This is a guest post by Richard Nolan.
Social media is where most people spend several hours per day.
They go shopping online, keep in touch with their friends, and find out the latest news both in their countries and around the world.
Even though many social media users try their best “only to check the messages” or visit only a few pages, they find something trustworthy and valuable, they usually end up spending hours scrolling down their news feeds.
A recent survey by Telegraph shows that teenagers spend twenty-seven hours a week on the Internet. There are some individuals from this age group who spend up to forty-five hours a week online.
Usually, adults spend slightly less time on the web, but this amount is still quite significant.
In fact, according to the claims of Social Media Today, on average people spend over five years of their lives on social media.
That is a huge chunk of their lives, don’t you think?
So, why not use the time people spend on the Internet for the promotion of your product or content?
This is exactly what smart marketers do: they accelerate the growth of their resource by being present and active on social media.
Do you know how to do it?
What steps does one have to follow to create a successful strategy for promotion on social media?
After checking what professionals say, we have decided to share the best tips for accelerating blogging growth through social media.
So, save this list and apply it to your business.
11 Ways to Increase Blogging Growth Through Social Media
Before diving into the real depths of this issue, we want to mention that there are several leading social media giants one should pay attention to when building their presence online.
Among them are Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+, etc. They all have their own specific features and since we don’t have enough space here to describe all of them, we will only mention the basic ones.
Besides, there are third party technological solutions we also highly recommend using in the meantime. So, to make the most out of our tips, save them: there is a lot for you to learn.
1. Identify the audience.
This is the first thing for you to do. Who is your audience? The answer to this question will define what social media giants to focus on when trying to accelerate your blog’s traffic.
So, make sure you know what audience you're trying to reach out to. You cannot take good care of all possible social network profiles. Therefore, it is always better to focus on a few, first.
Here are just a few quick facts which will illustrate how important it is to know who your audience is.
For instance, a user of Facebook prefers images and infographics. Normally, Facebook users feel bored when they see long reads.
On the contrary, Google+ users are more business-oriented. So, visual aids are helpful here but not essential.
So, identify who your target audience is and create profiles for your blog on the social media they prefer.
2. Use automatic sharing solutions.
Posting content on different social media sites takes time and effort. Luckily for those who cannot afford to spend much time on this, there are technological solutions for this issue.
Most of the social media profiles are linked to the blogging platforms. So, by connecting them together and choosing proper settings, bloggers can save time they would have otherwise spent on posting something on each profile.
Thus, we highly recommend familiarizing yourself with the possibilities of the platforms you use for blogging: there must be a feature which allows you to share the information on one or several profiles of your choice.
For instance, there is such possibility if you use WordPress. You will have to learn more about other platforms.
3. Choose a better time to post on social media.
Depending on who your target audience is, you need to adjust the time when you post on social media. No matter how good your post is, it might stay unseen just because you chose the wrong timing.
For instance, if your target audience is employed people, then the best time to post something is before they go to work, at lunch, or in the evening.
Most people check their social media profiles while commuting or right after they wake up.
Others scroll down their news feeds while having lunch, but most people go online at the end of the working day.
The good news is that thanks to the technological solutions like Followerwonk and Buffer, you can find out at what time of the day your users are the most active, so instead of guessing, utilize tried methods.
Note: To start, you can have a look at this infographic from QuickSprout.
All in all, identify when they go online and adjust your timing to theirs.
4. Choose catchy headlines.
Think about times when you go online and see some articles. You probably only open those which are either relevant to the information you search for or the ones with catchy and intriguing headlines.
Therefore, we highly recommend making sure your headlines stimulate a reader to proceed to your blog.
Specialists recommend using numbers and smart words like “amazing”, “excellent”, “fantastic”, etc.
Such words can grab users’ attentions and make them wonder what the whole piece is about.
As a practice for this, we would recommend you checking out what headlines leading magazines and resources choose for their articles. See how they try to draw the attention of users as well as analyze what makes you want to read an article or drop it right away.
5. Post the same text several times.
It is not that your readers are not interested in what you crafted, sometimes they might ignore your message in their news feed because you used sentences which did not attract their attention.
To fix this situation you should remind your readers about a post they made several times using different meta descriptions every time.
Do not consider this rude or unprofessional. It never hurts to remind: those who have already read the article might consider sharing it while others might want to finally check it out.
