Social Media and Your Blog

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Hard work, determination, and consistent effort will help you achieve your blogging goals,Bucket List Publications Logo but drive alone doesn’t make a blog successful. There is more to blogging than creating posts and wanting them to be seen.  In my post,10 Great Ways to Get Noticed as a Blogger, I shared tips to increase blog rankings. 715 likes, 122 social shares, and 125 comments told me that other bloggers are searching for ways to improve their rankings as well. Below is the second addition to 10 Great Ways to Get Noticed as a Blogger, but this time is has a general focus of Social Media and Your Blog. We can all achieve success, but it’s nice to have a few tips along the way.

1. Create a Facebook Fan Page

If you have more than one blog, each of these should have a different Fan Page. This Bucket List Publications Facebook Fan Pagemakes it easier for potential readers to find you and discover your site. I utilize the Bucket List Publications Fan Page daily. By adding visuals, quotes, posts, and insight into the blog, it is an additional way to connect with readers. Be careful in naming your fan page because once you have more than 300 followers, the name can’t be changed. I’ve learned my lesson on that one.

2. Start a Trend on Twitter

One of the main highlights of this social media channel is that it offers the most current events, the trendiest topics, and the latest “ins”. This gives you an excuse to be the “talk of the town” by simply using a keyword that relates to your blog. For example, if you are into adventure, you can post tweets with hashtags like #BestSkydivingPhotos, #TheFacesOfAdventure, or #Top5Adventures. Any of these can become a trend, especially if you are using the hot topic that most of your followers are talking about. But remember that adding a hashtag to your tweets is not the basis for a Trending Topic. Instead of the number of tweets, Twitter’s algorithms count the number of people who use the hashtag or the term. This is why starting a “trend” is not as easy as it looks. However, if you are keen on targeting your followers’ interests, then you just might succeed through it.

3. Pinterest

If the theme of your blog relies heavily on visual material like fashion, food, travel, arts, and adventure you may have an easier chance of fitting in. Don’t forget to feature a Pinterest plug-in on your pages so that readers can easily “Pin” your content on their boards.

Pinterest

4. Showcase Social Media Icons

It should not be difficult for your readers to share, like, repost, or tweet about your post. Show these buttons as prominently as possible on the page.

Social Media Icons

5. Get Your Name Out There

You’re a complete nobody when you first start out.  It’s great having ‘Mom follow along’ but in order to create a successful blog you need a solid readership.  In the initial stages, one of the easiest ways to attract this for your site is to become a fully immersed in the blogging community.  Commenting, tweeting, stumbling, and promoting the work of others is the name of the game.  It’s all about being a ‘team player’ and hoping that others eventually reciprocate.  The blogging community is, for the most part, full of incredible people willing to help one another out.

6. Embed Videos from YouTube

This is an effective way to diversify your posts. Instead of just lengthy texts or the usual horde of images, you can embed one of your YouTube videos into the article. This increases the number of views for that particular media and it will also generate links to your site. That is, if you include a link in the video description.

I included a video in my Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Manta post and it became one of the most popular posts.

7. HubSpot Marketing Grader

A free site that grades your blog and offers suggestions for improvement in three categories:
Top of the Funnel: Creating, optimizing, and promoting content are keys to filling the top of your sales and marketing funnel with more website traffic and leads. The good news is that companies who create, optimize and promote their blogs get 55% more traffic and 70% more leads than those who don’t.
Middle of the Funnel: The middle of the funnel is all about converting the traffic you get into prospects and leads and then nurturing your leads and prospects in order to make it more likely that they will become customers. You do this by using landing pages, blogs, conversion forms, email marketing and social media.
Analytics Measuring your successes (and failures) is the only way to know what marketing activities are working for you. If you can’t measure how many visits, leads and customers your different campaigns generate, you need to reevaluate how you’re measuring your activities.

