- June 18, 2013
- Posted by: Vishal Shah
- Category: Social Networking
You’ve invested hours into researching, drafting, writing, editing, and polishing up your blog post. It could be your first-ever blog post or your hundredth – either way, you could benefit from more traffic. Few blogs want to stay in the small pond with a couple of dedicated readers forever! If your goal is to grow your blog, you need traffic, and while writing consistently will help with that, frequency won’t do it all. Here are ten ways you can drive traffic from social media sites to your newest content
Get Facebook traffic first.
The biggest, most influential social website is Facebook. It makes sense to promote your content there first! When you post the URL on Facebook to your friends or followers, try to include a description, discussion, or comment. Something behind-the-scenes or something that asks a question is more likely to receive a like or a comment than just the URL. You may be able to share the URL in groups or pages, and good content will get lots of shares from others.
Use Google Plus for good measure.
Some people never visit Google Plus, but enough people are regular contributors that the culture there is very free with giving +1s to great content. Groups there will allow you to share your link, too, and having your content there is great for search engine rankings. Google seems to look at Google Plus as a factor in their rankings.
Twitter is not just for tweeps.
Even if you’re not a regular tweep (a Twitter user), you can benefit from posting your content on Twitter. You can generate great short comments, retweets, discussion, and favorites on your tweets if you post links to your new content. Don’t spam with only your own links – make sure you share others’ content and engage in discussions.
StumbleUpon your stuff, but others’ stuff too.
You have to be even more cautious with StumbleUpon not to only submit your own things. You should stumble at least four things from other people for every one thing from yourself. This kind of promotion can quickly go viral, but it depends on your niche. Some people swear by it and others experience little to no success.
Look at LinkedIn as another option.
Sharing your content on social media sites shouldn’t stop with the “fun” sites. This business and professional site is great for any content that relates to professional topics, and you’d be surprised how much that can be. If your content is aimed at the B2B niche, you’re golden. Otherwise, try to share tips, comments, or advice that would benefit the audience where you’re posting your content. You can share your content in relevant groups or in your own status updates.
Drive traffic with YouTube videos.
The art of using videos to get traffic to your blog posts is a fine one. You might need to embed a slideshow or short presentation about your topic in the post, hosting it on YouTube and conveniently choosing great keywords and tags for your video while you’re at it. Make sure you post a link to the final blog post in the description so people can see the rest of the post.
Add pictures for Pinterest traffic.
You should already be using photos with each of your blog posts. If you aren’t, it’s time to start now! You can find royalty-free images for cheap or free online, then add one to each post. Pin the image from the post on Pinterest and repin others’ images on your own boards in order to build a curated collection of relevant content. People will often return the favor by pinning your content.
Automate your social submissions.
If you can’t always be at your computer, use a program like HootSuite to manage your marketing efforts. You can automate your social submissions to many different sites by using this tool in order to repost your latest content a few times at different times of the day. This means people who won’t see it the first time might see it the second or third time.
Check out your website statistics.
When you start doing these things on a regular basis, you will quickly see what websites are giving you the best payoff. Spend more time on these sites – the ones that give you the most traffic – and only do the bare minimum on other sites for other website posts in this niche. Certain niches just don’t work well with certain social media sites.
Keep your content worthy of sharing.
It’s easy to get lazy and post a poor-quality post just for the sake of posting something so you can share it. Make sure you don’t fall into this trap! Everything you post should be worthy of having your mother or your best friend share it. If they wouldn’t, why would someone who doesn’t even know you?
Getting traffic from social media sites is one of the preferred methods of marketing today. Social media makes it easy to spread the word without relying on search engine rankings, as fickle as they are. Better yet, if you get good social media traction, it will also boost your search engine rankings and help keep them from drastic rises and falls when your competitors publish new content.
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Michael Keeler enjoys sharing his social media knowledge through blogging. Visit the http://clearbroadbandinternet.com website for information on internet speed.