Where Your Readers Come From
Most people consider the amount of visitors their blogs gets to be an indicator of success. Unless you are blogging for yourself or for family, you probably want people to read what you are writing and to increase the amount of people who do so.
People can't read your blog if they can't find it. Some people find your blog because you share the address with them directly (direct traffic). Often they are friends or family. Some might come upon it in a web search (search traffic). Some might come because of blog ads or because you did a guest post (referral traffic). Finally, some come because they saw your blog or your post on a social network. (also referral traffic) I get a large amount of my blog traffic from social networks.
How Social Network Promotion Can Bring in New Readers
If you are not active on Facebook or twitter at least, you are missing out on valuable traffic. Promoting specific posts has advantages. If I hear the name of your blog, or even a description of your blog, it may not interest me or I may think it won't anyways. But if I see a blog post advertised on a topic I'm currently interested in, I will click over to read the post. While I'm there, I may see other posts on your blog or categories that I may find interesting and next thing I know, I've spent 30 minutes on your blog and/or subscribed to it.
That has happened to me many times, where I suddenly find myself subscribing or at least regularly reading a blog that I had seen mentioned around before but never sounded interesting. That was all because I had clicked through on a specific post on Facebook or twitter.
Even if you are not interested in keeping up with blogs or your family and friends on social networks, you should still be utilizing them to promote your blog if you are serious about increasing your readership.
Which Social Networks?
There are tons of social networks around now and you certainly do not need to use them all although in general, I would say you should focus your interests on the most popular ones. One thing to consider is where your readers or your potential readers are. Pinterest for example is full of crafts, DIY, fashion and quotes/humour. If your ideal reader is interested in those topics, you should be concentrating on Pinterest.
Also you can search the social networks to see if people are talking about the subjects you blog about. Do a twitter search on your blog topic and see if people are tweeting about your subject. If there are lots of tweets on your subjects, then your potential readers are on twitter. Facebook is a bit harder to search but if you find fan pages or groups related to your subjects, that's a good indicator. Talk to your current readers and see what social networks they use as well.
Research that social network and learn how to use it. If your readers use more than one, pick one to concentrate on first. It's easier to learn one new site at a time. If you are already using some and don't wish to use more, than improve how you are using them to bring in more traffic.
There are hundreds of choices for social media, no one is going to use them all. (click image to enlarge)
© Ethority. Used Under Creative Commons License
If you are not using any social media to promote your blog, research and pick one to learn how to use.
If you are using social media to promote your blog, evaluate which ones you are using and see if there is one you should add in to your schedule. Research it.
Bobbie says
I did this last week. I actually dropped Facebook from my social media. I only post if I have to because I was getting nothing from there. I actually decided to focus on Pinterest, Twitter, Stumble Upon, and a new one called Sverve. 80% of my traffic comes from Pinterest and Stumble Upon.
sampleagain says
I am using social media but not to it's fullest at this moment. I need to be better about using G+ and twitter. Most of my readers are active on twitter yet I do nothing but the basics there.
Ashley says
I use Facebook, Linked In (though not much), Twitter and Pinterest. I get most of my traffic through Pinterest and Twitter.
@CassJaney says
I already use Twitter, Google + and am setting up an FB page. Can't see all the pictures but I signed up for Punchtab to give people rewards for visiting my site 🙂
Julie Jordan Scott says
I have only been active on Pinterest for a few weeks. I love it. I am using it, Facebook and Twitter the most frequently. G+ still confuses me. I have a page there (personal and Writing Camp) but I don't know what to do with it at all.
I would like to use Stumble Upon more and think I could do that as I play with pinterest.
Hmmmmm. I'm looking forward to seeing what others say about this!
jewellz2010 says
I am on FB, twitter, google plus, linked in, pinterest, stumble upon. My blog posts auto posts but learned I shouldn't do that and now am going to focus on FB getting more interaction there.
rethagroenewald says
I am on FB, twitter, google plus, linked in, pinterest, stumbelupon, rebelmouse.
LInkedIn and Google+ are recent.
I use Stumbleupon more to promote other blog posts I find interesting.
Pinterest - I am not sure - recently I am noticing increased activity here
Alicia0605 says
Ok G+ is so confusing to me but that is what I am going to concentrate on this weekend. If any of you have any advice please let me know!
Kathleen Garber says
There is a whole mini challenge about G+ from me, lots of advice there!
EcoCrazyMom says
I want to become more active on Pinterest!
~Terri
Eco-Crazy Mom
Marcie says
I already use twitter,voicebok and blogger to get my blogs out. I am not great at G+ and I do use Stumble upon but not much.
frugalexperiments says
I already use twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Pinterest for promotion. I would like to mostly ramp up all activity on these social networks. My twitter stream is mostly automatic (through twitterfeed and hootsuite scheduling) and I need to work on becoming more interactive over there. I just recently turned off auto posts to fb, and am in the process of hand posting there - it's a work in progress still.
Marcie says
I use mostly blogger and voiceboks.com to promote my blog. Sometimes twitter. Have not figured out stumble upon but do use sometimes. Most of my visits come from blogger and voiceboks.
Deb Chitwood says
I LOVE social media! I've been working to build up my social media followers since I started blogging in 2010, and it's really helped. My biggest referrers for LivingMontessoriNow.com and RaisingFigureSkaters.com are Pinterest (although I have over a million followers, which helps a lot) and Facebook. Twitter's good, too, and I like Google+ for SEO.
