5 Smart Things You Can Do to Be a Better Blog Promoter

By: | May 31, 2015 | Tags: , , , , , , , |
Which #socialmedia should you choose?

So many social media choices can be confusing.

Are you an effective blog promoter?

How do you decide which social media to promote your blog on?

Do you play Eenie Meenie Miney Mo?

Do you flip a coin?

With five choices before you at all times, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, and LinkedIn, the decisions can be daunting.

Lately, you’ve been reading about an additional choice to use for blog promotion, StumbleUpon.

This post will help you decide which form of social media will best help you promote your blog.

After reading my recent post How to Make Traffic Skyrocket With StumbleUpon, readers have expressed concerns over the lack of time to promote their blog posts on all the social media choices afforded them.

Note these comments from readers:

I feel like I’m already stretched.

I have a life, a very busy one… I just don’t have it to give to give more time to another source…

…there’s only so many places one can be in.

My latest post 5 Powerful Ways Busy People Can Promote Their Blogs explained how to use Viral Content Buzz to expedite that promotion by only going to one site which will enable you to promote on five different sites in just one place.

Once you are there, which should you pick to promote your posts?  All? None?  A combination thereof?

Use these guides to help decide which social media site is right for you.  Then, in the conclusion, read which site or sites I recommend.

Facebook

Wherever you go to look at your stats, look at your referrers.  WordPress users: Go to Site Stats, Referrers, Summaries, click All Time.

When deciding which social media site to promote to, you should continue doing what works for you–promoting to your top referrer to your site.

For me, that is Facebook.  My referral traffic coming from Facebook is double that of my #2 referrer.

I attribute this to several factors.  First, WordPress has a Facebook sharing button.  I share my posts on my both my stream and my blog page.

Next, I am a member of twenty-six Facebook groups.  Twenty-three of them allow me to leave links to my posts.

My experience is not isolated.  According to Shopify, Facebook dominates as a source of social traffic.  Shareaholic released a report which found that Facebook traffic to blogs were four times greater than traffic to blogs from Pinterest.

Tweet: Facebook provides four times more referral traffic to #blogs than Pinterest. http://ctt.ec/A6lG7+ RT

 Google+

WordPress has a Google+ sharing button which my articles automatically post to.  In addition, I am a member of 79 communities at Google+.

What is so helpful about the groups at Facebook and the communities at Google+ is that there is a group for whatever my blog topic is.  Although my niche is blogging, they each have a group for subsets of blogging.  For example, I plan on putting this post in the Facebook social media group since that is the topic of this blog post.

In contrast to Google+, I feel I put great focus on using Twitter to promote my blog, yet Twitter is coming in as my third best referrer behind Google+.  That shows how effortless promotion on Google+ is.

Twitter

Thanks to Twitter hashtags, blog promotion on Twitter is easy.  You just have to know the hashtags to use in front of your keywords, so like-minded bloggers can find your post.  You can Google it, or you can click this link: How the #Hashtag Do Authors Use Twitter?

Pinterest

Pinterest is coming in as my next best referrer.

I highly recommend Pinterest to refer traffic to your blog.  According to AhaNOW.com, social media is becoming a visual medium.  People love to see images more than text… Because the brain processes visual information 60,000 times faster than the text.

My post How to Quintuple Your Page Views Using Pinterest explained the value of group boards.

I just joined four additional group Pinterest boards within the last two weeks, so I expect my referral traffic coming over from Pinterest to rise.

Blogger Matt Banner presented a case study.  Sue Anne Dunlevie explained how she tripled her traffic in thirty days.  Pinterest was a huge contributing factor.

Sue Anne interviewed successful bloggers about how they used Pinterest to drive traffic to their blogs.  The most common answer shared was the use of Pinterest group boards.

In the interview, Kristen @ Musings Of An Average Mom explained, “My best Pinterest tip would be to join group boards, especially if you haven’t built up a large Pinterest following yet.”  Many respondents echoed her answer.

StumbleUpon

UPDATE: StumbleUpon folded.

