If you spend your precious time writing quality content, do you reap all the benefits from your content marketing? If the answer is “no” or “I am not sure”, then you may not be marketing your content effectively.
Let us ask some questions before diving into the content. Do you want more social traffic to your blog posts? Do you wonder how to tailor your blog post shares for each network?
It is evident that you have worked really hard to get where you are. Running a website and preparing content requires lots of hard work - and that's not even counting the challenges, learning curves, and late nights you have endured in the process of getting where you are now. Blogging always sounds quite common and easy at the first stage. But bear in mind that there is already something written or prepared about it for every topic you can think of. It means that there are thousands of blog posts, but does the number matter?
Yes, it matters. You should know your competitors and get people to read your blog among tons of articles. Blogging is the soul of digital marketing because each post targets more readers and visitors. However, sharing the post on social media once and hoping for the best, sadly, won't work as you expect.
In the previous article, we have talked about content writing strategies to grab people's attention. This article will talk about effectively sharing the blog post on social media to get recognized and drive traffic to your WordPress website.
What is sharing a blog post on social media?
People share several types of content: business minds and informative blog posts. Unlike business websites, it does not make sense to promote blog posts through paid advertisements unless you don't earn money from them. In this case, what other options do you need to choose? The answer is SEO and social media marketing.
If you don't know what SEO is and how it works on blog posts, we recommend checking this article beforehand. But in this article, we will focus on social media marketing strategies and explore how to promote your blog post on different social media platforms.
Sharing your blog post on social media will improve the quality and reader number as well as drive traffic to it. This is done through various social media interactions, such as hashtags, tagging, etc. A few years ago, it was easy to get engagement and reactions on social media, but in recent years, the algorithms have changed, and now it is almost impossible to reach a big audience without ads.
In previous years there was only one way to grow and get noticed:
- Blogging every day
- Building an audience through email or RSS subscriptions
- Increasing position in search results by SEO optimization tools
- Waiting some time
The hardest part was admittedly number 4. People had no clue when they would get noticed, and their content drove traffic. But it was before social media, as nowadays, social networks dominate online news distribution.
The frustration, pain and suffering you feel when your blog doesn't drive enough traffic will be replaced by the happiness, contentment and satisfaction of driving targeted traffic through your social media channels. If it sounds exciting, this article will teach you how to effectively promote your blog posts on social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Let’s get started!
1. Useful content
Before starting talking about social media publishing strategies, you need to understand the logic of quality content. This is an essential step to create and promote your website content.
People consume content that makes them appear cool and sophisticated when they share it with their network. In brief, people don't prefer to share everything. Therefore, your content must be valuable and informative, containing unique information rarely found anywhere else.
Nowadays, it is almost impossible to find a topic idea that is not published anywhere else. Content is everywhere, but people on social media expect to be surprised and entertained by what you share with them. Even if your content is available elsewhere, the way you present it will make all the difference.
Although the quality of the content matters, headlines, titles and images also must be intriguing and attention killer. The naming of the blog post should be exciting to be liked and shared by people. Also, it must give an impression about the content that demonstrates its importance to reading. If your blog lacks a unique or recognizable image at the top, people will have a less favorable opinion of it. This means that they're less likely to share it. Therefore, we recommend using attractive, outstanding, and relevant images for your blog content.
2. Integrate your website into social media
In recent years, the popularity of social media has increased. Therefore, most business owners create social media channels for their websites and promote their products/services/content. You have to build a bridge between your WordPress website and social media.
The easiest way is to add social media buttons to establish a connection between your WordPress website and social media. People who visit your WordPress website need a way to easily connect with your content and share it on their social media profiles.
However, you have to be careful when adding social media buttons to your website. If you don't have an audience on one platform, do not use its social media button at the first stage. For instance, if you promote your website on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, only use their share buttons to make them worthwhile.
Adding too many buttons on your website may affect readers' engagement with your content and, as a result, the number of social shares. Bear in mind sharing buttons do not come with WordPress by default. It means you have to use either a plugin or theme function to enable this feature. Adding too many social media buttons also will decrease your website's loading speed performance. Try to keep the button count minimal to have the best experience for you and your audience.
3. Share your blog posts across your social media channels
If you are new to the WordPress environment or blogging, you might see that you don't have enough audience to read your content. Even in the very beginning, no one will read your blog posts. In this case, instead of waiting to get recognized, go to the audience.
There are various ways to bring readers to your website. But one of the easiest ways to drive traffic to your WordPress website is by sharing your blog posts on as many social media platforms as you can. If you are doing this step already, then take notes about the below-mentioned social media sharing strategy:
- Be consistent - Yes, consistency will bring you new readers from time to time. It requires discipline and effort, but being consistent will demonstrate that you work hard on your project and care for your readers. You can use the scheduling features of any social media website to be consistent and publish every day.
- Automate your workflow - Automation will reduce your time on sharing blog posts on social media. Many WordPress plugins will help you schedule and auto-post the blog post as soon as it is ready. We recommend you use the FS-Poster plugin for this purpose. FS-Poster is a top-rated WordPress auto poster and posts scheduling plugin. You can post automatically to 13+ social networks straight from your WordPress dashboard.
- Determine the optimal time for posting - Social media algorithms work differently than you expect. If you constantly share your blog posts on social media, analytics and data reports must be your friends. You have to track audience behavior on your page and determine when they are active and engaging in your content. This is important, primarily if you use scheduling features or auto-share plugins on your website.