***Sites that Measure/Rank Your Blog***
1. http://marketing.grader.com/
2. http://klout.com/#/LesleyMCarter
3. http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/lesleycarter.wordpress.com#

Social Media Suggestions:
1. http://www.facebook.com/BucketListPublicationsMagazine
2. https://twitter.com/LesleyMCarter
3. http://pinterest.com/bucketlistpub
4. Instagram

Do you have others? Please feel free to share them below.

What tips worked for you? What things helped you remain focused? Are you an authority in the industry? We’d love to read your suggestions. We are a community and we can grow in success together.

79 thoughts on “Social Media and Your Blog”

  3. My blog’s 9 months old and I can see more and more people being interested in it after every post. I still don’t have THAT many followers but I used some of your suggestions from the “10 Great Ways to Get Noticed as a Blogger” post, like creating the pinterest profile and the facebook fanpage and I can really say that it helps in getting more traffic. I hope it’s gonna get better and better every day, and I wish you the same!:)

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  6. I’ve found these tips to be pretty helpful myself. In the past year I’ve been able to reach a total of 75 followers with my music blog, and one of the main things I did was to start a sort of daily post called the “Music Nerd Moment Of the Day”, which has helped to increase my followers, site traffic and more. I want to do a whole lot more, create more blogs and get more notice so I will use these tips. Thanks so much!

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    • Daily posts are excellent. It keeps your content fresh and gives something new for your readers. I hope you continue to grow in success. What’s your favorite form of social media?

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      • I’d probably have to say Twitter, though I try to stay engaged in Facebook and Instagram, and they’ve been of great benefit to me helping me get my name out. How about you?

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  7. Thanks for sharing more tips!

    There are a couple things that I do in addition. I like to use Google + I know many people don’t but when posting on the sit along with appropriate hash tags I saw an increase in views. I think using Google + helps your post become more noticeable on the Google search engine. It’s worked for others as well.

    Also I have linked my posts to Paperblog. It’s a site that essentially reports your material for free along with a link to your blog. The site is sort of an online magazine and I’m happy to be partnered with them.

    Lastly, and I know you’ve mentioned this in the past, try to respond to every comment. If I am looking at your posts and I see a bunch of comments and no responses I will think you don’t care to engage with others. I’m less likely to continue reading your material.

    Hope this helps. 🙂

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    • I use Google+ as well; totally forgot to mention that one! Good call.

      Responding to every comment has become impossible, but I try. (It’s a wonderful problem to have; don’t get me wrong.) 😉

      Great suggestions.

      Wishing you a lifetime of success,

      Lesley

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      • What I meant to say was that you see the author does their best to comment. I totally understand it’s not feasible to respond to every comment, but I would be turned off by a blog in which the author never responded to any comment.
        I think you in particular do a great job in responding to comments. Especially in light of your problem 😉

        I will have to find you on Google + 🙂

        I wish you and your beautiful family a lifetime of happiness and great health :). Thanks for being an inspiration!

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  11. Fab post as always. Great tips!

    The one thing I would like to comment on is, readability. Readability is all about page design, whitespace, colour and simply how user friendly the page is. Personally, if I can’t find the like or comment sections, or the colour is too dark, etc, I move on to other blogs very rapidly.

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  15. Thanks for your suggestions… I’m happy to say I figured most of them out for myself. But I certainly want to ditto #5. Being a part of the global blogging community is not only helpful, it’s pretty fun too!! Love your blog btw!!

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  16. Pingback: Social Media and Your Blog | unknowinglee

  17. Thanks, Leslie, with all the other things I do I feel like I have five full time jobs… and I keep telling myself I must take the time to work on getting my blog out into the world… maybe your post will give me the motivation! I would be stupid not to take the advice of the most successful blogger out there!

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  19. I do think though, that no matter your initiatives, if the quality is not there then neither will the readers be there. Your site is successful for its content, its passion and its outstanding quality in content. Somehow I think even if you stopped marketing, people would still come…

    This post was a great how-to source though!

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  21. I am going to need to have to ponder in my proverbial workshop for a while to see how to follow your brilliant suggestions.
    I have been wondering how to get more of my friends to read my blog and I think the advice will help. Cheers!

