Blogging is one of the most effective digital marketing strategies of all time, giving rise to millions of bloggers globally. The trouble is that most of them are vying for your audience’s attention. 

There were over 31 million bloggers in the United States in 2020. That number is continuously rising, and so is your competition.

Writing and publishing a blog is only half the battle. All that hard work you put into creating high-quality content goes to waste if you don’t have a solid promotion strategy to help your blog reach the intended audience.

That’s why bloggers and content marketers would be better befriending social media! The right social media marketing tools can help increase your reach and give your blog a platform. Create a social media marketing plan that gets your blog posts read by the right people.

Here are 5 ways that marketers can leverage the help of social media for marketing and promotions:

Redirect People To Your Blog

No matter what social media platform you use, if you’re cross-promoting your blog, choose tactics and words that can attract an audience on each platform. For example, the way you address your audience on Instagram might be different from how you manage your contacts on LinkedIn.

Each social media platform has different options and tactics that you can use for promoting your content. However, a few things remain consistent, no matter what social media platform you’re on.

For example, make sure that each post has:

1. A Catchy Headline

A memorable title can give your blog post a competitive advantage over a swarm of other banal blog posts. Almost 8 out of 10 people will open your blog post after reading a catchy headline.

A little change in the tone and style of your title may help you get wider exposure. For example, say there is a book review post online. One is titled “Book Review: Jane Eyre,” and the other is titled “5 Reasons How Jane Eyre Is So Relatable Today”.

Which title will you be compelled to click on? Of course, the latter!

That’s because the title clearly tells us that there are 5 good reasons you have to read about and that it will be relatable to you, the reader. Naturally, your audience will be intrigued to find out if the content is relatable to their life. Moreover, since the title poses a debate (it could or could not be relatable for some people), it encourages people to engage with the blog post.

2. Compelling Visuals

When you’re promoting your blog on social media sites, be wary of two things:

1- Do not give away too much about your blog. You want your audience to know what your post is about, but if they get the gist of it at first glance, there’s no reason for them to click on it and read more on your site.

Facebook only displays up to 480 characters on the timeline when you share a blog post. Ensure you include only information that sparks interest in your readers and convinces them to open your blog post. According to this master degree in visual design and communication, your customer’s reaction should lead to a successful trade or exchange.

For example, visual story-telling can give meaning to dull pieces of content. The Australian government used the popular game “Dumb ways to die” to send people a public service message about being safe around trains.

Public service announcements are usually boring to read and listen, however, by using colorful and engaging content, this video took the internet by storm!

2 – Visuals are the first thing that attracts your audience towards your blog post. Most platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn use an image to display as a thumbnail image, so make sure to include as many pictures in your post as you can.

3. Hashtags To Improve Visibility

Hashtags make it easy for you to be found by new audiences. When you add hashtags to your post or Instagram story, your post becomes available to the people who have searched the hashtag on their “discover” feed.

To boost visibility, you can use seasonal hashtags, event hashtags, and any related campaign hashtags.

For example, look at how Kit-Kat uses hashtags naturally in its comments to boost audience:

4. Optimal Posting Times

Even though consistent posting is a crucial part of an effective social media marketing plan, spamming your feed can actually turn your audience away.

Recycling tidbits of your previous posts and posting them at an optimal time leads to more engagement than bombarding your timeline with several posts that get zero attention. Check when your audience is the most active on each platform by using different analytic tools and then post at the right time to make the most impact.

If you’re using Twitter to promote your blog post, try the Tweriod tool. It is a free marketing tool that lets you track times when your audience is most active. If you’re using Facebook, you can use Facebook analytics to check the optimum time for posting. Usually, the best time to post on Facebook is from 1-4pm and 6-10pm.

Integrate Your Social Media Pages With Your Blog

One of the best ways to promote cross-promoting is to share various social media buttons on your web pages and posts. This allows readers to quickly share a piece of information on Twitter or Pinterest and reach a broader audience on social media.

Here is an example of how you can do this:

Interestingly enough, you can also create your own customized social media logos with online graphic design software to ensure consistency.

Harness the Power Of Pinterest

As visual imagery takes the lead in 2021, Pinterest will get increased traffic due to the highly graphic content on the platform.

If you create a blog post with lots of visual content, a quote, or an infographic – you can ‘pin’ that image to Pinterest with a link to your blog. If you don’t have a Pinterest account, it is time to make one, especially if your blog has lots of graphical elements.

Pinterest also has a lot of cool ideas to make Instagram story ads or Facebook banner templates. You can take these ideas from Pinterest and use PosterMyWall’s design software to create new graphic designs!

Collaborate With Other Bloggers and Influencers

One of the most incredible benefits social media provides is that influencers, marketers, content creators – everyone can interact with one another easily, from any oar of the world. This means that no matter where' you are located, it is possible to have a global audience with whom you can interact easily.

The best way to increase your engagement and social media presence is to interact with other bloggers from your niche. You can do that by calling out your favorite bloggers on Twitter or Instagram and tagging their accounts in your next post.  Chances are they will repost it and may even give you a shoutout in front of their followers.

Join Groups and Communities That Are Relevant To Your Niche

If you are a vegan, you are sure to find a vegan community on Facebook or Instagram. If you are a book blogger, there will be numerous book blogger communities and reading groups that you may find online.

Make sure that you join these groups and try to genuinely engage with people. These groups are precious for increasing traffic on your website since they are primarily made for people to share their blog links and get to know each other.

To Conclude

While informational, engaging content helps enhance your blog’s effectiveness, it will be of no use if people aren’t interacting with it. But, sharing your blog link and posts consistently on different social media pages will eventually get you the traffic you want.

Build incredible and creative content. And don’t forget to make it visually intriguing without spending anything at all using free design software online to make sure your audience keeps coming back to your blog!