Considering there are 3.5 billion social media users worldwide and 3 hours are spent on average by people on social media networks and messaging, it is a great idea to promote your blog on social media.
Whether your goal is to grow a strong following through your blog audience or promote brands, businesses that use social media tools are reaping huge benefits.
The Power of Social Media Networks
Let’s look at some statistics to understand the power of social networks better.
- 73% of businesses using social media marketing say that it has been useful to an extent or very effectiexve for their business.
- 71% of customers who have had a good experience with a brand on a social media platform are more likely to mention it to someone.
- Facebook is the most popular platform for businesses that do social media marketing.
- As per a Twitter survey, 54% of users have taken action after seeing a brand mentioned in Tweets. These actions include visiting their site, searching for the brand, or retweeting the content.
- 200 million Instagram users look at one business profile per day – while 80% follow a business page.
These statistics are proof of the power of social media networks when it comes to marketing.
Strategies to Go Social with Your Blog
For bloggers, here are some useful strategies you can leverage to get your social media marketing game on:
- Create unique and interesting content
Unique and interesting content are not merely buzzwords.
Essentially, it means that you have to create engaging content that is not found anywhere else.
If you don’t offer something out of the norm – you’re going to get lost amid the seas of competition.
But how would you know what your audience needs?
It’s simple! Use data to arrive at decisions via industry research and competitor analysis.
The good news is that you can use plenty of online tools!
For instance, you can use SEMRush to analyze your competitor’s traffic and keyword strategies, content, and social media to outdo them.
And tools like Google Search Control will help you find out which keywords on your pages get the most clicks from Google.
Once armed with all the data, you can craft your content for your blog post around the popular keywords.
Another crucial point to keep in mind is to craft compelling headlines. If your headlines are boring, the chances of getting your blog post read or shared are low.
Tools like OptinMonster headline Analyzer can check whether your headline is clickable and SEO-friendly. But ensure that you don’t disappoint your readers; your content should live up to what you promise in your headline.
Adding subheadings, writing shorter paragraphs, using bullet points, and adding images are other ways to make your content more engaging.
- Integrate and embed social media on your blog
Integrating and embedding social media on your blog helps you increase engagement and social shares.
Here’s how you do it:
- Craft at least one or two highly shareable quotes or snippets in your blog content. Keep it brief and direct but ensure that it provides value even when shared on its own.
- Insert Click to Tweet CTAs in your posts. It will make it easy for users to share those quotes or snippets.
Specific plugins even allow you to pre-set different quotes from your post in the CTA. As and when users click on it, the snippet of text is shared automatically.
- Make use of the social sharing button and use it on each blog post. The tool you use for social sharing should have Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+ options. It will enable readers to share your content on social media channels.
For example, tools like AddThis support over 300 networks. And the best part is that you can customize the appearance.
- Your featured images will play a significant role in determining how well your posts gain social shares. The photos are going to appear automatically when most users share your content.
- Ensure that the other images you use in your posts are high-quality and exciting to increase the chances of getting pinned and shared.
- Post at strategic times
Yes! There are optimal times and days to post on social networks. For example, you wouldn’t want to engage with your users when they’re getting ready for bed!
The key is to post at strategic times that suit your audience in order to get more traction and engagement.
Here is a breakdown of the best times and days to post on different social media platforms as per the studies done:
- Facebook – The best time to post on Facebook is between 11 AM to 3 PM, and the best days are Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. According to statistics, 17% of all Facebook comments and 16% of all likes and shares are done on Friday.
- Instagram – User engagement in your Instagram post will increase when you post between 10 AM-11 AM and 2 PM -3 PM. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are the best days, with Thursday being the peak of the week.
- Twitter – The best times to post on Twitter are between 10-12 PM and 5-6 PM. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are the best days. It is said that user engagement peaks on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and the highest clickthrough rates and a large number of retweets are generated on Wednesdays.
- LinkedIn – You will make the most out of your post if you post at 8 AM, 12 PM, and between 5-6 PM on the LinkedIn platform. The best days of the week are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
- Use guest blogging tactics.
Guest blogging is a great way to attract traffic back to your blog. It not only increases your brand credibility and awareness but also helps you build relationships with other businesses in the industry.
But note that not all traffic is good traffic. The goal should be to publish guest posts on sites where your potential high-quality target hangs out.
Moreover, write original and valuable content by following the guidelines. Your content should benefit their readers – and should not solely be about getting traffic.
As per a study, 79% of editors think guest content is too promotional.
You don’t want to fall into that category! Thus, avoid writing promotional content, or your post might get rejected every time.
