If you’ve read my blog traffic reports, you know that I always link to a post explaining how I promote my posts. But I realized recently that the most recent post about it was from 2016! That’s 2 years ago now, and I’ve changed my strategy in that time, so today I have an updated version.
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Promote Your Blog on Social Media
Twitter: Whenever I have a new post, I schedule 7 tweets spread out over the course of 24 hours to promote it and then another 3 over the next 2 weeks. In the 7 tweets of the first 24 hours, 4 of them take accounts that retweet posts. I schedule so many tweets because tweets have a very short shelf-life. This way, more people are likely to see my tweets no matter what timezone they’re in. On days that I don’t have a new post, I schedule blog post promotions of another post. Additionally, every couple of months I schedule promotions of 1 old post for every day for a month or two. I schedule my posts with Buffer.
Follow me on Twitter | 8 Tips To Get More Twitter Followers
Facebook: Like with Twitter, I schedule promotions of a new post over the course of 24 hours to promote and then another 3 over the next 2 weeks. I post less often on Facebook, though, because Facebook has a longer shelf-life. I schedule 4 posts on Facebook for the first 24 hours of a post. Like on Facebook, I schedule blog promotions of another post on days when I don’t have a new one and I also schedule promotions of 1 old post for every day for a month or two. What’s different than Twitter is I schedule my Facebook posts to be in between different Twitter posts. For example, if my scheduled tweets are at 8:05 a.m., 10:30 a.m., and 1:00 p.m., a scheduled Facebook post is at 9:30 a.m. Additionally, I’m a member of 8 Facebook groups for bloggers. 8! These provide threads for sharing blog posts and social media, although how often depends on the group. Like with Twitter, I schedule my posts with Buffer.
Instagram: This is one of the changes since the last time I posted about my promotion strategy – I’m sharing my posts on Instagram more than I was before. I promote every single blog post in my Instagram stories in 2 ways. 1) The day after the post went up, I advertise it in my stories. 2) Every week, on the day before the first new post of the week goes up, I share every single post from the previous week in my stories. Additionally, I’m now promoting my blog posts in my Instagram posts more often. I’m trying to post a relevant image that advertises a blog post at least once a week. I’ve also joined the Linktree train. Basically, the link in my Instagram bio now goes to a menu with a variety of options to click on. The first one available is a featured post that I change every few weeks. The second one available is always the link to the newest blog post.
Google+: This is one social media network that I don’t think many bloggers use while they should. Here’s the thing: Google search engine rewards people who use Google+. It helps SEO and it helps show up higher in search engine results. I use it by sharing every post on my Google+ page. Additionally, I’m a member of several Google+ communities, mostly for writers and bloggers. Whenever I have a post that fits into one of those groups, I share it in there.
Pinterest: Want to know something amazing? For the past 2 months, Pinterest has brought me around 50% of my traffic. 50%! I talked about how that came to be in my January blog traffic report, so I won’t reiterate all of that here and will instead focus on how I promote my posts. For every blog post that I have, I have at least 2 images. For each image, I make 2 copies: 1 with the dimensions that work best in these posts (600px wide) and 1 with dimensions that are most successful on Pinterest (1400px wide). After I’ve scheduled a post to go public, I schedule posts on Pinterest. I use Tailwind to schedule my Pinterest posts, and it allows me to schedule posts on multiple boards at whatever time I want. I upload my Pinterest-optimized image and schedule it for as many boards as are applicable.
Follow me on Pinterest | 9 Reasons Why Tailwind Is Worth the Money
Tumblr: Whenever I have a new post, once it goes live, I post it to my Tumblr. But like I do with Twitter and Facebook, every couple of months I schedule one blog post to be posted on Tumblr every day for 1-2 months. Then, when I’m just on Tumblr queueing posts (I mostly run my Tumblr on a queue), if I see one of my scheduled posts, I add it to my queue to be reblogged again.
Other Ways To Promote Your Blog
When I don’t have a new blog post: As I mentioned, I promote a blog post on social media every single day, even if it’s not new. On the days that I don’t have a new post, I promote a post on my Twitter and Facebook pages that is at least one month old. I don’t promote this post in my Facebook groups because it isn’t new.
Grow your social media as a whole: Given how important social media is to getting traffic to my blog, it helps me to grow my social media networks. I do this in a variety of ways which you can read in the posts below.
How To Optimize Your Social Media as a Blogger | Why Social Media Matters for Bloggers + How To Grow Yours
Utilize SEO: In addition to social media, optimizing posts for SEO (search engine optimization) is extremely helpful. This can help in two areas. 1) Showing up in search engine results and 2) Showing up in Pinterest searches. I explain how SEO works for Pinterest in the post below.
Provide opportunities for people to share my posts: Whenever you read any post that isn’t fully loaded on the front page, you’ll see a menu on the left. That menu provides networks on which you can share that post. Additionally, under the title of each post is a row of several social media icons. Those are also places you can share the post. I have both of these because the menu on the left stays with you as you scroll, so if you decide you want to share it at the end of the post, you don’t have to scroll all the way up to share it. I also try to include a Click To Tweet link within at least 1 blog post a week, which you can see above. This way, I don’t have to rely on my scheduled promotions of posts for that post to get traffic.
Mailing list: Twice a month, I send a newsletter to my subscribers. This newsletter always includes links to the posts from the past 2 weeks and the end-of-the-month newsletter also includes my favorite posts from the month and the most popular posts from the month. Some people send their newsletter after every post or at the end of every week. Do what works for you and your readers!
What are your tips to promote your blog?
Like this post? Check out:
12 Blog Traffic Boosting Tools To Try in 2018, 8 Ways To Lower Your Bounce Rate, 10 Things Every Blog Needs, The Best Pieces of Blogging Advice I’ve Ever Received, Why You Need a Social Media Content Calendar
Kate Mitchell is a blogger, chronic illness patient, and advocate who helps people understand chronic illness and helps chronic illness patients live their best lives.
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