I believe that being strategic on social media is one of the best ways to grow your blog, your income, and your online presence. And in this current online climate, having a social media presence is a vital piece of your blogging success.
It’s hard to remember what it was like without social media, however, when I first started blogging around 13 years ago, social media wasn’t even a thing. Can you believe that??
I remember when Pages first came out on Facebook, and my husband encouraged me to set one up for my blog. I was skeptical of using that platform for my blog, because I didn’t really know other bloggers using it and it seemed weird and self-serving. Plus, I didn’t think it would even work.
But I’m so glad that I listened to my husband, because my Facebook Page took off quickly and ended up being one of our largest referral sources for the blog for years and years. In addition to Facebook, we also now have active profiles on Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter.
So many people ask me how to be successful on social media and I wanted to share a few of my tips for getting started:
1. Start Slowly
Managing a lot of social media profiles for a blog can quickly become overwhelming. Instead of trying to start learning them all at once, I recommend keeping it simple.
Pace yourself — especially in the beginning — and choose to only post on one social media. I know it feels
like doing so would go against all the “rules”, but I think it’s so much better to start slowly and do a really fantastic job on one social media platform, than to try to do all the social media platforms and do a poor job of all of them and feel constantly overwhelmed.
(I DO recommend setting up profiles from the get-go so that you go ahead and get your names held on each of the social media platforms for if and when you decide to use them. I didn’t do this on a few of the social media platforms with MoneySavingMom.com and I’ve forever regretted it when someone else snatched up my name before I did!)
2. Choose Wisely
Which social media platform should you start with? Well, I’d recommend choosing one of the top 4 social media platforms to begin with: Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter.
The only exception I would make to this would be if you already have a strong social media presence built somewhere else (such as YouTube). If that’s the case, start where you already have a platform built and then build from there.
I’d ask yourself two questions when deciding which platform to start with: 1) Where would my ideal audience hang out? 2) What platform do I feel the most comfortable with?
Even though your ideal audience might hang out more on Facebook than on Instagram, if you feel most comfortable with Instagram and you know that some of your audience is there, I’d start where you feel most comfortable. Why? Because it will make it easier to start and get going. 🙂
3. Build Gradually
Once you have started posting on one social media platform and you feel really comfortable with posting there, if you have the margin and capacity to do so, it’s time to consider adding another social media platform to the mix.
Take your time when adding new social media platforms. Really invest some energy into paying attention to which platform makes the most sense for your blog and learning what you think would work.
I encourage you to look at other bloggers in your niche and see where they are focusing the majority of their energy. See what type of engagement they are receiving on their posts to get an idea of where your ideal audience would hang out and where your posts would do the best.
Then, develop a simple game plan for how you will post on that new social media platform and what you’ll do to learn more about the platform itself (take a course, follow 30 people who are successful and watch what they are doing, read a book on it, etc.).
4. Track Religiously
Install Google Analytics on your site and really start tracking what is working and what is not working. Look at which posts are bringing in the most traffic. Also, look at which posts aren’t bringing in traffic.
In addition, watch your shares and engagement on social media for your individual posts. Which types of posts do best? Which ones seem to be duds? Why is that?
5. Experiment Regularly
As you track what is working, also challenge yourself to try a few new things. Maybe change up the way you post or when you post or what types of posts you’re sharing or how often you post. Try your hand at video on Instagram or Facebook. Get brave and experiment with new things.
Also, be on the lookout for new things that others are doing that are working well for them. Don’t copy others, but learn from their failures and successes and find ways to implement what you learn into experiments on your own social media platforms.
Don’t ever get stuck in a rut… because that’s a surefire way to kill your online momentum.
A Final Word of Advice
There are so many, many things you can do with social media. But remember this: There’s no way you can do it all.
Set boundaries for how much time you can invest into social media. These boundaries will motivate you to make the best use of your time instead of getting sucked in the vortex of social media land with nothing to show for your time!
There are a lot of very smart people out there who will tell you that you must do all of these things to be successful. I disagree. Those things are probably great things, but it’s better for you to pick a few priorities, focus on those, and do the best you can with the time you have.
