3 Reasons Why Your Business Should Use Social Media

 

1. Social media helps you deliver better customer service

Twitter is often a first port of call for many customers who have pre-sales or support related questions. Leaving customer questions to go unanswered makes a business look unprofessional and like they just don’t care, so it’s crucial that you are visible on the social networks that your customers are using, and that you are regularly monitoring all of your channels for brand mentions and customer questions.

Real-time communication helps to make happy customers which in turn creates brand evangelists who drive positive brand sentiment. I’ve seen customers converted time and time again thanks to businesses answering pre-sales questions promptly; being active on social media really is a great way of positively influencing sales.

2. Social media drives brand building & differentiation

Social media makes it easy to improve brand awareness and build your brands identity. You can effectively establish your brands personality and give your business a human voice that people can relate to.

Connecting on an emotional level or showing some personality are both effective ways of helping your brand stand out from your competitors.

3. Social media helps you to manage your reputation

Managing your reputation online is a critical part of any marketing strategy and social media provides you with a fast and effective way to do this.  When dealt with swiftly and sensitively comments and complaints can be dealt with effectively, this instant feedback demonstrates high levels of customer service and can effectively diffuse negativity and resolve any issues that the customer may have.

Negative sentiment can often be turned into positive in a very public way.  Such a visible demonstration of strong customer service and problem resolution can have a very powerful effect.  The customer is now happy and won’t go on to post bad reviews and warn their friends not to use the company, instead, they are more likely to tell them that the company provides great customer service.

What are your reasons for using Social Media in your business? 

http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/8-compelling-reasons-why-you-should-be-using-social-media
By Shell Robshaw-Bryan 

Post More Images on Social Media

The results are in and photos have shown to be the most popular type of social media content for engagement. They get the most shares on Facebook.

And the most Retweets on Twitter.

The most evident example of the power of images for social media are sites like Instagram and Pinterest, which are primarily driven by images. In fact, Instagram has the most engagement of any social media channel. It’s not a coincidence that both Instagram and Pinterest were able to gain a lot of traction and see more success than other failed social networks.

Adding images to your social media posts has never been easier. Tools like Canva and Landscape allow you to create perfectly-sized images that are fit for all major social media channels. And you can also do things like use images for upcoming events, make company photos and craft other image tasks for posts to get more visual with your content.

Don’t forget to add Twitter Cards to your website so any blog posts you Tweet will have a featured image built right in like ours. It’ll help your Tweets stand out in your followers’ streams.

http://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-tips/ 

7 Quick & Dirty Ways to Grow a Fan Base on Facebook

inShare66

 

These are really cool, easy to apply tips to grow your Facebook fan base. 

Growing a fan base on Facebook ain't easy.
And it's especially hard if you're trying to grow a fan base for a new page.
5 years ago new pages could grow quickly & organically -- because there were so few pages competing for attention in the news feed.
But nowadays if you want to grow a high-quality, engaged fan base, you need to plan well & execute well
How do you do this? What are the steps for making it happen?
Let me show you 7 ways I've used myself.

7 Quick & Dirty Ways to Grow a Fan Base on Facebook

I recently stumbled across a Kissmetrics infographic from 2011 called "The Importance of a Fan Base".
The stats are old, but the general concept holds true today:

Let's walk through these steps one by one.

 

1. Define Your Target Market

Every business should know its ideal customer BEFORE getting started on Facebook.
Remember -- not all 1.2 billion Facebook users represent your target customer.
For example, I run an inflatable "bounce house" business on the weekends -- renting out bounce houses in my area.
My ideal customers are women with kids living within 10 miles of my house. I target women instead of men because women are usually the ones planning the parties & making the buying decisions.
With these criteria in mind, I buy Facebook ads to promote my page & target women within 10 miles of my home who are between the ages of 25 & 45.
This screenshot from my page shows I've targeted the right demographic:

86% of my fans are women -- and 60% are women between the ages of 25 & 44.

According to this screenshot, about 7,400 Facebook users live within 10 miles.

And about 1,580 of those people are women between the ages of 25 & 45:

Try using this same technique on your page to find the target market for your company.
Remember -- finding the right kind of fans is essential if you want to use Facebook to drive sales. And targeting helps you find the right kinds of fans.
Personally, I'd rather have 100 targeted fans who engage with my posts than 10,000 fans who Liked my page but never comment or share a post.

