Are you comfortable promoting your blog posts on social media sites?
Every site?
Only the mainstream sites?
None at all?
Recently, a question was posed to the Grow Your Blog Facebook Group: “What is one social media platform you’ve never used (that keeps pinching your brain?)”
I eagerly awaited the responses. I hoped to learn about new social media I wasn’t familiar with yet.
To my surprise, everyone indicated they were uncomfortable using mainstream social media sites.
This post will explain how to use 4 mainstream social media sites to promote your blog using free, little-known methods.
Save your money outsourcing your social media needs to a social media manager. After reading this post, you can be your own social media manager.
The social media sites covered in this post are Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Although there are many free tools which will help you at social media sites, this post offers you free unusual growth hacking methods.
How to Be Your Own Social Media Manager:
I know many bloggers outsource their needs. However, if you follow these tips, you won’t have to pay a social media manager. You can implement these tricks yourself.
Social Media Growth Hacking Tricks at Pinterest
Tip 1: Have your link to opt into your blog at the top of your Pinterest profile. 
This way, if people are interested in what they read in your profile, your sign up link is right there in front of them and they don’t have to go looking for it.
 Tip 2: Delete boards.
When I started deleting my boards, Pinterest’s algorithms better learned the content of my niche, and my traffic grew.
I deleted my boards about food and entertainment, for example. Pinterest will be more likely to show your pins to people if the algorithms know what your site is about.Â
I read you’ll get better visibility at Pinterest if it’s clear to the site what your niche is. This makes sense. Search engines show your blog to people when they’re clear what you specialize in.
Tip 3: Use Pinterest as a search engine.
This is due to the fact that Pinterest is indeed a search engine.
In order to treat Pinterest like a search engine, you have to tag your pins.
This is similar to wanting your blog posts to be found on Google. To achieve this, you tag.
If you want your pins to be found in the smart feed, you need to tag your pins with medium tail keyword phrases 3 to 5 words long.
Tip 4: Fill in the Image Title Attribute.Â
Look in the black box. If someone were to hover their mouse over my graphic, they would have no idea this graphic was used at a Christmas blog party. By filling in the Image Title Attribute, I can give information about the post which will appear when the mouse hovers over the picture.
Social Media Growth Hacking Tricks at Facebook
Tip 5: Insert your own photo to make the image that accompanies your blog post larger in Facebook groups.
As soon as you put your link in, the graphic you inserted in your blog post will be placed. You have to take this step before you place your link. 
Mine is the graphic on the bottom. Can you tell my image is larger than the one above mine?
If a blogger was going to a reciprocal Facebook group that required sharing, they would have to decide which to share. Mine stands out. How to make sure your graphic is larger than all the others? Easy! 
Just click the Add Photo/Video button. Then, upload your photo. Your uploaded photo will be placed instead of the one you inserted into your blog post. Can it be the same graphic? Of course, but this way it will be presented to Facebook users larger than everyone else’s.
Tip 6: Look at the number of members in a Facebook group. The more members, the more likely your writing will be seen. Note:Â Even if there is a small number of members, members of sharing groups may have large social media followings. In this case, your work will end up being seen by a large number of people when the members share your posts on their social media sites.
Tip 7: Design a premade “calling card” to leave in Facebook groups. Not only will this save you time telling people you shared their articles, but the size of the design and interesting graphics make this stand out. 
This “calling card” belongs to Esmé Slabs. Notice her link is on the card. This serves 3 purposes for her. Again, it saves her time writing all this out. Next, the eye-catching design draws attention to her post. Finally, the link in the middle might entice someone to check her blog out and bring her traffic.
Tip 8: Bookmark the Facebook groups that allow you to promote your posts daily.
On Facebook, the bookmarks are called “shortcuts.” 
These are some of the Facebook groups I’ve bookmarked. I rush on work days. You can quickly find the groups you need by using shortcuts.
Let me tell you how to implement this time-saving tip: When you click the group’s name, at the top of the screen, you’ll see 3 dots. Click them and select “Pin to Shortcuts.” 
Social Media Growth Hacking Tricks at Twitter
Tip 9: Use Twitter’s new bookmark feature.
Great news! Twitter now allows you to bookmark an article for later reading. You can’t be a better blogger without information.
Twitter recently incorporated bookmarks into their platform. Will this be an end to bloggers dropping links and running?
Thanks to this new “Twitter trick,” your traffic will improve. People don’t have to link drop and run if they’re in a rush to promote and don’t have time to read thanks to Twitter’s new bookmark feature. 
Look: If I wanted to save this article for later reading, I could save it in Pocket, a way to curate. I love Pocket since I can read the article I put in my “Pocket” offline.