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  23. Great tips, Lesley! How did you go about creating your Facebook fan page? Is it linked to your personal account. I’ve been wanting to create fan pages for my two blogs, but don’t want them linked to my personal account. Any advise on that? Thanks and look forward to seeing more posts from you 🙂

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  27. Consistency also helps. If people who have read your blog know when you are apt to post again, then they will re-visit your blog on those days. For me, I try to post on Tuesdays/Fridays (work permitting).

    I automatically post to 2 Twitter accounts as well as my own Tumblr account. But I have been thinking about a Facebook page as well. But I do appreciate the other tips as well. 🙂

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  29. thanks so much for this info! I have been getting frustrated recently as I can’t get over about 100 readers a day. I am using a Facebook page, have a tied in Twitter account and joined Bloglovin. I should probably work Pinterest more.

    I have daily and weekly features too. Don’t know what I am doing wrong. But I continue to plug away. Think I will try the Hub Spot and I know I need to do a better job of commenting and liking… I want to be a great blogger, I really do! LOL

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  30. I always find I’m scared to comment and share other people’s work. I don’t know why, but I think that’s my biggest hindrance as far as becoming part of the community. You’d think putting my stuff out there was scary, but it’s the conversations that daunt me in the end.

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  36. Great tips. Having a blog is similar to having a business-constant work and constantly needing to find outlets to promote yourself. Sometimes it’s overwhelming!

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  38. This is amusing to me only because what you’re saying is 100% correct and what I tell the companies who hire me to do their marketing. And then I don’t consistently do it for my own site! Grrr….. I have to also get over not feeling competent with video and risk it anyway. Not being competent about blogging didn’t stop me from trying that!

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  41. Lesley!

    An amazing post! As I checked > HubSpot Marketing Grader has incredible insights in websites. Thanks so much for that one! Now I am off to win your Tahiti ticket 😉 haha! Till the next one, Safe Travels! Lars #livingmydream

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    • And I still forgot my one question..(typical..) You have any idea, when blogging for 3, 6, 12 months, 2 years, 3 years etc where your blog should be at. What kind of numbers? It such a hard question I know, but when do you know your on the right path?!

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  43. I found this really interesting, Thankyou. i’m going to go back to the first one you mentioned and try and put them to use.Im finding it extremely difficult to reach people and fear that i may over do the posts and the few people who actually like and share them may mute me.I’ve got Google+ and facebook, this and my website itself, Pinterest twitter, Flickr but its all so over whelming how to manage them all consistently and on a budget of zero the only option as far as i can see with regards to promoting my productsand at least get some activity is to rely on the share buttons. Unfortunately i can count on one hand the friends who actually go that one extra keystroke and press it. So, after another jibe today followed by an hour of mocking in the guise of questions such as ‘How’s business?’ coming from behind a grin, i had decided to close everything but thanks to this article, which i would never of seen had it not been for your liking my post,i think i will try and keep it going a while longer. Thank you for the tips and also for taking the time to read myBlog.
    Now i’m off to find a blog with tips on how to grow a thick skin

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  44. Your excellent post came on the same day that another blogger recommended Michael Hyatt`s book “Platform: How to get Heard in a Noisy World” I can highly recommend the free sample from Kindle! Also his website michaelhyatt.com.

    I will definitely buy his book because it`s not just about improving one`s blog but improving any product for any marketplace.

    And that`s key. I am really interested in all of your marketing strategies as you`ve outlined above but I need to write a better blog first. Otherwise I am only marketing my blog failures. 😦

    But you`ve got a great product here!

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  45. Pingback: Social Media and Your Blog | Library of Erana

  47. Pingback: New Page For On The Upcycle on Facebook | On The Upcycle~

  49. Great post Lesley, it’s filled with great tips that I will be using. I have found that it is hard to balance everything as I grow and your tips will really help me organize my blog.
    Enjoy the summer.
    Nikk

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  50. Thank you for the HubSpot suggestion!! I looked into it a little last night and came away with a wealth of information I can be doing differently.

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