2. Get the Tone Right

Now that you've defined your target audience, you need to start talking to them -- using the posts on your page.
While communicating with fans you should:

• speak like them
• think like them
• act like them

Using my bounce house business as an example, if my target customer is a young mom in my area, I need to post things that appeal to young moms.
I shouldn't post about stuff not happening locally or things that appeal mostly to men or people without kids.
So to build trust with my fans, I design my posts to appeal to my target market.

Read this article for more info about defining a voice & tone for your Facebook posts:

• Does Your Facebook Content Strategy Begin with this Crucial 1st Step?

3. Identify Which Posts Spur the Most Engagement

Every Facebook page is unique & posts that work on one page may not get engagement on another page.
That's why it's important to test what works & what doesn't.
I do this on all my pages to see what content works best. When I see a post has been successful, I plan a similar post in the future.
If a post bombs -- that type of post is dead to me (at least for that particular page).
Facebook status ideas that repeatedly spark response from fans include:

• Questions -- people love to answer yes/no or similar 1-word answers (just keep it relevant)
• Photos -- pictures always win on Facebook because the website is so visual
• Fill-in-the-Blanks -- these allow for a quick answer on light-hearted topics
• Contests -- Facebook contests typically do well with targeted fans (don't use contests too often & make sure prizes are relevant to your page)

4. Remember it's a Long-Term Investment

With a Facebook page, it's not "If You Build It They Will Come" -- that only works in a Kevin Costner movie!
Successful social media marketing takes time, hard work & patience.
In my case, I spent about $150 on Facebook ads growing the bounce house page to 400 targeted Likes.
So far, about 90% of my business has come from Facebook!
Since starting the business last October my total revenue is about $3k -- and most of those sales came from boosting posts & finding Likes on Facebook.
Over the next few months, I expect the initial $150 investment in my page to pay off big time -- even if I just rent 1 bounce house per week.
So continue building your page & maintaining strong relationships with fans.
And remember -- those not buying today will know about your brand when they need to make a purchase somewhere down the road.

5. Keep it Real, Relaxed & Relevant

I love the 3 R's.
While building your fan base you gotta keep things real, relaxed & relevant.

Don't get frustrated when sales don't immediately come. For heaven's sake, don't start blasting promotional posts every hour thinking that's the best way to drum up business.
You'll only chase away high-quality fans & blow your budget in the process.
Instead, try a post a day in the beginning. Don't overwhelm fans by flooding the news feed right out of the gate.
Give fans a chance to get to know, like & trust you -- then start posting more often.
Consistency is important, but quality should be your top priority if you hope to grow a high-quality fan base.

6. Stick to a Schedule

As a page manager, the worst thing you can do -- especially in the beginning -- is post sporadically.

Two posts Monday, 4 on Tuesday, none Wednesday, 7 posts on Thursday & nothing on the weekend...
Sound familiar?
Stop it! This won't help your page.
Set up a schedule with times during the day when you want to post.
I'm experimenting with 2 posts a day on my bounce house page -- 1 in the morning & 1 in at night. And I usually post images or text updates.
I use Post Planner's Queue feature so I know I'm not posting too often & that posts are scheduled in advance:

I repost the same 15 images in my queue rotation using the Re-Queue feature, and I mix in text updates to get more interaction from fans.
The Queue feature lets me create a post & add it to my Queue -- filling the next available spot in line.
I arrange the times (as shown above), then enter my post & click the "Queue" button:

Once it's planned, you'll see a dimmed green icon with a circular arrow on the right side of your post.

Click that icon & it turns bright green -- signaling that your post is set to "Re-Queue".

Now whenever the post publishes, an exact replica of it is recreated & sent to the end of the Queue again -- to land in the next available open spot.

This feature works great for re-posting evergreen content like blog posts, infographics, podcasts & ebooks.

The Queue saves me the headache of having to remember which times to post at -- and the Re-Queue guarantees I'll always have content posting to my page.

Every 10 days or so I replace the Re-Queue posts with fresh content.

A posting schedule is critical for any successful Facebook page. Just decide what & when you're going to post -- then stick to it.

