Blogging Tips: Promoting Your Blog On Social Media

Blogging and social media goes hand in hand, and although it might seem easy at first, there’s actually a lot of things to consider. There’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Vine, Snapchat, Pinterest and more but if you’re a blogger, you don’t have to feel like you need to use every single one to begin with.

Sign up to the platforms you want to use and learn how to use it properly. Using social media is not only a great way to increase traffic to your blog, but it’s also a nice way to ease in to the blogging community and connect to potential readers.

Social Media Is Constantly Changes

In the early days, social media was quite easy, simple and straight-forward. You type what you were up to, and had a giggle with your friends over last night’s party photos – that was pretty much it. Now it seems like like the aim is to get more likes, shares, retweets, favourites, reblogs, repins…. The focus has definitely shifted to how we can engage and get more people to see our ‘content’? How do we work with the new algorithms? How does it benefit us as bloggers?

There’s no denying that social media has changed a lot in the past 5 years and it’s hard to keep up. It is now all centred around promoting, advertising, strategies, campaigns, measuring statistics, engagement, outreach, getting the most likes, favourite, retweets, shares, thumbs-ups, and attempts to go “viral”. And that’s totally fine, it’s just the nature of the game – but all these aspects can sometimes suck the fun out of social media, it can feel like a chore.

On the other hand, it can help us take advantage of what’s out there; these amazing social media platforms can be used as part of a marketing tool, a way increase traffic to your blog, a forum to talk to people who share the interests as you and to get instant, direct, real-time results.

Learning how to use social media and each platform can help drive traffic to your site and reach out to the right people. Here are some of my beginners guide on how to use my to help you promote your blog. I have focussed on my favourite three which are Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

The Beginners Guide to Social Media

General Advice:
Use the same profile pic throughout all social media channels. If you change it on Twitter, change it on all of them. It’s just so that when people land on your profile(s), they’re not confused.

Include your blog link on all of your bios.

Get a good balance of promoting your content, engaging with other people and sharing news.

Be consistent in your tone of voice and the frequency in which you upload.

What works on one platform might not work on another. Learn what people want to see and tailor your content to match the channel.

Respond to all questions and queries in a timely manner.



Twitter:
Create a separate blog/business Twitter account to your personal one. This will keep things cohesive and less-confusing for your readers and for yourself too!


Tweet links to your new post. I tweet links to my new blogpost up to three times a day (afternoon, rush hour and evening) Don’t forget to use appropriate hashtags so that your tweets reaches out to more people.

Dig into your archive! Tweet links to your old content for your new followers or repurpose for existing ones.
Be social on social media! Always answer all questions that comes through to your @mentions.

Make use of the retweet button, share other people’s content as well as your own. They will really appreciate it.

Twitter has become very visual, and tweets that includes an image gets twice the amount of engagement so tweet images to accompany your tweets.

Use a Twitter client like Hootsuite to schedule tweets throughout the day. This is most helpful when you’re away for a few days and want to keep traffic to your blog ticking over.
Don’t take it personally if someone unfollows you. It’s the nature of the game. They’re allowed to unfollow you and you’re free to do the same. No dramas!

Don’t send the same unsolicited tweets to multiple Twitter users. That’s not how you use Twitter and it can be considered as spam.

Facebook:
Facebook are making things increasingly difficult for Page users. I’ve worked so hard to build a following but with the new algorithms, only 1% of my 11,000+ followers will see my content. I admit that I need a new ~strategy~ in order to make things work but here’s what I’ve noticed…

The key is not to give up. There has been many times when I’ve just wanted to get rid of my Page because it feels like a waste of time and that I’m talking to a brick wall. But Facebook likes a consistent frequency of posts and when they detect that you’re inactive, they will bring it upon themselves to push your content down (or keep it out of sight). Carry on posting on a regular basis and hope for the best things should pick up.

Facebook users love funny things, cute animals, inspirational quotes, and memes. Share these types of content in between promoting your own blog. 
Post on Facebook about 3 or 4 times a day if you can. Keep these fairly spaced out throughout the day though. 
Facebook favours posts that has a lot of interaction, these posts will be seen by more people. Add a call-to-action to the copy or a question to encourage followers to engage.

Make use of Facebook’s schedule feature, you can plan your posts ahead and schedule them to go live at certain times.

Keep an eye on your wall for comments and questions. I don’t know about you but notifications doesn’t always pop up for new interaction (Facebook can be SO annoying!!!). I’m always apologising for replying late because I don’t see a comment until days later.

Facebook users don’t hold back, so be prepared for honest or harsh feedback. Don’t be disheartened, it isn’t personal. It’s usually because they don’t realise there’s a real person behind the page or they simply don’t think before they type. You can choose to respond or delete. It’s your page, you get to manage it the way you want.

Instagram:

I LOVE Instagram, it’s my favourite one! It’s a great way to show your personality, share your interests, display your skills and generally feel inspired! 
Themed Instagram profiles do really well but I like the content to vary. Decide on whether you would like to stick to a theme or be quite random, but the quality of the image should be consistent. 
Talking of quality, it might take a while before you know which style of photography you want to go for. Don’t worry too much to begin with, let your creativity flow and you’ll soon figure out what works and what doesn’t.
You can be spontaneous and/or you can pre-plan content. Keep a folder on your phone or computer of photos you want to share on Instagram. 
I tend to post about 3 to 5 times a day, but as long as you post in one hour interval, it shouldn’t bug your followers too much.
To promote your blog on Instagram, post photos of your new blogpost, out-takes, exclusive content, sneak peak or a behind-the-scenes.
Use up to 11 hashtags to categorise the image which allows more people to see your content. Usually, I add a caption and then add another comment with appropriate hashtags to keep things looking tidy.
Tag the people or brands featured in your photo. There’s a possibility that they’ll regram (ie. share your photo with their followers which hopefully increases your own following)
Finally, HAVE FUN! I’m guilty of over-thinking it and I’m really aware not to annoy my followers – but just enjoy putting content out there! 
What are your favourite social media platforms? And do you have any tips to add?
Read my other blogging tips here.
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25 thoughts on “Blogging Tips: Promoting Your Blog On Social Media

  1. I've changed all my profile pictures to the same one, that makes too much sense, I can't believe I didn't think of this, I will also start to tag the companies in the pictures over just mentioning them, seems sensible!

    Thanks for the great post!

    Sarah 🙂
    Saloca in Wonderland

  2. All these sound like lovely tips and I just love Instagram for sharing blog content and I've been getting more in to twitter lately so this was helpful for that Sarah.

  3. Great post Sarah! I've recently been using instagram more and more to utilise it as a platform for featuring blog content as a little preview and it's really made a difference. Though I am debating giving up on facebook as it does really seem hopeless at times!

    Louise x

  4. These are really great tips! I love Instagram the most too and I think people on Insta are also a bit more..hmm.. friendly? I don't know, the atmosphere is just really nice there xD

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