How I Use Social Media To Increase Traffic To My Blog
Be like Tyrion Lannister and go get yourself a drink, because this is going to be a long post!
This post actually started out as a WhatsApp message to my friend Bella; she was feeling a bit down about her blog and wasn’t sure what to do to help it grow. I just casually asked if she wanted me to send over my social media tips and the strategy I’ve been using over the last few months to help myself grow.
Cue the longest WhatsApp message I’ve ever sent in my life!
I’ve had a post like this on my “to write” list for months now, but with university deadlines, Christmas and illnesses, I’ve not actually had time to write it. So I decided to use the message as a draft for this post.
Minus the 100+ emojis.
I’ve seen a huge increase in my blog views in recent months; starting back in October when I had my first month with over 1,000 views. I wrote this post here about what I’d done to help reach that number, but though I’d expand on those points (plus add some new ones) in a bit of follow up post.
I’m thinking of writing dedicated, in depth posts on how to set up and use both Pinterest and StumbleUpon specifically; if that’s something you’d be interested in reading, let me know in the comments!
While I do have a dedicated Facebook page for my blog, which you find here if you’re interested, I find that I don’t get much interaction on it. The main way I use Facebook is in blogging groups; they have weekly threads where you can promote a specific thing such as your latest blog post, Instagram or Pinterest links. I’ve gained over 100 followers on Instagram this month just from taking the time to participate in them more than I used to.
Some of my favourites are;
Freelance Heros- https://www.facebook.com/groups/freelanceheroes
Boss Girl Bloggers- https://www.facebook.com/groups/BossGirlBloggers
Creative Superheros- https://www.facebook.com/groups/182622742089243/?ref=group_browse_new
The Mindfulpreneur Community with Zoe Linda- https://www.facebook.com/groups/blogbffs
Twitter is one of my favourite ways to promote my own blog and to engage with other bloggers. Don’t be scared of posting promoting tweets too often; tweets go past so quickly they very rarely get seen, especially by people who follow quite a few people. As a general rule I’ll post about 4/5 promotional tweets a day when a new post goes a live and 2/3 times on other days. I try and mix things up a bit in case people do see more than one of them; promoting an older post and a different social media channel for example.
I also try and join in twitter chats whenever I can. I recently wrote a post on why I love them so much and a schedule of when my favourites are on, which I’d recommend checking out. Also keep an eye out on hashtags like #bloggerswanted for “trains”.
These are basically threads where people post their links to a specific site such as their blog or Instagram. Not only is it a great way to meet new people and find awesome new accounts to follow, but I’ve gained over 100 new followers on Instagram last week just by being more active and participating in them!
This is the bane of most peoples lives at the moment! It’s so hard to grow on here, I seem to loose 10 followers for every 15 I gain and thanks to the feed no longer being chronological, the people that do follow me hardly ever seem to see my posts!
Maria J has a great post on why she stopped “trying” to gain instagram followers and how it actually resulted in her gaining followers, which I think is really worth a read.
I’ll try and post consistently and at roughly the same time of day, as I find this helps the post be seen. While I don’t purposely have a theme going, I tend to edit my photos the same way and use the same props, so I guess I end up with an unintentional one regardless.
I also use a selection of hashtags that are popular but not so popular that your photos will get hidden within seconds. I put them in a comment, rather than in the post itself and I’ve noticed I seem to get a lot more likes since I started doing this.
That might just be sheer dumb luck though…
Pinterest Group Boards are life! I would honestly recommend joining as many relevant ones as you can and making a dedicated Pinterest graphic for every post you write.
I’ll put mine underneath this section so you can see an example and I’d recommend using Canva to make it, as thats where I make mine. They have lots of templates that you can use if you aren’t particularly artistic and its all drag and drop based so its really user friendly.
Pin your graphic to these group boards but don’t spam them and make sure to follow any group rules that might be in the description. I would also really recommend having a board dedicated to your blogs pins. You can follow mine here. I’ve found its really helpful, especially if your pin is picked up and pinned to a lot of boards. I’ve even had people tell me that they found my blog through my dedicated Pinterest board and that they followed it so they’d be able to see my posts in the future.
If you’re looking for a group board to join, I have one called Creators Clan, which you can request to join here.
What is your favourite social media site for diving traffic to your blog?
28 responses to “How I Use Social Media To Increase Traffic To My Blog”
What are your thoughts? Let me know!
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Loved this post! Nicely done 💕
http://www.thetravelbugster.com
Thanks! 🖤
Oo this was super helpful! I need to use stumble upon more x
Thank you! I only found about it last year but its been a great help 🙂 x
Very interesting! Especially for someone like me who is new to blogging and social media, I agree I prefer twitter as well!
Soffy // themumaffairs.blogspot.com
I’m glad you found it helpful 🙂
A really useful post! I find Facebook groups so invaluable!!
Thank you lovely! I love some of the groups I’m in, they can be really helpful and supportive places 🙂
Couldn’t agree more 👍🏻
Love this Hun such a good post I love Facebook groups they’re so handy. Xxx
Thanks hun! They really are 🙂 xx
A great post and after reading this I want to use Pinterest more!
Some really great tips! I feel like I’m missing out on using Facebook, but for the moment I’m anonymous. Maybe one day I’ll get to join in on blogging groups!
Tori | JustTheBeginning-x.com
Latest blog post: Blogging – How I stay motivated
Thanks 😊 glad to know I’ve helped inspire you!
Ah that could be difficult then 😕 I hope you manage to find a way to use them if that’s something you feel you want to do! They’re really helpful and supportive places and you don’t have to actively talk in them if you don’t feel comfortable at the beginning- it took me weeks to even just post my link haha x
great post. and good tips. i need to figure out pinterest., mine is not working.
Thanks so much for this post, it’s super helpful 💖. I’ve just requested to join the pinterest board FB group as I have no clue how to find boards so hopefully that will get me started. I also agree that Twitter is such a great way to grow your blog ☺️. Thank you for all the insta hashtags too! You wouldn’t believe how useful all this is! Excellent post! 😘 xx
Bexa | http://www.hellobexa.com
You’re welcome lovely, glad to help! ☺️ that page is really helpful, you’ll see me popping up in it I’m sure 🙈 I’m thinking of opening on of my own boards up so if I do you’re more than welcome to join that ☺️ I’m glad you found the hashtags helpful; I remember never been able to find any when I was looking so wanted to include the ones I use as I know how frustrating it can be! 😘 xx
So helpful! I love finding new ways to attract more readers.
Good post. Being active on social media is a great blog building tool.
I just found out about Twitter chats. I am going to try and join 3 a week. I will also give StumbleUpon a try.
Thanks! Glad you found it helpful 🙂
It is although it can be hard for introverts to be as active on social media
Good luck with the twitter chats 🙂 I hardly get to join one a week now I’m so busy- I actually kind of miss them!
Love this post! Would love to see dedicated ones on how you use StumbleUpon and Pinterest!
Niamh | http://thetwopigs.com
Thank you! And I’ll try and create separate posts then as a few people have said they’d be interested 😊
This was a really great post and I’ve learned so much from it.
Thanks you Hun, I’m glad you found it useful! ☺️