7. Monitor & Measure

By now we've committed to:

• define our target audience
• use the proper tone in our posts
• post the kinds of updates that get the most engagement
• follow the 3 R's -- Real, Relaxed & Relevant
• and stick to a schedule

Now what?!
Sit back & evaluate what works. Take some time once a month to explore your page's Insights. Identify what worked & what didn't.
I can't tell you what strategies are best for you -- because every page is different.
But if a post gets ZERO engagement, obviously that technique didn't work & it's time to make some adjustments.

Just make sure you are reviewing the results at least once every 30 days.

Time to Grow Your Fan Base!

Now that you have these 7 tips for growing your fan base, it's time to apply them to your page.
And if you're really smart, you'll apply these same principles to your efforts on Twitter, Google+ & Pinterest too.

Scott Ayres
https://www.postplanner.com/7-ways-to-grow-a-fan-base-on-facebook/ 

Why it's important to be social on Socia Media

Build a Community

What if there aren’t any existing communities for your industry, or none that are active? Then it’s the perfect time for you to be proactive and create one.

Assuming that your industry has a decent amount of people active on a social media channel, start reaching out to let interested people know you’re starting a Facebook group, Twitter Chat or LinkedIn Group and you’d like to invite interested users to join.

Some ideas for groups you could start are:

• A local small business group for your city.
• Groups of people within your industry.
• Groups with other companies related to your industry. For example, real estate agents, mortgage brokers and construction companies.

A lot of the time, there is a desire for groups, but either nobody thought of the idea or they just didn’t take the effort to put it together. You can be a trailblazer and lead the group.

 

Interact

This social media marketing tip can be a game changer. Don’t be the company that only shares links all day. The purpose of social media is to be social and engage with other users. That means interacting on a regular basis.

Take a look at some of your past social media posts. How many of them include @mentions of other people? How many of your interactions are replies to other posts? If you’re like a lot of companies, then the answer is probably not many. Instead, your social media stream is probably filled with broadcast posts (a headline/message with a link to an article or just text).

You’ve repeatedly seen the advice of engaging with your audience. But what exactly does that mean?

• Replying to other peoples’ posts even if it doesn’t @mention you
• Retweeting
• Liking posts
• Adding people to Twitter lists
• @mentions

Essentially you want to switch from one-way social media posts to two-way posts. The difference is two-way posts encourage conversation and communication. On the other hand, one-way posts leave little to no room for anyone to reply back with anything other than “good post” or another generic response.

If you’re sharing a link, ask for feedback and opinions or tag someone so they’ll reply. Think of your social media posts as a part of a conversation.

How do you interact and socialise on Social Media? 
http://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-tips/ 

3 Social Media Tips You Can't Live Without

1. Create a Plan for Each Social Media Channel

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. So many businesses make the mistake of blindly jumping into social media marketing without a strategy or plan.

If you can’t answer questions like “why are you on social media?” or “what social media platform features your target audience?” then it’s time to hit the reset button. Start putting together a plan in writing that you and your team can refer to when you need it.

Your social media plan should consist of mini-plans for each social media channel you expect to be active on. You’ll have a plan for your Twitter, Facebook and so forth.

If you’re just getting started, keep your number of active social networking sites to three or less. For most businesses, particularly small businesses, trying to tackle five different social media accounts often results in doing a mediocre job with little to no results.

2. Post Consistently

Sending out one Tweet per day just isn’t going to cut it. Certain platforms like Instagram and Snapchat don’t necessarily move as fast as Twitter or Facebook. This means you don’t have to publish as often. But you should still develop a routine posting schedule and be consistent.

This ties back in with your social media marketing plan. You should outline:

• How often you plan to publish on each social media channel
• What type of content you plan to publish
• Social media outreach publishing schedule (reaching out to influencers via social media)

Remember your followers are likely following hundreds or even thousands of other people. If you’re not publishing new content as often as the other accounts out there, it’s easy to get lost and forgotten.

3. Be Picky About What You Share

When it comes to figuring out what to share on social media, quality beats quantity. You want to publish content consistently, but it also has to be valuable. Quality content is:

• Relevant to your audience
• Helpful
• Entertaining

One trend becoming popular that you should be cautious of is relying on tools that “suggest” content to share to your audience. Sometimes the suggestions are decent, but in most cases, you’ll end up with a lot of suggested content that isn’t very relevant or high quality.

