I surveyed my MailChimp subscribers.
I asked them what they considered the most interesting topic on MostlyBlogging.
Can you guess how they responded?
They overwhelmingly responded by answering “social media”.
They are in luck. We all are.
I like to cite experts in the field of blogging. I feel citing their expertise gives my articles credibility.
I used a quote from social media expert Bob Barocas in my article Here are the 29 Great Reasons You Should Use Medium to Blog Now.
When he wrote to thank me, he offered to guest post for our blog!
Since social media is his area of expertise, we can believe his tips which explain how we can significantly grow our social media followers in only one month without spending money.
How to Grow Your Social Media Presence in 30 Days
When it comes to driving tons of traffic to your blog, if you’re not leveraging social media, you’re already behind.
At times, it might seem like blogging can be a never-ending battle: writing content, doing SEO, publishing with WordPress, promoting your content, building your email list, social media, etc. It can be overwhelming.
Thankfully, the social media piece is about to get much easier for you.
In this guest post, I’m going to share some social media secrets that I’ve never revealed before (not even to my clients) that can help you grow your social media presence in 30 days.
Let’s Get Personal
Before we get started, I have a confession to make. Two months ago, I had only 30 followers on Twitter. In fact, even though I run an online marketing company specializing in (among other things) social media, I only made my company’s account a little over four months ago.
I guess what they say is true: the shoemaker’s children go barefoot and the barber always has the worst haircut.
That said, I told myself that I was going to grow my Twitter following and build it up like I would for any of my clients.
As of now @phenomenalseo, my Twitter account, has over 950+ followers and many of them engage with me.
How’d I do it? How can you do it? Here’s my strategy!
The One-Two Punch to Growing Your Twitter Following
As Janice has explained before, the first step to Twitter success is having an incredible profile.
After you’ve taken the time to spruce it up a bit, be sure to have something to offer your following. In my case, it was online marketing expertise, but it can be an actual product, information related to your hobby, or even the content you love blogging about.
This next part is the most obvious, but it’s vital. Reach out to every contact you have and let them know you’re starting a Twitter account.
If you already have one, tell them you’re trying to grow your following. The key is to directly ask them to follow you and to have their contacts do the same.
Typically, these first several followers will be your family, friends, and some work colleagues. Depending on how connected you are, this will grow your following from 0 to 30-100. Not bad for very nominal work, but we’re striving for 750-1,000 in 30 days.
This next part is where the fun begins.
If you’re like most hobby bloggers, you probably run your blog on the side while having a job and other important responsibilities.
This strategy takes all of that into account and only requires 10-15 minutes out of your day.
The “One” of the One-Two Punch
The “one” of the one-two punch is Tweepi. It lets you: 1) view all of the followers of a particular Twitter account and 2) follow whichever ones you’d like.
There is no need to pay for the service: simply select “Login” and “Login via Twitter.”
After logging in with your Twitter credentials, select “Follow Tools” from the menu, and choose “By @user’s followers.”
Now all you have to do is type in the account you want to view. After doing so, a list containing all of that person’s followers will populate and you can click “Follow” for any you’d like to follow.
If you want to find out more information about each person (e.g. their bio, follower count, etc.), click “Columns” and check the appropriate boxes.
Remember, don’t follow just anyone. Find out who in your niche would want to follow you back and if he or she is a person who you think would be interested in visiting your blog.
Since it’s proper Twitter etiquette to follow back whoever follows you, a great deal of the people that you just followed with Tweepi will end up following you too!
A bit of a warning: do not get follow-happy.
Twitter and other social media platforms have been known to suspend accounts that constantly follow and unfollow massive amounts of people. A good rule of thumb is to only follow 100 people per day.
The “Two” of the One-Two Punch
Here’s the “two” of the one-two punch: Crowdfire. Aside from being known for its direct messaging, Crowdfire will tell you who you are following but is not following you back. Most importantly, it lets you unfollow them.
After waiting for a little over one day, unfollow all of the people who never followed you back. This ensures that your ratio of followers to people you’re following is kept in check.
Again, do not unfollow more than 100 people in any given day and be a bit patient.
Finally, repeat the process all over again.
While this might seem a bit tedious, if you do this for just 10-15 minutes every day, you’ll begin to see phenomenal results.
With a serious following and targeted Tweets touting your content, it’s only a matter of time before you’ll see an increase in your blog traffic.
Automating the Strategy
If you find yourself too busy to take 10-15 minutes out of your day to do this, you might want to look into SocialQuant.
SocialQuant is a Twitter tool that automatically follows and unfollows Twitter accounts in your niche based on the keywords you tell them.
The tool does cost money, but they offer a 14-day free trial and give you a discount coupon that cuts their fee in half. This makes the tool $25 a month.
Be careful, though. There really is no substitute for doing this manually, which ensures that you’re completely familiar with the following you’re growing.
This Strategy Also Works for Other Social Media Channels
This strategy applies to all Twitter accounts whether you have 5 or 5,000 followers.
Perhaps more importantly, it’s transferable across every major social media platform that allows you to follow and unfollow people.
Can you say Pinterest, Instagram, and LinkedIn? Now you’re getting it.
LinkedIn is the easiest to build up since they stop showing how many connections you have once you reach 500+ and all you need to do is request to connect with 1,000 or so people in your niche who you know or are related to.
While every social media platform will be a bit different, much of the one-two punch will be applicable across the board. You might have to do it manually or find other tools to help, but it works wonders.
Here’s to growing your social media presence and driving more traffic to your blog!
Author Bio
This guest post was written by online marketing expert Bob Barocas. Bob is the Owner of More Clicks More Clients, an online marketing and SEO company dedicated to helping bloggers and small businesses drive more traffic to their websites. If you want to blog smarter and not harder, sign up for his free insider tips on generating more traffic to your blog.
Admin Blogger’s Commentary:
Bob generously gave us his expertise by writing for our readers. Many sites explain how you can grow your social media presence by buying followers. There is no need to spend money this way. Follow Bob’s tips and your followers across all your social media will grow. Your blog traffic will grow as well since your new social media connections will see your posts.
Readers, please share this post. People don’t have to buy followers to grow their social media presence, and they shouldn’t. You want people genuinely interested in your topic so they are engaged on your blog.
Have you tried any of Bob’s methods? Can you attest to how well they work? Can you think of any other ways to grow your social media following? I look forward to your views.
Related Posts:
How to Get People to Subscribe to Your Blog by Networking
How to Quickly Tweet Your Way to Blog Traffic
20 Experts Reveal Their Secrets to Blog Promotion
The Ultimate Guide to Blog Promotion