So, seize an opportunity to make your content known again and again.
6. Use the right keywords.
People might search for answers on social media. If your content is exactly what they need to check out, then correct keywords might help you significantly.
When you pick the keywords, we recommend you choosing ones which aren't too broad, yet not too narrow. Aim for the ones right in the middle.
What we mean by this is, for instance, the word “shoes” might be searched for thousands of times. However, if you add one or two more words to specify what kind of shoes you are talking about, you will help your target audience to find you.
Without applying this tip, you can use keywords to attract some audience but it will not help you to convert such unique visitors into regulars. So, don’t waste time on those who do not need what you write about.
Also, make sure your content is keywords-rich as it might be a key to blogging growth acceleration.
7. Make a list of hashtags to add to the article description.
Even though young people use hashtags for fun today, trying to express their thoughts and emotions.
Originally, they were meant to help individuals who are currently on the same page, or are dealing with the same problem, to spot each other by searching for it with the aid of hashtags.
It works on many social media like Instagram and Twitter where people search for information in this particular manner.
Thus, use some technological solutions or create them yourself.
The main idea of these tools is adding keywords in this form. Therefore, make a list of keywords you used in the article as well as ones which best describe your content and form them into hashtags.
It can make your presence more noticeable and as a result, increase your recognition on the market.
8. Make connections with communities from neighboring niches.
By building a strong personal network, you get a chance to write guest posts for bloggers from neighboring niches.
By appearing on their blogs, you can promote your product to the audience you will not be able to address otherwise.
Think about it: by creating a good network and becoming known in the neighboring communities, you strengthen your presence online and get access to people from someone else’s target audience.
It's an incredible opportunity, so search for communities that share the same interests with you and see how you can collaborate so that both sides can benefit from this collaboration.
You can create a guest post or invite them to create one for you. There are plenty of options to try here.
However, the bottom line is this: try to appear in neighboring communities to accelerate your blog growth.
9. Promote with ads on social media.
Depending on the size of your budget, you can always opt for paid ads online.
For instance, there is such a possibility on Facebook. You can often see some sort of “sponsored posts” which appear on your news feed along with your friends’ posts.
They appear there based on your online activity. You could have liked some post and based on your like, the sponsored posts appear on your screen.
Note: Facebook Advertising has great targeting options.
You can check this information in the settings of your page as well as search for guides on how to choose proper settings either in the Facebook help desk or elsewhere on the Internet.
It is a popular solution for many people these days. And the best part about it is that it is absolutely worth the money, as the developers offer you many benefits for a reasonable price.
10. Post old content.
Depending on what exactly you write about, you can post some of your old articles over and over again after some time. This is particularly the case for the articles which were the most popular among your audience.
Thus, if after some time, the content you created is still relevant, remind your readers about it on social media. They might find it timely and share it with friends now, even if they did not do it last time.
There are spheres where you cannot post brand-new information every day. Besides, why would you, considering your content is still true and up-to-date?
That is why sharing the same thing is your best choice. Just pick the right time, perfect hashtags or keywords, and select communities apart from your own you want to post it at.
We promise: this tip is extremely helpful.
11. Ask friends and colleagues to share what you craft.
Now this one might raise many questions. People often feel uncomfortable asking others for help.
But remember you're not asking them to do something completely useless and silly.
If you create high-quality content, then there is nothing shameful about asking people to help you here.
It will take them a few seconds, but it can have a tremendous effect on your blog as more people will learn about it. Therefore, search your friend list and see which ones might be interested in this sort of information.
You can also check out their posts to see what they usually share on their personal pages on social media. It might be especially useful if what you are writing about is close to their interests so their shares won’t look artificial or unnatural.
Use this chance and don’t underestimate what effect it might have on your blog.
Wrapping it all up
We would only want to mention that promoting your blog through social media is the best option at your disposal. It can be a powerful tool but only if you do everything right.
Follow the steps we described in this article and enjoy the positive changes this approach can bring to the process of your blog growth.
Guest Author: Richard Nolan is a writer and a private tutor, sharing his experience in spheres of writing, blogging, entrepreneurship and psychology. Richard writes for numerous blogs and gives useful tips for bloggers and students. Currently, Richard works as a general blog editor for ProWritersCenter. Follow him on Twitter.