These tools typically run based on keywords and data feeds. For example, if you’re searching for content related to “content marketing,” your results may include suggestions like this:

If you didn’t take the time to check the suggestions and just blindly added the posts, you’d be sharing content that’s not really helpful to your audience. Strive to share the best content, not just what’s immediately available.

One way to have a steady supply of fresh content is to create a list of sites in your industry or niche that are known to publish high quality content. Add them to an RSS reader like Feedly. Then you’ll have a dashboard full of the latest posts from sites you trust and know have relevant content that you can confidently share with your followers.

Do you have any social media tips that you love to follow? Let us know in the comments!
http://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-tips/

Things you should know about making money blogging

• Much of the money bloggers make doesn’t come from blogging directly. A blog is a platform or online home base. After proving their trustworthiness, bloggers use their blogs as springboards to launch other products & services that bring in income. Examples are ebooks, books, speaking gigs, products, ecourses, etc.
• If you want to make money blogging, it takes time, creativity and hustle—a lot of all three—but it’s absolutely doable.
• Each blogger has a different combination of income streams. There is no “right” way and that’s the beauty of it. There are endless possibilities. Find a combination that works for you or make up your own.
• Income streams ebb and flow, so successful bloggers are constantly exploring new ways to make money. The key to making good money as a blogger is to have multiple streams of income. Even small trickles of money coming from various sources over time can add up.
• The best way to start monetizing is to let it happen organically. Hopefully you are blogging about something you enjoy. As you grow, monetize (make money) in ways that would most suit you and your audience. For example, blogging about knitting? Sell knitting patterns. Blogging about fly fishing? Sell your services as a fly fishing guide. Blogging about being a preschool teacher? Sell preschool curriculum.
•  https://amylynnandrews.com/how-to-make-money-blogging/

The Top 5 Social Media Trends Of This Week

Welcome to the latest edition of this week’s top social media trends! Facebook is coming to your TV, it now offers free job postings (ouch LinkedIn) and it’s doing wonders for your SEO. But this week, I was mostly impressed by Musical.ly and Snapchat!

 

Facebook is the omnipotent platform. It’s everywhere and it does everything. The company is about to launch an video app for Apple Tv and Amazon Fire, finally taking the step and extending its realm to our TV sets.

Facebook also launched job postings this week, a new feature that allows Pages to post job opening for free and get candidates to apply via Messenger.

On the other side of the social media world, two smaller platforms impressed me this week. First of all, Snapchat – yet not so small a platform – announced it is working on a new set of lenses that will open a new world of possibility with Augmented Reality.

And then Musical.ly. The company launched its 4th standalone app this week and I know am convinced it’s about to take over the world…

So, are you ready for some super cool new features and top trends? Read on.

	Snapchat Is Ready To Jump Into Augmented Reality – VR or AR, which one will really prevail? If you believe Tim Cook, your bet should be on AR. According to the CEO of Apple, augmented reality will have an important place in the future of digital. Cook explained that people will prefer augmented reality to virtual reality, as it keeps them grounded in the real world – instead of submersing them entirely in an alternate reality.
	A Short Guide To SEO On Facebook – No. SEO is not dead. And social media – especially Facebook – play a major role in how well you do it it. Here’s a short little guide (emphasis on short) to what you should be doing on Facebook, to get great SEO. You may still be living under the misconception that SEO is only something that one does for a website. Wrong. SEO depends on many signals, and good website stats are only part of it.
	Musical.ly, That Giant Who Is Preparing To Take Over The World – To some, the world of social media might seem a little immutable. But behind the top apps we all currently use – a startup (if we can still call it that) called Musical.ly  is preparing to take over the world. If you’re not familiar with Musical.ly, let me explain: the app focuses on lip-syncing video. Not telling you much? Well, Musical.ly is even more than that.
	It’s Happening: Facebook Is Coming To Your TV – After conquering our computers and mobile devices, Facebook is coming to your TV. Not all of it of course, just a new standalone video app. You wanted it. Admit it! The company announced yesterday, that it will soon release a new standalone app that will be available on Apple TV and Amazon Fire.
	Job Postings And Applications Now On Facebook – Facebook is now getting serious about businesses and competition, as it starts rolling out job postings and application features. What’s more interesting is that Facebook is going to be offering its services for free: Employers will be able to post job openings for free, and candidates will be able to apply, using pre-populated forms that will be sent via Messenger. by Geoff Desreumaux • February 19, 2017 • Top 5 News • Comments Off on The Top 5 Social Media Trends Of This Week • 1913 http://wersm.com/the-top-5-social-media-trends-of-this-week-9/

Q&A: How Can I Get More Blog Traffic?

