You’ve got your blog up and running. You’re proud of your content and you want to share your brand with the world. Social media is the best way to do that, but you probably already know that.
But with all the popular social media platforms out there, it can be challenging to choose the ones to focus on. What are the factors you need to consider? Is it always about the numbers? Marketing your brand and your content on social media isn’t always as straightforward as following the crowd. There’s more to it, so let’s dive into the best social media platforms for bloggers.
Things to Keep in Mind
To construct the best social media strategy there are a few points you should keep in mind before you begin.
How Large is Your Social Media Audience?
In order for your social media strategies to work you need an audience. How many followers do you have? This is an important question to consider. You could put in hours of time creating high-quality posts but if your social media reach is small there isn’t going to be much of an impact on your blog. If you’ve only got 100 Instagram followers but over 1000 Facebook followers, it would be a good idea to focus your social media efforts on Facebook.
If your reach and network on social media aren’t as significant as you would like first spend time gaining followers.
How Active is Your Social Media Audience?
The more followers you have doesn’t always mean you’re going to see the best results. You may have thousands of Facebook followers but unless they are active Facebook followers you aren’t going to see an improvement in traffic to your site.
Make sure you focus on your active audience. Look for social media users who actively engage with communities and who are eager to discover new content and knowledge. That may mean concentrating on a platform where you have a lesser following but an engaged audience of 500 is far more effective than an inactive audience of 1000.
Which Social Media Platforms Suit Your Content?
This is a very important aspect to consider because it’s what a lot of bloggers get wrong. The biggest platforms may not always be the best platforms. Some bloggers might find incredible success through Facebook but that doesn’t necessarily mean you need to use Facebook too.
Do not approach a social media platform only by looking at the size of your audience there. Instead consider all the factors of your audience such as their engagement, the kind of content they prefer, and the types of content the platform supports.
The Best Social Media Platforms for Bloggers
There are a lot of social media platforms out there. So, to make it just a bit easier to navigate through let us consider 3 broad categories.
- The social media platforms you MUST join
- The social media platforms you COULD join
- The social media platforms you should also CONSIDER
The Best Social Media Platforms you MUST Join
These are the largest and most effective social media platforms for bloggers. Most bloggers use these avenues in some way.
This shouldn’t be a surprise. Facebook has about 2.8 billion monthly users so there’s no doubt it has a potentially massive audience for your content. The majority of Facebook users are active and that’s exactly what you’re looking for.
There are a number of ways you can use Facebook to promote your blog content. Perhaps the most obvious is to share your posts and content with your network. Directly messaging friends, family and co-workers is a great way to start. If they find your work interesting, you can ask them to share your content on their profiles too. Your audience is already expanding but with Facebook, you can go even further.
Facebook groups are extremely useful for bloggers. Identify at least 8 to 10 groups within your niche and share your content. Facebook groups dedicated to your interests are more likely to engage with and share your content.
LinkedIn may not be the first social media platform to come to mind but it’s more effective than you might think for bloggers. Yes, LinkedIn is not as large as some of the other platforms out there, but its user base is largely comprised of professionals. That means you build a credible and professional network by promoting your blog on this platform.
With over 720 million users, LinkedIn is not small by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, several bloggers use LinkedIn as their primary avenue to promote their content. The easiest approach with LinkedIn is to publish posts on your profile. People who land on your profile are led to your posts and then to your blog if they find it interesting. But you can do even more.
Like Facebook, you can find and join LinkedIn groups in your niche. The difference here is the members are most likely professionals in your niche. This can be a great way to get credible opinions and feedback for your blog as well. You can also directly message your connections and share your posts directly with your contacts.
Twitter is a great platform to widen your reach as well as a great platform to help you stay informed. Apart from being a social media platform, Twitter is used as a news source. You can Twitter as a helpful part of your research process with the latest news and updates in your niche.
You can also find influencers and professionals in your niche through Twitter. Tag users who might find your content interesting, or directly message them if you can. You can also use Twitter as a space to post snippets of content that would lead interested readers to check out your blog.
The Best Social Media Platforms you COULD Join
You may not need to use these social media platforms but if it suits your content these platforms have massive audience numbers that you could take advantage of.
