It’s never been easier to start a blog. There are many tools and resources that make it simple to get up and running. Growing your blog audience is more challenging but not impossible. Thankfully, social media can help bridge the gap and get your blog the attention it deserves.
Social media’s role in growing your blog
If you want to get new readers to your blog, you need to get your content in front of new people. There are more than 4.55 billion people scrolling through social media platforms every day, meaning the platforms are full of potential readers.
People use social media platforms to connect with others with common interests and share information they find important, helpful, or entertaining. When you post your content and interact with others through social media, it increases your online presence and the chance of others sharing your content as well. Social media helps improve your SEO by people sharing your content. This leads to more readers and an increase in revenue opportunities for your blog.
You can use the platforms to drive traffic back to your blog directly through shared links. Social media accounts also allow you to share your blog link in your profile so people who find your posts interesting can read your profile and easily visit your website.
Staying active on social media provides you with an additional opportunity to interact with your audience and potential readers. Their posts and comments afford you instant access to key reader insights, including their interests and needs. It allows you to stay up-to-date with the trends and see what areas you can create additional content in to further engage your target audience.
Creating a social media strategy that works
Now that you understand the impact social media can have on your blog, it’s time to create a social media strategy.
Choose your social media platforms
Don’t try to be everywhere at once. It’s easy to overwhelm yourself and burn out if you try to create a presence on every social media platform. Do research to discover where your target audience is spending their time. Each platform is unique, so it’s important to choose the ones that make the most sense for your niche.
Limit yourself to one or two platforms to get started. Once you have a good understanding of the platform and are consistently posting, you can explore the idea of adding platforms if it makes sense for your blog.
Set specific goals
It’s easy to waste time and effort on social media when you don’t have goals in place. Choose one or two specific goals to focus on, such as:
- Get X number of visitors from social media to the blog by [date]
- Get X number of followers and engagement by [date]
When choosing goals for social media, make sure they align with your overall blogging goals. Having thousands of followers on social media is not as useful as you may think. If you’re not purposeful in how you’re interacting with followers, that number becomes a vanity metric.
Get to know your target audience
Understanding your target audience is vital to the success of your blog. You want to have a good understanding of their online behaviors and what keeps their attention. Some audiences prefer short-form videos such as TikTok and Instagram Reels. Other demographics and audiences prefer reading useful content. Some watch videos with the sound on, and others read the subtitles.
The better you know your audience, the easier it will be for you to create social media content that connects with them. It’s helpful to browse other social media channels to get a feel for what’s trending, what’s working, and what’s not.
Create a social media calendar
Once you determine what content your audience loves to connect with on social media, you’ll want to create a scheduling calendar. Similar to blogging, consistency is key on social platforms. You will not benefit from posting once and then disappearing for weeks at a time.
Create a calendar on a monthly or quarterly basis so you can batch your content as you go. Include content ideas and topics along with what social media platform you will post on. Pay attention to the best times to post on each social media platform for the best reach and engagement.
Remember to schedule in time to interact with your followers as well. The key to success on social media is being social. Interacting in the comments allows you to build relationships with your followers which helps them trust you more. It also allows you to show your expertise as you answer questions.
Don’t be shy when it comes to engaging with your online community. It’s not a one-way street, so make sure you like, comment, and repost their content as well (when it makes sense in your niche). You can even collaborate with others in your industry to help expand your reach.
Track your results
Data is only valuable when you use it to your benefit. Tracking performance across your social media platforms can help you understand how your brand is performing with your ideal audience, how they are engaging, and how you are growing. This will help formulate plans for future content.
For tracking, analytics will be essential! Most social media platforms have this built into their site to make it easy for you. You should review this data to help make educated business decisions for your content and blog.
When something doesn’t deliver the way you planned, you can use data to understand how to improve your approach. Don’t worry if your numbers aren’t immediately where you want them to be. With consistency and dedication, you will get where you want to go.
Tools for your social media strategy
There are many tools that can make implementing your social media strategy faster and easier. Here are just a few examples from an article we wrote previously on the topic:
- SparkToro is an intelligent tool to help you discover what your ideal audience likes to read, listen to, and watch. It even provides information on who they like to follow, what they are likely to share, and what they’re talking about online.
- Ritetag will keep you on-trend with the latest buzzwords and hashtags so your post lands right in front of your intended audience. This is really helpful for seeing what kind of exposure you have the potential of getting without doing a lot of labor-intensive research.
- Socialbakers compares your social media content to that of others, to really highlight just how well your content is performing in terms of engagement. It also shows you what keywords, content, and information is being well-received across the web.
- Social Media Schedulers help with content planning and help you save time by batching your work. Popular options include Hootsuite, SproutSocial, and Tailwind.
Being Social
The best way to learn about your blog’s new best friend, social media, is to simply get started! With practice and time, you will learn how social media platforms can help grow your blog. Finding and interacting with the right audience is an important step in growing your blog into a trustworthy, fan-favorite destination.
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