This is a really helpful short video, ideas that you can implement
straightaway.  

Do you have any more tips?

7 Pinterest Marketing Tips to Improve Your Visibility

Are you interested in raising your visibility on Pinterest?Do you know which Pinterest tactics work best today?
We asked top social media professionals what they’re doing to get results from Pinterest marketing right now.
In this article you’ll find 7 pro tips that can boost your business’s Pinterest marketing.

Learn 7 Pinterest tips from the pros.

#1: Include Price Tags

Ekaterina Walter

Pinterest users aren’t just looking for creative inspiration on the network. They’re also ready to buy.
Make sure you include a price tag in the pins you create or repin. After all, Pinterest drives more referral traffic than Google+, YouTube, and LinkedIn combined. More importantly, Pinterest pins with prices get 36 percent more likes than those without.
Providing a bit of general inspiration is great, but as a business person and a marketer you ultimately want to drive traffic to your site and inspire a purchase as well.

Include price information on your pins to drive traffic and increase revenue.

Just make sure you aren’t purely using Pinterest to push your product. Provide true value to your communities with a healthy mix of utility, inspiration, and product information.

#2: Use Pin It For Later links

Brian Honigman

I learned about using your Pinterest account to bookmark your blog content on Google+ from Peg Fitzpatrick and Rebekah Radice.
Publish a blog post, then pin an image from the article to a board. Copy the url of the pin.
Use that same image for a post on your Google+ page.

Use the pin’s url as your Pin it for later link.

In your Google+ post, include both a link to the blog post for those who have the time to read the article then and there, and a ‘Pin it for later’ link back to the pin in your Google+ post. I’ve found that this works best if included at the bottom of the Google+ post.

Use Pin it for later links to let readers easily bookmark your articles.

It’s a helpful way to let others bookmark your content for later reading.
Brian Honigman is a freelance writer, a marketing consultant and a social media enthusiast.

#3: Show Pins to Newsletter Readers

Jason Miles

This summer I heard a hot Pinterest tip from Aime Schwartz – she’s the smart Social Media Marketer at King Arthur flour.
What’s the tip?
Turn Your Customer’s email inbox into a pinbox by including a few of your best Pinterest pins in your weekly newsletter or your regular email. Okay, Pinbox isn’t a real word, but the idea and execution are simple.
Include a screenshot of your Pinterest Pin(s) in your newsletter. Place a clickable link on the image that links to the Pinterest Pin. When newsletter readers click on the image they’re taken to that pin on Pinterest where they also browse your pinboards to see what else you have. It’s a win-win.

Use your most valuable direct marketing asset to drive traffic to Pinterest.

When you include some of your top pins in your newsletter and ask people to, “pin this”, you give the Pinterest enthusiasts on your email list a simple way to join your Pinterest party. They will thank you for it and reward you by pinning the item.
Jason Miles is the co-founder and CEO at Liberty Jane Clothing and author of Pinterest Power – the #1 bestselling book on Pinterest marketing.

#4: Find Popular Group Boards

Mitt Ray

Using Pinterest group boards is an excellent way to reach more people to get repins, followers and traffic. But it’s extremely hard to find good group boards on Pinterest because there’s been no search feature to help you out. PinGroupie is an easy to use and free tool that finds group boards.

Go to PinGroupie’s home page and fill in the search fields. First, choose a category. These are the same as the categories on Pinterest. Then choose the order in which you would like to see the boards – you have the options pins, collaborators, repins, Likes and followers.
I recommend you go with the repins option as the more repins the board gets the more engaging it is. If you are looking for a board with a specific title (board name) or description you can also add them.
Once you’ve filled in all your details hit ‘Filter’ and a list of relevant group boards along with their details will appear below.

PinGroupie presents group boards for you to analyze.

To view any board just click on the name and you’re taken to it.
Mitt Ray is the author of the book White Paper Marketing and the founder of Social Marketing Writing.