Hi Chrystal, thanks for posting this, it is encouraging for us just starting out. Right now I am focusing on Instagram mainly just to see what others in my same niche are doing and to learn what works and what doesn’t work. Also Instagram, at least for me, is a smaller more manageable way for me to find “my voice” and post my thoughts rather than doing a larger blog post. It gives me permission to start out a little slower on the blog. I have more “friends” on facebook so I keep that up but it is not my main focus. I have set up a new page on facebook, twitter and pinterest using my blog name as you suggested just to “reserve” the space with my name but I don’t use them at the moment. It’s freeing to know this is OK to do. I too believe in baby steps and doing one or two things well and then add on as time permits. Thanks for all the encouragement and your willingness to share what you have learned!
I love Instagram and think it’s a great place to start! And thanks so much for your encouragement!
I’m just getting started with my podcast and I’m going with instagram and Facebook. Instagram is my favorite platform to use personally, but I can already see that I will likely get more engagement from Facebook. So I’ll just keep working on building both. I think if I ever get to 10,000 on instagram that might change a bit because I could use links in my stories.
You can also look into LinkinProfile or just change out the links in your profile and direct people to those on stories. That’s what I’ve been doing on YBM since I don’t have 10,000 followers there (and it’s likely going to be at least another year or more before I do!)
Social media has been a steep learning curve for me since I avoided it before I started blogging. I am focusing on Facebook first as a way to drive traffic and connect with other bloggers. I’ve been trying to share others information on FB because people say FB likes that, but it doesn’t always seem to work well for me. It’s trial and error, like you said!
Ready to try to learn Pinterest or Instagram next:)
It sounds like you have a great plan in place!
A newer social media site that you may not be aware of is Huddol.com. It’s a place where caregivers find education and support for a variety of conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease. If your blog is related to healthcare you might want to check out this site.
Thanks so much for this tip!
My favorite social media site for traffic is Pinterest. BUT when it comes to engaging with my readers I like Facebook.
I especially love Facebook groups. I have one group I started over 2 years ago with over 800 members in it and some of the members feel like close friends now. I started another one this year, and it is still small with under 100 people but growing every week.
These groups are useful for traffic too. I share a post in there and always get way more traffic than I do when I share the same post on my Facebook page -however, that isn’t my favorite thing about them. Instead, it is the conversations that go on in there. I get to hear what my readers really want.
If you start one make sure to add questions new members need to answer during sign up –those are pure GOLD. Those questions will help you create content your followers really want.
Thanks so much for the tips about Facebook Groups and the suggestion to ask questions before letting people into the group.
I’ve been blogging for 2 years now, and have been doing Facebook and Pinterest. I’m just now diving into Instagram. A bit nervous about it because I’ve never used it before, but I know I just need to get started and will gain confidence as I go. Thanks for this information!
I love Instagram! I hope you do, too!
I’m in the very early stages of starting my new blog. I already have a presence on FB, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest. FB is my favorite, but I really want to learn how to use IG and Pinterest for this blog. In your post, you mentioned taking a course or reading a book. Do you have any suggestions for either?
For Instagram: I love Hilary Rushford’s course called Instagram With Intention.
For Pinterest, I love Caroline Vencil’s course called Group Board Master.
When I started my page to
Go with my blog, I spent a few weeks posting content to the page before launching it publicly. That way when I actually LAUNCHED it, it wouldn’t be a blank page, but instead visitors who cane to see if they wanted to “like” it could see what to expect from me. I also scheduled lots of posts for the first few weeks when I launched it in order to help me manage my time. It worked out well!
I think it’s so wise to launch with some content so that people know what your blog is going to be about! Great tip!
When I created my Facebook page to go with my blog, I spent a few weeks posting content to the page without any likes. Then when the page went “live” and I started sharing it, people could see the type of content to expect from my page and that it would be active. Also, I scheduled the first few weeks of posts ahead of time so I would have one less thing to worry about when I went “live.”
Hi Crystal,
I have a question about posting on Twitter. I want to make a Tweet that links as an affiliate to one of your MSM products. Do I need to include #Ad or something else to indicate that the Tweet includes an affiliate link?
Thanks!
It is recommended to do that if you are linking directly to an affiliate link on Twitter.