How to promote blog content on social

Recently, I wrote about how important blogging and other forms of inbound marketing are to any company’s Public Relations strategy. Creating valuable, useful content for your audience is a guaranteed way to keep them coming back to your site (and it’s a helluva lot cheaper than paying per click or other types of advertising).

Build it and they will come?

Here’s the thing, the mantra ‘content is king’ was repeated ad nauseum over the last decade, to the point where people thought creating engaging content was all they needed to do to build successful blogs.

Unfortunately, that’s just not the case. There are 75.6 million blogs hosted on WordPress alone and 59.3 million posts are added to WordPress each month. In other words, the competition is fierce.

So yes, you need to write great posts. But that’s nowhere near enough. Promoting your content properly is vital, and well worth spending time on. Most of us already promote blog content on our own Facebook and Twitter feeds, but that means we’re relying on those who already follow us to read, share and engage with our content.

How can we reach new audiences and promote our content more widely?

Here are 5 suggestions to get 1,000 views (or more!) on your next post.

1. Join the five largest Facebook groups that relate to your topic

   From fashion and beauty to sports and gaming, from entrepreneurship and public relations to photography and travel, there are groups on Facebook with thousands and sometimes tens of thousands of members. Find the groups that are most relevant to your blog, and you’ve got a ready-made audience.

   Rules of engagement: Different groups will have different rules for posting on their walls. Some designate a specific thread for blog posts, others only allow certain topics, while some may require admin approval. Scope it out before you post.

2. Participate in all relevant subreddits on Reddit

   Reddit is a global forum and messaging board with groupings known as subreddits for almost every topic imaginable. It has 234 million unique users and more than 850,000 subreddits.

   Find and join the subreddits that are relevant to your blog post. Reddit operates a system of upvotes and downvotes, and users are quick to punish those who link-dump (i.e. post your blog without engaging with the forum and disappear). Subreddits are little communities, so comment on other people’s threads, ask questions and engage actively so that you’re not seen as a spammer.

   Rules of engagement: The rule of thumb on Reddit is that only one in ten of your posts should be self-promotional. Some subreddits have additional rules outlined in their sidebar, so make sure to follow those too.

 

3. Use striking imagery to win traffic from Instagram and Pinterest

The human mind processes images more quickly than words. Beautiful photos, inspiring quotes and/or interesting infographics are essential to a high-traffic post. They help your audience to contextualise your words, and make your posts significantly more sharable. This is especially important on sites that focus more strongly on visual elements, like Instagram and Pinterest.

Rules of engagement: Instagram allows a link to your blog from your profile page, so you can direct your followers there from each photo you post. On Pinterest, you can create specific boards related to your post topics, and post to group boards to widen your audience. Both channels are well-suited to lifestyle posts in particular.

By using any one of these strategies to promote blog content, you’re likely to see an uptick in site traffic. If you combine all five with some truly awesome content, you’re guaranteed to hit the 1,000 mark and likely exceed it. You’ll find a brand new, global audience for your content.

Give it a try and then come back and let me know what happened in the comments.

If you found this post useful, chances are someone else in your network will too – hit share!

ABOUT KATIE HARRINGTON

 Katie Harrington is a Communications and Content Creator based in Dublin, Ireland. Her e-book, Strategic Communications: The Science Behind the Art launched in November 2016. Katie has worked with global brands including Accenture, EY, Emirates Airline, and Allianz, as well as in the Irish parliament and Qatar’s semi-government oil and gas company Nakilat.