#5: Promote Your Presence

Zoe Waldron

Many marketers are surprised to learn that even if the brand Pinterest account they manage has a great profile, fans aren’t likely to seek it out or ‘stumble’ upon it on Pinterest, even if the brand is one of their favorites.
The great news – it doesn’t have to cost anything to promote your Pinterest presence!
Choose something fun or engaging that fits a current season, holiday or trend and cross-promote it on your other social media platforms – maybe a new board you created or a recent pin.

Cross-promote your Pinterest presence to followers on other social networks.

Here are some ideas you can use to let fans or subscribers know your brand has Pinterest profile.

• Tweet about Pinterest 2-3 times a week.
• Post on Facebook once a week to once every two weeks.
• Send an email mentioning Pinterest and feature a Pinterest profile widget at least once a month.
• Add a (free) Pinterest app to your Facebook account.

In addition to social media promotion, optimize your website with a profile widget, ‘follow us’ buttons, and ‘pin it’ buttons on your images. And don’t forget to take advantage of offline tactics like putting Pinterest promotional content in store.
Zoe Waldron is the social media manager for HelloSociety, a Pinterest marketing & tech firm in Santa Monica, CA.

#6: Drive Traffic With Blog Boards

Anna Francis

By creating a blog board, you provide a place for your followers to find all your blog posts. Followers also automatically see any new blogs you pin on their homepage.
Make sure you name your board using relevant keywords, so it’s easy for followers to find in search engine results.
After you publish a blog post on your site, pin it onto your board. Make sure to include a brief summary of the article, a relevant high-quality image and a link back to the blog post itself.

Pinterest lets your followers know every time you publish a new blog post to your blog board.

Remember that data visuals or illustrations in your content are informative and will encourage visitors to click through to your blog post to find out more.
We’ve found Pinterest to be in the top 10 for overall referrals to our site and in the top 5 for social referrals to our site over the past year. It’s a great platform for content distribution and a great way to boost traffic to your site.
Anna Francis is the Content Manager at My Social Agency.

#7: Track Pins from Competitor Domains

Ian Cleary

People who pin items from your competitors’ websites are probably people you’d like to have pinning from your website.
Pinalerts is a simple application that lets you set alerts for when items are pinned from any domain – like your competitors’ websites – so you can find those pinners.
In the following example there are 2 items pinned from Jeff Bullas’s website and they’re pinned to 2 boards that are very relevant to me.

Identify pinners you may want to connect with.

Now you can check out the number of pins, boards and followers each pinner has. If they’re pinning relevant content from one or more of your competitors and they’re reasonably active with a good following, start following them. It’s very likely they’ll follow you back and start to pin your content!

How are you using Pinterest to market your business? 
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/pinterest-marketing-tips/ 

Brand New Blog. No Traffic. Here’s What to Do.

Ever feel as if you’re the only person reading your blog?

It’s possible it’s not just a feeling. In today’s digital marketing landscape, it’s difficult to get users to read blogs if they’re not relevant to them.

Even if the blog is relevant and the content is great, in a world of rapid-fire of competing messages from millions of companies, it still doesn’t get the attention it deserves.
If you want to get more eyes to your blog posts and see more interaction from your target audience, read this post—I’ll give you some tips that can generate a larger audience.
Content marketers today can’t afford to ignore the power of social media. Social media platforms often mirror your target audience and act as an echo chamber for your content.
Utilizing a variety of platforms is an easy way to get exposure and to entice new readers to visit your blog.

Actually offer valuable content

The most important and most basic step in getting new visitors is to give them meaningful and relevant to their lives information.
Why am I telling you something you already know? Because you’ve heard it a thousand times, yet most people still focus on “me too” content, which offers little to no actual value.
Experiment with different kinds of information formats, e.g., a video of the top three tips for completing a task related to your industry, insider news that they get from you first, or a humorous spin on a topic related to your business.
The key here is to give your readers engaging and useful content they can apply in their lives right now.
Don’t plagiarize other content. Take a topic trending in your industry, and find a way to make it uniquely yours.
GrooveHQ started their blog with minimal traffic, but now they’re cruising it with tons of engagement.
How did they do it? They took the standard ho-hum help desk content, amped it up, and made it exciting. They started dishing out value.

SumoMe has done a great job of this with their guides. These guides, often exceeding 10,000 words, make a major splash in their industry.

It’s all about the value. People will love that and share it, and you’ll benefit.