A reader noted,

I need to use Stumble upon more consistently. It did bring my site a huge spike in traffic one day which was awesome!

Although StumbleUpon is my eighth-best referrer, search engines come in as my second best referrer.

I have lumped them together because, like my commenter, when I have spikes in StumbleUpon traffic, I have spikes in search engine traffic.

My guest author, who explained he received 40,000 pageviews from StumbleUpon, had the same experience.

As can be seen, StumbleUpon has great potential in driving referral traffic to your blog.

Wrapping Up: How to Be an Effective Blog Promoter

In conclusion, the commenters quoted in the post expressed concerns that blog promotion to all these sites would be time-consuming.

I beg to differ.  First, WordPress has automatic sharing buttons that I have enabled to post to these sites for me.  I don’t have to do anything at all!  The only time promotion consumes time is when I opt to post my link in unique groups or communities.

Not every post is relevant to each community, so I don’t post in 79 Google+ groups each time I publish, for example.

Next, all these sites bring traffic in varying degrees.  Because I desire traffic for my blog, I want to know I tried every method available to me to promote my blog.  For this reason, I say, try them all.

Readers, if you think others could benefit from these social media tips, please share so another blogger who reads this becomes a more effective blog promoter.

What social media have you found to be most beneficial in bringing you traffic?  I look forward to your views.

Related post:

How to Build the Perfect Blog Even if You Don’t Know How

  1. jessie

    Some great tips here. I try and share my content of most of them when I have published a blog. There is also LinkedIn. But sometime I don’t share it on Facebook or LinkedIn because I have friends, family and work colleagues. And although they know I have a blog and sometimes do share it. I don’t want them reading every post. Unless it’s something really really worth while sharing.
    Jessie

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Jessie,
      1. Thank you for visiting my blog, reading what I wrote, and commenting.
      2. I like your name–when my daughters were little I read Curious George books to them.
      3. I did not mention Linked In since it fell below the lowest referrer I mentioned, StumbleUpon, on my stats page. This surprised me; I would have predicted the reverse.
      4. You raise important points regarding friends and coworkers seeing posts.
      I try to handle this by having a page for my blog. The posts do not go into my stream but to my page. As far as LinkedIn, my administrator found my post, but since I (currently) only blog about blogging, I was not concerned.
      Thanks again,
      Nice meeting you.
      Janice

    • Janice Wald

      You mentioned my “great” tips. I added you to my once-a-week mailing list, so you can be kept apprised of all the others. Thank you again for visiting me this morning, at least it was morning in California. =)
      Janice

  2. john doe

    The time and effort you put into your posts is amazing. It appears you have made it your mission to teach everyone “how to have a successful blog”this to me is a selfless act, but I guess that’s what teachers do. A lot of people press the like button but for those who don’t comment and say the words ” thank you for all the help “, i’m saying it for them ” thank you “

    • Janice Wald

      Oh, what a nice thing to write. It is true. The comments mean a great deal to me. I never take them for granted.
      Janice

  3. purpleslobinrecovery

    Hi Janice, another great post! I didn’t realize WordPress has the buttons to share automatically! What would I do, without you teaching me? Have a much less effective blog! That’s what!
    Thanks again, Melinda

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Melinda,
      Your comments always make me smile. I guess your ability to do that with your words makes you a successful blogger. If ever you have any questions, please ask me, but send your questions here, (or to another one of my posts), so everyone can benefit from the answers.
      In “teacher school” they tell us that if one student asks a question, others want to know but are not asking. Thanks again, as always, for your comments.
      Janice

      • purpleslobinrecovery

        Okay, I’ll be the big mouth for the class! 😉 My pleasure.

  4. Anita (

    I’ve been reluctant to take on Google+ but I’ll have to consider it again. And StumbleUpon, have to check that out. Although it does sound a bit haphazard 🙂

    Anita

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Anita,
      Thank you so much for writing me. That has indeed been my experience with StumbleUpon. When it works, it works great getting page views from both search engines and StumbleUpon. However, there are also days, like during the week, when I don’t get any referral StumbleUpon traffic and lower search engine traffic.
      Google+ I recommend. It takes seconds to link your post there, and they have many groups for each interest.
      Thanks for reading what I wrote and commenting.
      Janice

  5. UrbLife

    Good tips.I was an early adapter to writing on the net and of most forms of social media, but I’m still always learning.