If you’re targeting a younger audience, Instagram is definitely a platform worth considering. Roughly 60% of Instagram users are within the age group of 18 to 34 and users spend about 30 minutes a day on the platform. If that sounds like your audience, Instagram should be a part of your social media strategy.
Instagram is the perfect place to convey your brand and content through images and videos. This is a quick and easy way to promote your blog and it’s far more likely to appeal to a younger audience.
You can also use Instagram stories to give your followers quick updates. However, apart from what you post you can also find other members in your niche. Find a community and engage by liking posts and commenting.
Instagram allows you to promote yourself and express your interests and passions. Knowing the blogger is just as important as knowing the blog for your audience.
YouTube
Promoting your blog through videos can help you reach an even wider audience. On average1 billion hours of video content are watched on the platform daily.YouTube helps you reach people who find video content easier to consume than a written post.
It also opens avenues for the kind of content you produce. You can produce reviews, demonstrations, and other forms of video content that already has a massive following on the platform.
This might take a little more time and effort compared to posting on other platforms. You need to consider the time you would take to shoot, edit, and finalize each project. However, you don’t need to be excessive. You can be successful on YouTube without fancy effects and fanfare provided you produce high-quality content that your target audience can connect with.
Like Instagram, Pinterest is a great place to visually communicate your brand and your content. Signing up for a business account for free is particularly helpful for bloggers. This allows you to track analytics and monitor the performance of your pins.
Creating high-quality, interesting pins with good descriptions is key to success on the platform. Find communities in your niche and create relevant pins to share. Posting consistently and maintaining the quality of your posts can help boost traffic to your blog. With over 450 million monthly users, Pinterest has a huge active audience you can tap into.
The Best Social Media Platforms You Should also CONSIDER
These may not be at the top of your priority list when it comes to social media strategy however, they can be remarkably effective and are certainly worth considering.
Reddit is a great place to find communities in your niche. With more than 430 million active monthly users the platform certainly has a huge audience. Find subreddits in your niche and engage with those communities. You may not be able to post your content directly on the platform but it’s still a great place to express your brand. If you’re targeting a younger audience, Reddit is particularly useful with the majority of users within the age range of 25 to 29.
Niche Social Media Sites
Apart from the major social media platforms you’ve probably heard of, you can also consider exploring niche social media sites. These are social media platforms dedicated to a certain niche.
These platforms aren’t nearly as large as the major platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, or Twitter but they could still be a place to find an audience. For example, if your niche is ‘books’, a great platform dedicated to readers is GoodReads. Here users share and review books. If that is relevant to your niche, GoodReads could be a fantastic place to find new leads.
Like GoodReads, there are several platforms that focus on a niche. Yes, their audience is smaller but it’s an audience that’s likely to engage with your blog.
Tips to Be Successful
Here are a few ways to take your social media strategies to the next level.
Use Social Sharing Buttons on Your Blog
It’s important to give your readers the opportunity to share your content through their social media channels. Make sure you include social sharing buttons with the content that you post on your blog.
However, it’s important to remember to focus and prioritize. Do not include too many buttons. As a rule of thumb choose three that you think are the best. Most bloggers include Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter buttons and if these are the platforms you want to focus on, only include those.
Too many buttons clog up your page, confuse readers, and they can also slow down your site. You might be tempted to include as many buttons as possible but it’s best to stick to three.
Use Hashtags
When it comes to social media, hashtags are one of the best ways to get popular. First, find the hashtags that are relevant to your niche and the content that you create. Look for the most popular hashtags within that area on the social media platforms that you choose to promote through.
Once you have a list of popular hashtags include them each time you post on social media. At the same time, you don’t want your posts to get overcrowded with hashtags so it’s a good idea to use about three hashtags per post.
Stick to a Schedule
As a blogger, it’s vital to be consistent. This helps you stay organized and conveys professionalism to your audience. Create a schedule to organize what and when you post on social media platforms.
Do not bombard your followers with multiple posts a day. At the same time don’t leave long periods of time between your posts. Find a balance that suits your content and that appeals to your target audience.
Conclusion
Social media platforms are powerful tools, that if used correctly can drastically improve traffic to your blog. However, it takes time, effort and requires research. As a blogger you know that drill pretty well so it’s vital you apply the same commitment to your social media strategies as well.