For this challenge, I decided to focus on Sulia. I already have a Sulia button in my task bar, and my feed from Living Montessori Now is automatically published to Sulia. I decided to focus on sharing posts from my archives and Raising Figure Skaters on Sulia. I added a post from my Facebook challenge to Sulia today along with this post from Raising Figure Skaters: .
Kathleen Garber says
I have NEVER heard of Sulia! A million Pinterest followers. Wow!
Deb Chitwood says
Sulia is pretty new, but it's gaining in popularity quickly because of its interest-based channels. Here's my Sulia profile: . With a Sulia button in the task bar, it's easy to use. I just needed to make a habit of posting to Sulia regularly. This challenge was great for making me think more about how I should use Sulia.
@kellystilwell says
Sulia is very cool! I've never heard of it either! I use FB, Twitter,Google+, Pinterest, and just starting with StumbleUpon and Reddit. I've heard SU is so great for traffic, though I haven't experienced that yet. I think Pinterest is where I should focus. I repinned a pic of potato and bacon soup that has been repinned from me about 50 times! That's a lot of interaction! I need to pin more of my own.
Jackie says
I use twitter quite a bit for my blog and to share other's, too. I have a facebook fanpage that I need to utilize better than I do but I find it so frustrating that I can have all those followers and FB only lets a small portion see what I post. I actually think I would like to focus on pinterest. I have a few boards up there, but it might be good to pin over my blog posts where they relate - Plus have more to share on it. I do get repins pretty much daily, which is more interaction than I get on Facebook for sure. So I'll be looking at Pinterest to grow it. I only had it because others did and used it more for fun but I can see how it would be a great tool for promotion, as well.
Aeryn Lynne says
Am thinking about refocusing on Triberr. I didn't really give it a chance, and have only participated among blogging friends. I've never tried finding a group of tech bloggers to interact with nor fashion/stylists. If I can figure out how to request to join other tribes, I just might try to expand my networks that way. I've also used Scribd in the past when I was creating paper-crafting tutorials way back when, but am thinking I'll use it again once I put together some pdfs to offer on my site.
Kathleen Garber says
I'm on the fence about Triberr. I cant figure out if I like it or not. You're right though, tribing up with a bunch of bloggers who are your friends or have something in similar other than your blog topics, probably doesn't help much.
Kim says
Right now I'm using Facebook, Twitter, G+ and Pinterest. Definitely looking into more options.
diane says
I just signed up for Sulia...anxious to see how it works!
Tracy Joyner says
I use facebook, twitter (sort of) G+ and Pinterest..bloglovin...I don't think the most of my traffic comes from any of them but I would hate to see what happened if I didn't use them
nostephens says
I really need to sit and focus on this. I think I am going to drop FB as well since they are only showing my post to about 1000 people a week out of 7300 fans. I want to focus more on Pinterest and StumbleUpon
@guiderbarb says
Well I'm using FB but need to learn more about it. Pinterest is my next one. I saw some very good information that Pinterest is the best way to market.
@TonyMacKeand says
I am new to blogging and want to keep it simple to start and focusing on Twitter and Facebook. I am still learning how to use Twitter and plan to learn more about it. That's a big jump for me considering months ago I "didn't get Twitter" and wasn't interested in using it.
@SunandSipCups says
Pinterest and StumbleUpon are big traffic drivers for me - But I do need to get into a more regular habit of using SU.
I just recently set up a community on Google+, called Rock Your Blog - if anyone wants to join, let me know! I don't really "get" everything over at Google+ yet, but am making it a big priority to learn.
And - Reading the comments here, I found a new site to join - Sverve! Just signed up for that too 🙂
Jenn Kerr says
I'm using Twitter and Pinterest as much as I can right now...just made my facebook page...and playing around with Google+.
@dalynnrmc says
I'm on a TON of social networks and need to find which ones will actually work for me and drop some others! Most of my traffic comes from facebook, and a lot from pinterest - but since I tweet my pins I think that might be misleading. I'm going to stop doing that to test it! I'm on Etsy because it's where the businesses I want to promote are, and I need to use it more effectively. I need to socialize with more moms like would want to read, so I'm on CafeMom but haven't been using it effectively either! I think some of the ones like StumbleUpon are great for promotion but only takes a click and isn't social at all, so that doesn't bother me, but I definitely need to narrow these down and create a social media promotion plan. Working on that now! Great post, thank you!
Create With Joy says
I currentlly use Twitter, Google Plus, Pinterest, and now Facebook to promote my posts.
One of my goals is to work on adding Stumble Upon to the mix. I just really haven't had the time to pursue it.
As a creative blogger, I am really interested in focusing more on Pinterest in the upcoming year.
However, I also like connecting directly with people on Twitter.
Brooke B. says
I am using Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, G+, StumbleUpon...but I need to work more on G+ and StumbleUpon, so that's what I am doing right now! I made some improvements to my G+ profile and am going to really start pushing StumbleUpon.
@daspencer06 says
I'm committing myself to learn how to use my Twitter more. I have had it forever (pre-blogging) and never used it much because I didn't understand it!
amomhavingfun says
I mainly use Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. I use Pinterest frequently, but I do need to get much more better with that one. I am also going to check out, and I'm sure join, Sulia! Thanks for the challenge!