choices do you have?
Of course, there are SEO and social media marketing services.
And, as we’ve previously talked about SEO for blogs in a previous piece, we’ll talk about how to promote your blog on social media today.
Take a poll of webmasters, marketers, and bloggers to find out what they think it means to promote blogs using social media. The majority of people would define it as sharing your blog on your Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter profile, or page. However, merely doing so is only half the struggle.
So, if you’re among the ambitious and want to “sell your blog on social media” beyond famous social networking sites, read on for some truly practical advice on how to make your blog shine across social media.
The following are some tips for making your blog content socially shareable, as well as some unique social sites to share your blog entries on (besides the usual Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn).
1. Content that is intriguing, useful, or shocking
This tip has nothing to do with social media marketing, but it is the crucial initial step that ensures the success of all the other procedures given here today.
Your social media followers want the stuff they share to make them look sophisticated and cool. To put it another way, they won’t just share anything.
As a result, the content you create must be interesting and valuable, with unique information that can’t be found anywhere else. Even if the content is available elsewhere on the internet, the method you deliver it must pique the interest of your social media-aware readers.
Readers will be drawn in by exciting headlines and images in addition to the content of your blog post. Let’s look at these two areas of content development in more detail.
Titles that pique your interest
Let’s say you write a blog post about 10 Questions You Should Ask Your SEO Agency. This post’s title suggests that it will provide you with beneficial information. But does it actually pique your interest? Keep that notion in mind.
Consider renaming the same post – 10 Things Your SEO Agency Isn’t Telling You.
Is this title piquing your interest right now? Isn’t that true to some extent?
A slight alteration in tone and style in the headlines of your posts may help you gain more visibility. This is because many of your blog’s email or RSS feed subscribers may have also subscribed to other blogs in your niche. With their feed reader or inboxes clogged with material, a clever title may keep you from being lost email the mob.
Consider the following screenshot of a list of blog titles as seen in a feed reader. In addition, all of the titles displayed are enticing enough to entice the reader to open them. If the reader finds the article intriguing, he or she will eventually share it.
List of Interesting Blog Titles on a Feed Reader
Images
It’s all about large, vivid, attractive pictures on social media. People will be less likely to share your blog if it lacks a distinctive/recognizable opening image (such as the one we use at WooRank) or any image at all. Rather of explaining these criteria further, why don’t you have a look at how we use photographs on our own blog?
Canva, for example, is a free tool for making blog graphics. You can also share infographics, which are photos with content embedded in them. In our earlier piece on the subject, we listed some free tools for creating infographics.
An example of a blog graphic worth sharing on social media is shown below.
For Viral Social Media Sharing, Make Strategic Use of Blog Images
These are the kinds of photographs that will catch the attention of a larger social media audience. As a result, these friends are likely to re-post and spread your message.
2. Make Social Media a Part of Your Blog
We mean bridging the gap between popular social media sites and your content when we say integrates social media into your blog. Visitors to your blog require an easy way to interact with it and share its content via social media tools incorporated into your site.
Social media buttons that enable your readers to engage with your blog (Facebook likes, Twitter follows), share buttons that help readers share your material, social media logins that help readers comment on your blog, and so on are examples of integrating aspects.
Here are a few pointers on how to include social network share buttons in your post.
Some blogs go overboard with their social media buttons, including seven or eight. Check to see if you have a large enough audience on social media platforms (other than Twitter and Facebook) to justify a button.
Overcrowding social media share buttons may turn off your viewers, lowering the number of social shares. Adding unnecessary social media widgets may also slow down the loading performance of your page.
It’s good to use buttons, but too many can be excessive. Keep the number of buttons to a bare minimum, as shown in the WooRank blog below.
WooRank Blog – Sharing Buttons
When there are too many buttons on a page, it might appear cluttered and draw attention away from the real information.
Learn more about Social Media Integration Tools and Tips for your Website.
3. Post a link to your blog on all of your social media accounts.
If your site isn’t attracting visitors, go to theirs instead. Share your blog content as far as possible on social media. It’s not rocket science, so you’re probably already doing it. However, getting a few things correctly will aid your efforts:
Consistency
Posts should be shared on a regular basis. Don’t share them all at once for a week, and then disappear next week. You may use scheduling tools like Hootsuite and SproutSocial to make sure your material gets shared consistently on social media networks.
More information on these tools may be found in one of our previous posts, Social Media Management Tools for Small Businesses.
On WordPress, automate
If you have a WordPress blog, you can use the Publicize plugin to distribute your newly published posts to your social network accounts automatically.
When is the best time to post?
If you’re utilizing Tweroid to post updates about your blog article on Twitter, see when the best moment is to do so. It’s one of the most effective free Twitter marketing tools available. Using Facebook’s own analytics tool, Facebook Insights, determine the best times to publish on Facebook.
You could use the buffer-follower wonk duo, which were merged to make social media posting easier and more productive on Twitter if you want a scheduling tool that also gives you ideal user-activity time for Twitter.
The Appearance of Post Updates
When you share a blog article on social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter, write a message about it in your own words to encourage people to read it. Always remember to include a photo with your post, as most networks (including LinkedIn and Twitter) will display a thumbnail image from it.
Facebook also shows the post photographs automatically and lets you choose a different display photo than the one it grabbed. To add an external image, simply press the “+” button. Take a look at the following example screenshot:
On Facebook, you can upload an image.
These many alternatives might help you increase the aesthetic appeal of your blog post material that you share on social media.
Posting in Multiple Places
Cross-post your blog updates across multiple social media platforms.
Let’s say you share a post on Facebook that includes a lovely graphic, perhaps even a quote. On Pinterest, you can share a link to the image’s location (you should definitely have a Pinterest account if your blogs have lots of graphical elements). This will make it easier for your Facebook fans that also have a Pinterest account to pin the image.