- Use attention killer images - Images are the number one element that grabs people's attention to the content. When you share a blog post on social media, write a brief description along with the relevant image. The content can be the same as a meta description for search engines. These words should motivate people to read the post and share it. Bear in mind, today many social media websites use the default image of a blog post. If you don't want to deal with different images for the same blog post, choose the featured image wisely for the post in advance.
- Use hashtags - Today, hashtags play an essential role to reach more people beyond your audience capacity on your social media channels. Admittedly, using hashtags may reach people who don't know about your website or have never interacted before. Hashtags are important, particularly if you share your blog posts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Hashtags will improve your blog's findability and help people discover your website or social media channels.
4. Ask for help from others
If you are new in this journey, you will need time to get recognized and earn income from your content. However, there is a way to accelerate this process. It is common sense to be aware of other bloggers in your niche and get their help or support. There are several ways to grab their attention and use their influences on your blog’s social media.
- Read and share - Simply follow other bloggers on social media. If you find the relevant post to your content, drop comments to appreciate or acknowledge the information shared. Mention their usernames (in Twitter particularly) while you post content to show how you are inspired to create from their insights.
- Link back to top bloggers - Create a list of top bloggers in your niche and link back to their content on your website. Most of them will acknowledge a link back and check out your blog post. After this step, it is up to them to return the favor similarly.
- Invite people to your website - Invite other people or bloggers in your niche to write quality content on your website. By doing this, you will expand your network and get recognized by your followers' audience. As guest bloggers, they will link back to your website and share the post with their audience on their social media channels.
- Join community groups - There are thousands of groups on social media. Find groups around your niche and make your content go viral by participating in mutual content distribution via these social media groups.
5. Convince people like, share, and bookmark
When people like or comment on your content, you get more engagement rate and reach more people. But people do not like or share the content unless they feel it is worth it. Therefore, the description and actual content must be consistent and perfect to be shared on social media. In addition, nowadays bookmarking features are trending in terms of getting more engagement. Especially, bookmarking helps Instagram reach more people, be suggested in the explore page, and be shown in the main feed.
People use this feature when they think this information will help them in the future. Therefore, your content must include a piece of information that convinces them to save it for the future. In order to make your presence on social media, you have to invest a little more time to work on strategies about a bookmark, like, comment or share. This will encourage increased activity for your own post bookmarks.
How to share and where to share?
Sharing your article on different social media channels is an integral part of your SEO strategy. We have a dedicated article about a monthly social media checklist explaining the main strategies and steps to follow up to reach more people. If you haven't checked the article yet, take your pen and notepad as we provided the necessary information.
Sharing on Facebook
Facebook posts can contain up to 10.000 characters, but only the first 480 characters are visible in the timeline. The rest are hidden behind the "see more" option. It means that you have to put the essence of your message into the first 480 characters. In brief:
- Facebook – posts 1-2 times per day. Depending on the content and audience, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are the best times to post. During the weekdays, 1 p.m. is the best time, but people engage less between 5 p.m. – 7 a.m. Avoid posting on Sundays.
Sharing on Twitter
Twitter is the first social media platform to introduce hashtags and @ tags for better search and networking options. After the last update, Twitter allows users to post up to 140 characters. Therefore, your content must be precise, definitive, and exciting, under 140 characters. Also, do not forget to include relevant hashtags, links, or images in your post. In brief:
- Twitter – posts 6-9 times per day. The best period for the posts is 9 a.m., but if you want to have more activities, you should post between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. You can post on Sundays, but we don’t recommend it because people always try to have family time during weekends.
Sharing on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the best platform to grow your network and reach professional people in your area. LinkedIn allows you to post on your profile, company and showcase pages, and groups. The maximum number of allowed characters is 600; however, only the first 150 characters are visible in the timeline. The rest are hidden under the "see more" option. LinkedIn social sharing and getting engagement is different from other social media channels. Getting more views or reaching more people depends on how often your post has been liked, shared, or commented on. Therefore, do not forget to include activity-building sentences or points on your posts. In brief:
- LinkedIn - posts 1-2 times per day. The most active period is weekdays. Overall, between 8 a.m. – 5 p.m., your posts will reach more people depending on your network activity.
Sharing on Instagram
Recently, Instagram has become a more popular social media platform to produce content and sell products. Instagram presents images in a single stream. It has unique square sizes for photos, so you don't have to deal with the right size and dimensions of images. Most interactions occur within the first few hours of posting unless the post is not promoted. Captions can contain up to 2200 characters, of which only the first three lines are displayed in the news feed.
Therefore, you must include the most critical information in the first 155 characters. Hashtags are essential on Instagram and may bring you more people from time to time. Use keywords of your blog post as hashtags, so people in your area can find you easily.
Instagram does not allow you to post URLs; however, you can include URLs on the bio section of the page. In brief:
- Instagram – posts 1-3 times per day. It is the same as Facebook; however, start posting after 10 a.m. as people become more active later in the day.
To find out more, check this article.
Final remarks
Technology is advancing at a rapid pace-it's essential to stay up to date with new trends so you can keep your blog marketing strategy relevant.
Sharing your blog posts on social media is a lot of fun, and it really does bolster your blog's traffic. To do this, you just need to use the functionalities that social media offers, and you're bound to see an increase in traffic.
To achieve success, here are our recommendations:
Start off with one or two blog promotion strategies to determine which one works for you. Share your blog post everywhere to determine which platform brings you more visitors. Try not to be too hasty when eliminating a strategy, as some might take longer to work than others.
Eventually, you will find your niche and get recognized by the time.