And most importantly, don’t forget to leave a link that will direct your target audience back to your blog.
When it comes to the best time to send your guest blogs, estimates suggest that they are in higher demand in June, July, and August. But that doesn’t mean your post won’t get accepted in the other months.
- Repurpose old blog posts on social media
Do you have some useful blog posts that you already shared with your blog audience?
Now you can once again repurpose them and share on social media.
And an excellent way to repurpose your post is to turn it into a script for a podcast or for LinkedIn Live.
You can also post shorter versions of your blog post on social platforms like Reddit and Quora.
Repurposing your blog content into videos and sharing them on social channels is also a solid strategy.
According to statistics, 51% of marketers say video content has the best ROI. So why not turn an old blog post into a visually stimulating video format and share it on Facebook? After all, the social video trend is on the rise.
Keep the video length between 60 to 90 seconds, as recommended by BuzzSumo.
Also, if your content is evergreen, you can simply share it on your active social channels for your new readers. As per one report, sharing posts a second time gets as much as 75% of the engagement received when it was first shared.
Or, if you have a list post with statistics, you can turn them into images. It’s a great idea to create infographics or Instagram images by summarizing the information.
After all, infographics and videos are among the top social media content trends. So, it is definitely a great idea to incorporate them into your social media marketing strategy.
If you are active on Twitter, you can gather the stats and impactful quotes from your old posts and set up a succession of tweets with links to the original content.
- Join relevant social communities
Social media platforms are a great place to find and interact with people in your niche. Whether it is Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter, you can always join groups that are relevant to your niche. It’s a great way to let others know about yourself and your blog.
While you are at it, don’t make the mistake of promoting your blog too aggressively.
A slow start will reap better results!
You can be proactive and join group discussions and conversations. Ensure to answer queries and solve problems that other bloggers are facing.
When people begin to recognize you, you can start leaving a link back to your blog posts in your comments.
Just remember not to overdo it.
And while you’re at it, don’t forget to track your links to see whether your link building efforts are materializing or not.
If people from your social community are having a virtual or real meetup, make sure to join and even initiate the meetup. You can leverage tools like Google Hangouts and Zoom to have virtual meetups.
The main idea is to provide value to your peers by answering questions and solving problems. You can also share links to promote your blog when people begin to trust you.
- Leverage user-generated content
User-generated content is a goldmine of engagement and quality-traffic.
And since it’s entirely peer-generated, it is all the more trustworthy.
Some brilliant ways to create user-generated content are:
- Through running contests
- Responding to comments on your posts
- Rewarding your fans by featuring their content on your blog and sharing it on social platforms
- Asking questions
It is estimated that Instagram accounts that run contests see faster growth by 70%.
You can run a hashtag contest and ask your followers to use a branded hashtag for a chance to win something. You can then select a random winner and promote the winner letting people know about the prize won. Naturally, it helps you engage your existing audience and gain new Instagram followers.
Alternatively, you can also run contests and quizzes on your blog and share the same on your active social channels.
And not just social media, you might even want to share about your contest details with your email subscribers and get more people onboard via email.
Additionally, you can use the Facebook Search Tool to find people who are talking about your brand. When you find posts about your brand, you can share them on your newsfeed. It will not only make your existing users happier, but attract new customers as well.
- Automate and optimize on social media
Automating and optimizing your content on social media is another excellent content marketing strategy to engage followers.
Automating social media postings, engagement, and management can significantly reduce your workload, maximize reach, and minimize the hours spent managing tasks.
Moreover, sharing your posts consistently is a great tactic to keep your followers engaged and not overwhelm them with your posts.
Tools like Hootsuite and SproutSocial are great for scheduling and maintaining the consistency of your posts.
For WordPress blog owners, there is a plugin called Publicize that can automatically share your newly published posts to your social platforms.
Remember to publish your posts on your social channels during peak audience time.
Also, since automated tools can produce real-time data analysis and report essential metrics like engagement levels, impressions, or reach, you will be able to make improvements and scale your business.
Wrapping-Up
Promoting your blog on social media is a great way to gain more followers and engage your audience. But it works only when you apply the right strategies.
Start by crafting content that will engage the users and provide them a personalized experience.
- After that, follow all the tips mentioned in this article, summarized below: Integrate and embed social media channels with your blog
- Make sure to post at strategic times
- Guest blog and leave links that will trace your audience back to your blog
- Repurpose old blogs on social media
- Join relevant social communities
- Leverage UGC
- Use automation tools to schedule your social media posts.
These are some of the tested tricks that will definitely help you gain more followers and grow your business.
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