Cross-posting Between Two Social Media Channels: An Example
For ideas on how to make highly shareable Pinterest images for your business, read on.
Updates to the Entire Post
Some social media platforms, such as Tumblr, allow you to display the entire blog article, unlike other social media platforms that only allow a few text characters in updates. You can include a link to the original blog post URL at the end of the piece, which will provide great social media traffic.
In fact, the publicize plugin we discussed earlier might assist you in publishing your blog article on Tumblr as well. It will, however, just offer a teaser and not the entire content.
The benefit of copying entire posts to your Tumblr profile is that Tumblr readers may read them without having to go to your website. In such a situation, even if you don’t get any traffic from Tumblr, you’ll still get a link from a website with a high PR (PR 6) rating.
ClickToTweet
Some of your readers could be in a rush or don’t want to share the entire article. You might provide a click to Tweet feature for various essential quotes on your blog article for such viewers. This will automatically create a connection from the reader’s Twitter profile to your blog.
Hashtags
Use hashtags that are related to your content and include them in your Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram updates. These hashtags help people find your blog.
In our postings on Quick Tips to Promote Your Company on Twitter and Effective Ways to Promote Your Brand on Facebook, we discuss the use of hashtags for Twitter and Facebook.
Direct Messages
Send direct (or private) messages about new blog posts to those who have previously shared your material or to a new group of friends and followers who might be interested.
Direct messages are available on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Reaching out to people on a personal level can go a long way toward expanding the reach of your material on social media. However, you must not overdo it, as this will result in an increase in the number of unfollows or unlikes.
4. Make Connections with Other Bloggers
Being aware of other bloggers in your industry is an obvious sense, but what can you do with that knowledge to help market your own blog? Here are a few easy methods for incorporating other bloggers’ social media impacts into your own site.
Read and Spread the Word
Read and share other bloggers’ posts, and leave comments on them on Twitter to show your appreciation for or acknowledgment of the information provided. Make sure to include the blogger’s Twitter handle in your tweet. You can also leave comments on the posting page; however, this technique will notify the blogger right away who is leaving a remark.
If you include your blog’s URL in your Twitter bio (and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t), the blogger will undoubtedly visit your site and may return the favor in kind.
Experts should be listed.
Create a post with a “Top 10 List of Bloggers in (Your Niche)” and a link to the bloggers. They will undoubtedly acknowledge a link back and promote it on their different social media platforms.
This strategy could also be used for professionals in your niche who do not have a blog. They might be inspired to share your piece on their numerous social media platforms if you mention them.
Blogging by Others
Invite niche bloggers to guest post on your blog, and reciprocate by guest posting for them. This not only provides you with links from your niche but also allows your blog to appear in their social media updates and shares.
The buzz around Viral Content
By participating in reciprocal content distribution via social media channels, you may join the viral content buzz community and make your material go viral.
5. Add Your Blog Posts to Social Bookmarking Sites
High-traffic sites with a large audience base, such as Digg, StumbleUpon, Delicious, and Reddit, can be used to social bookmark your blog content. But keep in mind that this method has been overdone in the past, and social bookmarking is no longer as successful as it once was.
To make your presence felt on social bookmarking sites, you’ll need to devote a little more time to bookmarking, liking, commenting on, and sharing other blog pieces. This will encourage more people to visit your post bookmarked.
There are numerous social bookmarking sites available on the internet, but it is best to limit you to a few and update them on a regular basis.
6. Promotions in the Forum
Many good forums in virtually all niches won’t let you post a link to your site unless you’ve been an active member and helped other members with their problems. So, if you want to spend quality time in forums in your area, you should only use this social media blog promotion strategy.
With a simple Google search, you can find forums in your topic: type “niche + forum” and hit enter. Consider the combination of a food blog and a discussion forum. You might also utilize Boardreader, which is a forum search engine.
7. Participate in Social Communities
Join Facebook and LinkedIn groups that are relevant to your industry. These are excellent venues for gaining exposure for both yourself and your blog. Instead of actively promoting your blog, you may begin by participating in conversations and assisting individuals who have questions, much like you would in a forum. You might eventually share links to your blog’s entries.
An example of a LinkedIn Group focused on a specific issue
Another option to meet new people in your social circle is to organize a virtual or physical meetup. Google Hangouts and Twitter Chat can be used to host virtual meetups.
Also Read: Why Pay-Per-Click is the Necessity of the Business
Here are a few pointers on how to get the most out of Google Hangouts.
A Twitter chat can be pre-scheduled or unscheduled, as long as the participants are @mentioned in the conversation.
8. Keep in Mind Your Old Blog Posts
When it comes to sharing content on social media, you shouldn’t only stick to new content. You might occasionally republish any of your older blog entries that are still relevant or have become popular.
It’s possible that you’ll gain new followers who haven’t seen those posts yet, which is fantastic. You might modify the title of your old blog pieces in your social media updates to minimize redundancy with older followers.
9. Parts of Your Content Can Be Shared
Remember how we mentioned the ‘Clicktotweet’ plugin earlier? Quotes from your blog article that seems shareable are usually assigned to ‘Click to tweet’.
Instead of relying just on the Clicktotweet plugin, you might update your social network profile with more significant portions of your post. You are not required to include links to your blog in such entries. This would be a unique update that your fans and following will appreciate.
These were some brief tips for using social media to market your site. Promotions on social media may be a lot of fun, and the results are well worth it. In addition, social media signals help your blog rank higher in search engines.
What are some social media techniques you’ve learned from advertising your site on your own? We’d love to hear about them in the comments section.