Tip 10: Twitter recently lengthened its character count. Take advantage of the extra room. You can ask an engaging question and then tell what your post is about. Don’t forget those hashtags in your tweet!
Social Media Growth Hacking Tricks at Instagram
Although Instagram is extremely popular, the social media site is still growing! You should grow with it.
200 million watch Instagram stories daily
People use Instagram to buy from brands
However, Instagram’s algorithm only shows the best 30%.
Among all the competition at Instagram, how can you succeed?
Tip 11: Your profile must be about your target reader.Â
They should know how they’ll benefit if they click your link. You could mention the free optin they’ll receive for signing up, for example. Then you can tell them something about yourself. If you have a local service, you might end your profile by mentioning your city.
Tip 12: Don’t post random pictures.
Tie all pictures into your brand’s service or blogging niche. 
My dog Mack is very cute, but my Instagram grid looks silly. I am not a pet blogger. The other 3 make it clear what my brand is about.Â
Tip 13: You should have an intentional photo layout.
Do not have similar pictures back to back in your profile.
Instagram influencer Elaine Rau follows a checkerboard pattern so her Instagram grid has uniformity. Many bloggers follow this alternating, but consistent, pattern.
Tip 14: Use popular hashtags.
How popular? Use hashtags with at least 200,000 posts. You are trying to grow your Instagram. You have a greater chance of growing if you use hashtags that more people are interested in.
Type the hashtag that matches your content into the search bar. Pick the hashtag with the higher count as your post’s hashtag.
For example, I often post about making money blogging. #MakeMoneyBlogging only has a count of 4,000. #MakeMoneyOnline has a share count of 797,071. Can you see the difference in the exposure you’ll get?
Tip 15:Â Use tools to help you find popular hashtags people search for frequently.
Robin Khokar recommends using Trendspotrr while I use Hashtagify. Note: This tip is effective in finding Twitter hashtags as well.
Tip 16: Save these hashtags in a spreadsheet.
This way you don’t have to keep searching each time you post to Instagram and need a hashtag.
I keep them in my “Pages” on my iPhone. I can access them on my phone or desktop.
Tip 17: Go to Canva and make an Instagram graphic design. 
Don’t forget to put your logo, blog name, or watermark on your graphic.
I use Canva but I hear Venngage works for this as well. Why do I use Canva? Canva has an app so I can easily make Instagram graphics on my phone.
Tip 18: Include your location when given the option as you post on Instagram.
I wondered why anyone would care where I was. That evening, I discovered a food company in Santa Clarita, California, where I live, followed me. It worked! Did I follow back? Sure! Maybe I’ll discover a food item that interests me by following the company’s Instagram feed.
Tip 19:Â Find an influencer and follow their followers.
Instagram allows you to follow 30 people an hour before their spam filters kick in. Instagram expert Moss Clement advises you find Instagram influencers in your niche to follow. His advice goes even further than that. He advises you to like and comment on the influencer’s post so they notice you.
Tip 20: Use Instagram’s new Embed Code feature.
If there’s an Instagram post which would enhance your blog content, click “Embed Code” found next to “Add a Comment.” Copy the code. Then, go into Text mode (HTML) in your post and paste! 
The screenshot shows how I copied the code to an Instagram post so I could display it at my blog party’s Weekly Wrapup.
Tip 21: Create content your followers like.
If you have a business account, you can see your analytics. Click the Analytics icon and then click “See More.” You’ll see your posts sorted by impressions. You can change this so you can see other metrics as well and for different time periods.
Tip 22: Use a quote graphic. Capitalize on the popularity of Instagram quotes to boost your Instagram followers 
As you can see, I received 47 likes on this Instagram post. Most of my Instagram posts get 20 likes. Look: This received more than double! Remember: The more likes you get, the more likely you’ll end up in the top third for the most popular hashtags. If you do, Instagram will show your posts to its users.
Tip 23: Use the Instagram bookmark feature. I predict I’m going to be writing about Quote Graphics. I want to find mine quickly and not have to scroll through my grid, so I bookmark. 
 If you want to see your bookmarked posts, click “Saved” which you’ll find above your post grid.
Wrapping Up: These Instagram tips cannot be used in isolation. Combined, they will bring you Instagram growth.
Takeaways
There are social media hacks that can give you the advantage over the competition at these social media sites.
Now you can be your own social media manager.
Which of these unusual social media hacks will you try first? Do you know any social media growth hacking tricks? I look forward to reading them in the comments section.
Readers, please share, so other bloggers discover these social media growth hacking tricks and can say goodbye to their social media manager.
Related
This post was about unusual social media tricks. If you’re interested in unusual blogging tricks, read 47 Unusual but Effective Free Blogger Tricks You Will Love.
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