Thomas Griffin — January 31, 2019 — January 31, 2019
When you have a blog you’re proud of that you believe is full of quality content, of course you’ll want to share that value with the world. Seeing content you worked hard on receiving positive engagement and shares motivates you to continue the process and keep your audience happy.
If your blog is going to attract the attention you want, you have to create a proper growth strategy. The best way to do this is through social media networks. When utilized correctly, social media can end up being the number one thing bringing your blog traffic as it revolves around interaction and engagement.
With Statista reporting more than three billion active social media users around the globe, why wouldn’t you take advantage of social channels to grow your blog? Whatever audience you have is in that pool of users so learning how to strategically use these platforms to draw them to your content is the main goal.
Here are three ways you can use social media to grow your blog this year.
1. Choose the right platforms
No website or blog is going to cater to every single channel out there. If you sign up for accounts with several different platforms, you’ll likely end up with little interaction and will feel burned out trying to keep up with all of them at once. It doesn’t make sense to spread yourself thin rather than put your focus towards niche platforms that work for your brand.
Whether your goal is to get more comments on your blog posts or drive more traffic, you need to know who your target audience is. Otherwise you won’t be able to identify who you’re marketing to and which channels will get your blog the highest traffic and engagement. Map out details that will tell you who they are, such as their demographics, why they’re the right target market, and what problems they need solved.
If your audience is more business-oriented and revolves around making professional networking connections, LinkedIn and Google+ are the way to go. If they’re younger or prefer visual content, mediums like Instagram and Pinterest are your best options. These are the bigger, more popular platforms, but keep in mind there are also niche social channels out there if your blog content is more refined or specific.
2. Post at peak times
In a survey by Sprout Social, 90 percent of users reach out and engage with brands and businesses through social media. It’s become the preferred method of how consumers and brands communicate, ask questions, and solve problems.
For the best outcome of engagement, do your research on when your target audience is most active on these platforms. The same survey also found that brands typically respond to customers approximately 10 hours later on average even though people consider four hours or less a reasonable amount.
Studies show that there are specific blocks on certain days that garner higher levels of engagement than other times, and each social media platform rakes in different levels of interaction at different times. Even the niche you’re in affects what time and days are the best to post. It’s important to schedule your content around this information so you receive the best results.
Use automation tools like Buffer or Hootsuite to schedule your posts for you so that you aren’t overwhelmed with all your content. They’ll save you time, energy, and grow your social media and blog for you.
3. Don’t forget hashtags
One of the best ways to expand your work through your social networks is by implementing hashtags into your social media posts. Hashtags allow users to follow different topics, keep up with trends, and engage with brands that pique their interest. Keep up with the conversation, earn a decent following by being interactive, and your followers will gravitate towards your blog.
Keep your hashtags relevant to what you’re posting so that the right content gets shown to the right people. Engage with posts that use the same hashtags as you and start a conversation. If someone has a question and tags it but hasn’t yet received a solution or answer, be the one to answer it.
It’s helpful to use tools that tell you which hashtags are popular as these are constantly changing. Hashtags.org shows you analytics for any keywords for the last 24 hours and lets you see what times of the day those hashtags peak, which will also aid you in posting at the right times.
Another useful tool is All Hashtag, a hashtag generator that gives you the top 30 hashtags related to your keyword and allows you to filter your options.
What’s next
The journey to expanding your blog’s reach through social media is a never ending process. There will always be ways to further your reach, but some methods simply work better than others. Researching your target audience will get you ahead of the game, posting at the right times will improve your engagement, and utilizing hashtags will give you the upper hand on what your audience is talking about right now. With the proper strategy, you’ll see social media bringing traffic to your blog in no time.
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