Hello everyone and welcome back to Day Nine of this course teaching you how to make money by writing online. Today we’ll be looking into the different ways you can promote your blog using social media.
The best ways to promote your blog on social media are by building a trusted audience and sharing links to your page sporadically to bring that audience to your blog. You don’t have to have a huge following; the key is to have the right following.
Here is everything you need to know about starting a social media presence online, building an audience, and using it to promote your blog.
This is day nine of my 30-day writing series on how to make money writing online. You can find the other posts in this series, plus a list of all the resources listed in this series on the How to Make Money Writing Online page.
What is the Best Social Media Platform to Promote My Blog?
While the answer to this question is probably Pinterest, I am actually going to write a whole blog post about Pinterest Marketing on Day Eleven, so you’ll have to stick around for that!
What I will be looking at are more traditional social media platforms, where your posts show up in your followers’ feeds. Here are the three best platforms to get yourself started with.
I use all of these to promote my blog but you absolutely don’t need all of them. I’ll go through the pros and cons of each and how to best use them to boost your blog. Then you can make a decision on which is for you.
How to Use Instagram to Promote Your Blog
Instagram is my favourite platform to promote my blog because you can build a loyal audience and really have fun with it. There’s plenty of options for posting, so it doesn’t need to be 100% plugging your content and it’s relatively easy to use.
Pros of Instagram for Promoting Your Blog
- It’s easy to create content to keep your audience engaged.
- It’s easy to put links to your content in stories and your bio.
- It has lots of options for communicating with your audience, like polls, quizzes, and Q&As.
Cons of Instagram for Growing Your Blog
- It can be hard to build an audience at first.
- You have to stay consistently engaged to do well on the platform.
- You can’t link in grid posts, making it hard to grab people’s attention.
How to Use Instagram to Grow Your Blog
The first thing you need to know about Instagram is that people want to follow you as a person, not your blog. I’ve seen way too many writers start Instagram pages where they make grid post after grid post that just has links to their writing. People aren’t going to want to follow that, even if they love your writing. They want to see you.
There’s no real strategy to follow. Building an audience can be slow, but as long as you target the right people then it can be super rewarding anyway. I try to aim to post once a day on the grid and 5-10 times on my story everyday.
The best thing you can do is use a few targeted hashtags. Don’t bother with huge hashtags as your post will get lost, but finding hashtags in your niche will let others find you easily. Do this in stories as well as grid posts to boost your range.
My top tip for Instagram is to connect with the people that connect with you. These early followers are the ones who will stick by you, so reciprocating can go a long way. Making genuine friendships has been the best thing for my blog in its early days.
Overall, Instagram will be your best friend but you might have to play the long game. It won’t give you instant success but if you have patience it can be the best kind of success.
How to Use Twitter to Promote Your Blog
Twitter may seem like it is on its way out, but it’s not dead yet. As long as it’s still going, it’s one of the best ways to create genuine connections and draw people to your blog. Here’s how to do it.
Pros of Twitter for Growing Your Blog
- It’s easy to make genuine connections.
- It’s easy to reach people outside of your following.
- People are more likely to follow links from Twitter because they’re easily accessible.
Cons of Twitter for Growing Your Blog
- It’s an unpredictable environment at the moment.
- It can be easy to go down a rabbit hole and find yourself among hateful people.
- It can be harder to get engagement on a tweet over Instagram or LinkedIn.
How to Use Twitter to Grow Your Blog
Twitter is one of the easiest platforms to build a large community on. Just find other people in your niche, follow and interact with the community, and you’re off.
The best way to grow on Twitter is to keep posting. I tend to post 5-10 times a day and 1-2 of those will be links to my work. I also engage with other people in my community.
You can use hashtags on Twitter to be seen, but most of the time you’re best off growing your community through engagement. Follow people in your niche as well as other bloggers to get the support you need.
How to Use LinkedIn to Promote Your Blog
LinkedIn is often avoided by bloggers because it is primarily a networking site. But if you’re making money from your writing, then it deserves to be showcased on LinkedIn, and I’ve got some really good engagement from using it properly.
Pros of LinkedIn to Grow Your Blog
- There is a readymade audience there who will lap up niches related to marketing, business, and motivation.
- It has a request style friend system where you can ask people to connect, allowing you to grow your audience quicker.
- You can easily combine eyecatching images with links to your writing.
Cons of LinkedIn to Grow Your Blog
- Some niches go down better than others.
- It can be a bit oversaturated with very similar content.
- The user base loves long, motivational posts which aren’t everyone’s cup of tea.
How to Use LinkedIn to Grow Your Blog
Finding others in your niche can be harder on LinkedIn. Unless your niche is to do with business and marketing, I recommend finding other writers and connecting with them. This is your best shot at building an audience on LinkedIn.
If you really want to grow on LinkedIn, they love long motivational posts. Telling stories on LinkedIn accompanied by a “read more” style link at the end will entice people to click on your blog.
LinkedIn has a feature where you can showcase your best links at the top of your profile. I have got several referrals from that link, so I advise anyone using LinkedIn to make good use of this feature.
Final Thoughts
I hope that this has given you a helpful head start into the world of Social Media. As the days go on, we will open up more avenues for promotion, but these are really important fundamentals. If you have any of these platforms, feel free to leave your handles in the comments below and I’ll hop over and give you a follow.
A Little Bit of Homework
- If you haven’t already, start a social media account for your writing.
- Follow 100 people who are in your niche and interest you.
- Share your handles in the comments so I can follow and support you.
<<< Day Eight: How to SEO Optimise Your Blog as a New Writer
>>> Day Ten: How to Make Sure You’re Blogging Legally
>>> This is day nine of my 30-day writing series on how to make money writing online. You can find the other posts in this series, plus a list of all the resources listed in this series on the How to Make Money Writing Online page.
Unequivocally Amber 
Hi amber nice post. I totally agree about LinkeIn. Mindyou LinkedIn has a lot of potential that most people have not explored yet. You should dedicate an entire blog for LinkedIn alone.
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