Run a contest

Especially when you are just starting your blog, you need to promote it heavily and get it in front of the right readers.
There’s nothing wrong with creating a little buzz about your new blog by incentivizing readers to visit your blog.
I’ve run contests several times. They’ve been particularly successful on Instagram, where I gave away hundreds of headphones and other prizes.
I’ve also teamed up with other companies to promote their giveaways. Every time, it’s been a ridiculous success.
Run a contest, give away free swag, run a trivia contest on social media. These tactics are great ways to encourage new users to check out your blog. Remember, everyone loves free stuff.
To get the pulse on current giveaways in your niche, try out one of Buzzsumo’s features.
Using Buzzsumo, type in the keyword for your niche. I’ll use “content marketing.”

Make sure you filter down the date so you don’t source old contests that are already over.

Now, filter the content type by “giveaways.”

If there are some recent contests, you’ll see them in the results.

You can take this a step further by viewing the sharers for each giveaway.

If they shared a contest in the past, they might be likely to share yours too.
You can message the sharers directly in Buzzsumo, asking them to share and promote your giveaway.

Post shareable images and graphics

What we all know about social media is that striking photos and graphics grab people’s attention.
I never make a post on any platform—website, blog, or social media—without some kind of visual.
Make that your goal as well. A photograph can evoke happiness, laughter, frustration—whatever emotion fits with what you are trying to communicate on your blog.
For example, my homepage on NeilPatel.com includes a video:

Most of my long-form articles (3,000+ words) include dozens of images.
It’s also great to make graphics of shareable quotes or stats that are meaningful to your target audience.
There are plenty of free apps that can help you make quotes.
Try Recite.com.
First, write a quote.

Then, select a visual.

You can save, share, and add it to your blog.

That’s it! Here’s my finished product. Five seconds of work.

That extra visual sizzle can go a long way in making your article shareable and engaging.

Budget for ads

If you have the budget, try paid advertising on your social media channels.
Many social media platforms are selective about what users see, but by investing a little money in a targeted ad, you can select who among your target audience can see your call to action and messaging.
My preferred platform is Facebook. The level of targeting and reach is excellent.
I don’t think you have to pay for ads all the time or even frequently. But if you have a little money to play with, it’s an effective tactic to target your audience in a very specific way.

Create a team of ambassadors

Many people don’t realize that you can get a lot of free exposure by sharing meaningful content with people who are willing to share it with their circles of influence.
This strategy can start organically. You can identify loyal customers who are active on social media.
You can tag them on Twitter or Facebook to see if they naturally share your content.
Over time, you can formalize the process and invite them to join an official team of ambassadors whom you can task with sharing your content.

Show you can be trusted

I can’t offer you a better or more important tip for not only getting people to your blog but also getting them to come back: you’ve got to build trust. The way to do this is by creating an online community your users can trust.
When you see your readers commenting on your blog posts or asking questions, jump in there and talk with them.
Create a relationship with them and give them information that is true and genuine. They’ll start looking up to you because they’ll see you as an expert they can trust.
This ultimately gets to the issue of personal branding.

Personal branding can be a powerful tool for launching your blog to a wider audience. Leverage what you already have to promote what you’re building: your blog.
If you don’t have a personal brand, infuse your blog with personality so it becomes a shareable and engaging place.
Noah Kagan used his personal blog to help him build several businesses:

His blog is still a helpful place where to hang out and get great information, but it’s also a useful tool for Noah’s other pursuits.

Conclusion

If you’re managing a blog but not leveraging social media to get more visitors, you’re missing out on a viable and free tool.
With 1.7 billion daily active users on Facebook, you have the chance to get your best content in front of the largest target audience possible.
Add Facebook ads, and you’ll have even more control in targeting a niche-specific audience who will want to read your blog.
Your blog is a critical part of your content marketing strategy. You can use it to give your audience relevant news about your industry, share lists of pro tips to help them with their daily tasks, and post videos that tell stories about how your company is making a difference.
With all the time you spend creating excellent content, you need to make sure your loyal customer base—as well as new users—see that content.
Remember these six expert tips for maximizing the impact of social media platforms on reaching and engaging your audience and pointing new visitors to your blog.
You’ll be glad you did when you see your blog traffic rise.

Have you tried generating traffic for a new blog? What social media methods did you use? 

https://www.quicksprout.com/2017/02/10/brand-new-blog-no-traffic-heres-what-to-do/#more-37188