    • Janice Wald

      Hi!
      Are you on WordPress.com? Do you use StumbleUpon? That seems the most tricky since WP.com discontinued its SU sharing buttons.
      Janice

  6. Terri Webster Schrandt

    this was great, Janet! I have tried to find the google+ share button for my sidebar and Wp doesn’t seem to provide it. It shares fine as a choice. Haven’t tried stumbleupon yet.

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Terri,
      I have missed our communications. Thanks so much for leaving this comment! You should try StumbleUpon, and I’ll tell you why. Some of their categories are kind of obscure, and I (and I hear others too) have trouble finding the right category for my topic. However, there is a windsurfing category which is perfect for you. Let me know if you use it and if it brings you referral traffic.
      By the way, I love your new picture with the hat. Cute!
      Janice

      • Terri Webster Schrandt

        I will Janet, and thank you for all the helpful tips you provide!

  7. pia

    I love your hints. I know how hard it is to do a well researched post. Thanks!
    Can never get pinterest to work but don’t really try.
    I blog professionally for psychology today–which is great because people constantly find me but they have many rules. Fine with that. However the editors said never to stumble yourself which I found confusing and I’m the one person who doesn’t find their other rules confusing!
    I like my other blog more as I can do whatever I want.

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Pia,
      You write for Psychology Today! How exciting for you! I write for LifeHack. Since reading your comment I made a vow to stumble myself less but to keep stumbling other people’s articles. Perhaps we could stumble each other. I tried looking your blog up on StumbleUpon but found nothing and I don’t know your last name. If you follow me, I’ll follow you back. Thanks for the compliment on my hints. I added you to my once-a-week Email so you are kept apprised of them.
      Janice

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  9. Naijahomecaterer.wordpress.com

    Wonderful post, i have been using dis ways for sometime now and it sure works for me. Tnks Janice

    • Janice Wald

      You have been using all the forms of social media? I know you use LinkedIn; we are connected!

  10. Rhonda Melogy

    Janice, a great overview of all social media platforms and how critical it is to not just “post and run” but to get involved. I love how you listed the number of groups that you are involved with Facebook and Google +. I have not yet tried Stumble Upon, but continue to read about it. Thanks for sharing Home Matters Linky Party. Rhonda

  11. D.G.Kaye

    Always great tips here Janice. I bookmark them all. I can’t fathom how you can manage to look after and work all these sites. 🙂

  12. Samantha

    Thank you so much for this article. I have been blogging for just under a year now and just recently started taking it to a more serious level. I’m currently using both twitter and FB, and have a presence on pinterest and Google plus( but I am going to revamp my profile there because its been soo long since I have been on there.) Looking forward to reading more from you. 🙂

  13. MaryHill

    How do you automate Goggle Plus sharing? I may change from LinkedIn to Google+ on Buffer. Are there any other automatic programs out there that share everytime you post? Which do you like?

  14. Ken Dowell

    I also get the most traffic when I post to a relevant Facebook group that I’m a member of. Google+ seems to do little for me although I’ve continued to post stuff there mainly due to the unstated promise that it helps with Google search.

    • Janice Wald

      Interesting. I hadn’t Heard that, but if it’s true, I’m glad I post to the Google groups. Thanks for the unstated tip.

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  19. Mary Job

    I always find your posts very informative…well done Janice. You are our undisputed blogging teacher. When people ask me about blogging, I can do that, but when they ask about getting traffic and monetizing, I can explain but I just point them here because I know most of the answers they seek are here.

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Mary,
      Thank you so very much for your kind words about my blog and my blog posts. I regret not coming by sooner. I am spending a month cruising with my husband. The Internet on this ship keeps going down. I really do appreciate your comments, your kind words, and your visit last Sunday. Thanks as well for telling people about my blog. I appreciate the exposure.
      Janice

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