Content is central to most business online marketing strategies these days. But what good is having well-written, researched, appealing content if no one sees it? The whole purpose of social media is not only to be more accessible to consumers, but also to provide a platform for sharing all the relevant, insightful content you create. There is more to creating a social media following than simply cutting and pasting a link, however. In this article, we’ll cover all bases and provide the most relevant tips to promoting your content with social media.
1. Promote with Facebook
3 Steps To A Great Facebook Post
1. Find a good image. Facebook is a very visual site, so you’ve got to have an image that will capture people’s attention in a long humdrum list of other feed posts. You seek to entertain, pique curiosity, inform, or stir emotion. There are many places to hunt for images — Google Images, Pinterest, Flickr, Wikipedia, Morgue File, Kozzi, and others.
2. Write a compelling headline. Consider this statistic: 8 in 10 people will read your headline, but only 2 in 10 will click to read more. In other words: your headline has to be good! There are many formulas you could use, such as:
– Who Else Wants _______?
– The Secret of _________
– Here is a Method That is Helping _______ _________
– Little Known Ways To ____________
– Now You Can _____________
– Have A ________ You Can Be Proud Of
– Build A ________ You Can Be Proud Of
– ____________ Like ___________
– What You Need To Know About ___________
Here are 102 more formulas to consider!
3. Edit the description. WordPress lets you also include a description that will appear to Facebook users. You want this to be brief and to-the-point. Answer this: What will readers take away from your post?
2. Promote with Twitter
Special Considerations With Twitter
You can now include images with Twitter sharing, which presents you with more opportunities. Rumor has it, tweets with links receive double the engagement, so it pays to find that perfect photo. Aim to make at least every other tweet contain an image. Your post copy should grab readers’ attention and help them understand why you’re posting the photo.
Hashtags are another way to double the amount of re-tweets, comments and follows. Use Hashtagify to discover what’s trending. Don’t go crazy with hashtags. You should never have more than two per post — and they should always be relevant to your topic.
When people re-tweet your posts, be sure to thank them and perhaps re-tweet something of theirs. It’s common courtesy! This can also help you mix up your content, so it’s not all shameless self-promotion. In addition to tweeting our blog posts, we also search Google News stories relevant to our audience to provide more value for our followers.
3. Promote with Google+
Is Google + Worth Your While?
To answer this common question, we say: YES! YES! YES! We’ve noticed that posts we promote on Google+ tend to do much better than ones we don’t upload here. There are some that say Google ranks blogs shared in their social media network higher, although the opinion is controversial. At any rate, you should develop a few different circles and tailor your message to each demographic. Get involved with Google+ communities, but be sure you choose the right discussion category and that your messages are conversational (rather than blatant spammy promotion.) The best posts are a bit longer and spark discussion. Ask your audience directly for their feedback and be sure to respond to all comments to keep the conversation alive.
4. Promote with LinkedIn
Promoting Via LinkedIn Groups
For B2B specifically, LinkedIn is a goldmine of opportunity. You may need to do a bit of digging to find the most active groups, but it’s worth your while to re-post here. As with Google+, be sure you customize your headline and description to suit your audience.
5. Promote with Image Heavy Sites like Pinterest and Instagram
Pinterest Promotions
Take time to write a polished description and include original sources, rather than just re-pinning from everyone else’s boards.
Instagram Promotions
Balance Fun with Business – Post fun pictures that you can relate to your brand. Check out Social Media Examiner’s 26 Tips for Using Instagram for Business
Image Source: ReviewzNTips.com
6. Promote with Youtube
How to turn a blog post into a video
Want to know any easy and free way to get turn your blog posts into videos? Head over to Animoto.com and create a free 30 second slideshow video. Grab a couple of related images, take a few lines of content from your blog post, put together a short video, upload it on Youtube, optimize your title and description appropriately, link to your blog post in the description and voila! You now have yourself a video promoting your blog post! You can also do this with Vimeo if you’d like, but be sure to create a new video using a new title, etc.
7. Promote with RSS Feeds
Make sure your blog has a valid RSS feed
Every blog should have an RSS feed and an easy way to get your blogs noticed and indexed by Google is by submitting your RSS feed to feed readers and allowing others to subscribe to your feed. If you aren’t sure how to create a feed, header over to Google’s feedburner and create your blog feed. You can then optimize your feed appropriately and allow people to subscribe via email. Then include an optin form or icon that is easily accessible on your blog so people can subscribe.
If you have a WordPress site most likely you already have a feed but you can still get a feedburner feed as well. Most WordPress feeds are set up automatically at: www.yoursite.com/feed.
Where to promote your RSS feed
There are literally thousands of RSS directories and some are even niche specific. Start off by submitting your feed to the most popular RSS directories. A good list of the top 55 RSS directories can be found here.
7. Promote with Social Bookmarks
Social bookmarking – an oldie but a goodie!
A simple blog promotion tool that is often overlooked – social bookmarks! Social bookmarks are not new – in fact they’ve been around since the dot come era and the first bookmarking platform officially launched in 1996. If you want a little history about social bookmarks check out Wikipedia. I talk about social bookmarking in my ebook, 8 Ways in 8 Days, and the importance of utilizing them to get more eyeballs on your blog posts. Social bookmarks are a stupid simple and FREE way to get even more exposure to your blog. Not only that but millions of people rely on social bookmarking sites to find relevant content, hot topics, new trends, etc. and they scour these sites often looking for that type of content. Besides the mass number of people who use social bookmarking sites on a daily basis, Google loves them! The more your blog is “bookmarked” the more popular it is and to Google popular = awesome! I don’t send out a single blog post that is not social bookmarked.
What are the top social bookmarking sites? Here’s a list of 5 awesome sites to get you started:
Ok so you now have a solid 8 ways to promote your content with social media. But how do you get people to actually click on your link and want to read your post?
Write Compelling Posts!
What To Write In Your Social Media Posts To Engage Readers
Make your posts relevant! On Facebook in particular, you have the opportunity to write a personalized message along with posting a link. Here are a few strategies that elicit reactions:
– Ask a question.
– Ask for feedback.
– Employ literary devices like alliteration, consonance, euphemisms, metaphors, puns, rhymes, similes or cliffhangers.
– State your opinion on a hot topic to turn heads.
– Build upon common experiences and sentiments that people can relate to.
Image Source: Coschedule.com
When & How Often To Schedule Social Media Posts
With social sharing, there can definitely be too much of a good thing. By the same token, you can’t just set it and forget it. Be sure to consult your Insights to see when people are reading, but a solid rule of thumb is to post 1-3x a day. Don’t re-post the same content more than twice in a given week. We like to use HootSuite to advance-schedule our social media posts, which save us a lot of time and hassle. Make yourself a to-do list that includes posting to a few social media sites each day, engaging with other influencers, and searching for content to share.
Image Source: CrossroadsPRM.com
Need help?
Mod Girl Marketing offers full-service social media content creation, scheduling, analytics, and monitoring. We can help you create a winning strategy across all channels and optimize your posts for SEO. Click here for more info!
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