Today’s blogging challenge is to choose one social media platform you would like to spend most of your energy on. You might be saying, “I thought this was a 28-day blogging challenge. What does social media have to do with blogging?”
Social media and blogging go hand in hand.
Choose One Social Media Platform
Video Transcription
Here are some reasons you will want to use social media to help build your blog audience.
- Traffic
- Build Brand Awareness
- Marketing Tool
- Learn Your Audience
- Build Trust
Traffic
Many people think that once they hit publish on a blog post, millions of readers are going to stop what they are doing and go directly to the post. It would be nice if we had that power, but in reality, it is entirely different.
It takes time for your posts to be noticed and ranked in search engines. In time your post will generate traffic, but in the beginning, you will need to jump-start the process.
This is where social media comes into play. Social media is for real-time news where people can catch up with what is happening with their family and friends. Blogs are for long-term visibility, and social media is for short-term visibility. Together they are a potent combination.
Build Brand Awareness
Every time your blog, online gallery or social media site is seen you are building brand awareness. To build an online business, you need to be noticed.
People will start to become familiar with your blog posts on their news feeds and will start to look forward to your posts as long as you provide quality content, they are interested in reading.
Marketing Tool
Social media is a great way for you to build your email list for your blog. You can provide giveaways, contests, and surveys that will create the engagement for your blog.
Social media is a great marketing tool to drive traffic to specific landing pages.
Learn Your Audience
One of the best benefits of social media is the ability to learn about your audience. Social media has made it easy for marketers and bloggers to connect with people around the world.
You will be able to spend your time writing content your audience is interested in reading just by getting to know them better. Every article you write will be a hit. You will not waste any time writing articles no one will want to read.
Build Trust
Providing content that helps your audience will help you to build their trust. You will be able to connect and engage with your audience in real-time. The more your audience gets to know you the more they will start to trust you and your brand. Once you have gained their trust, they will become your biggest advocate.
Social Media Pitfalls
Everything has a weakness. Social media can become a huge distraction that could waste a lot of your time. You could easily find yourself behind schedule if you are not careful.
When you are using social media as a marketing tool, it is important to change your mind frame. The time you are spending on social media sites working is for work, not entertainment.
It is easy for people to get distracted by social media. If you are not disciplined, you could easily find yourself wasting ten, fifteen or even thirty minutes scrolling through your newsfeed to catch up with what is going on with your friends.
You will need to stay focused when you are using social media as a marketing tool. You can always socialize with your friends when your job is done.
Another common problem business owners and bloggers have is they feel they need to be on all social media platforms. This is a big mistake and could harm your brand.
There is no way you could spend quality time on all social media platforms and build your business. Publishing a post and forgetting about it will not help you to grow your blog audience. You need to be in the field with your audience interacting with them.
Today’s Action Plan
Today I would like you to choose one social media platform you would like to focus on. You will see better results putting your energy into one platform versus spreading yourself thin on multiple platforms.
Before you decide you will want to ask yourself these questions:
What platforms is your audience using?
If you want to see results, you will need to find where your audience is spending their time. It does not make sense if you are promoting your blog posts to people who are not interested in your topic.
If you are already using several platforms, you can easily answer this question by analyzing what sites are generating the most engagement.
Another way to find what platforms your audience uses is by seeing where other artists are. For example, if you notice that many artists with a similar niche are all on Instagram, that would be a great place to start.
What Platform works best for your brand?
What platform will work best for your brand? If you are creating video tutorials, you will want to focus on platforms that support videos, such as YouTube.
If your blog posts are primarily images, Pinterest might be a better choice.
If your posts are inspirational or humorous, Facebook might work well for you.
Where will you get more value for your time and efforts?
One of the most important questions you can ask is, where will you get the value. You do not want to waste time on a platform where you will receive nothing in return for your efforts.
Update Profile
Once you know what social media platform you will be using go to your profile page and make any necessary changes.
Is your profile image updated?
Does your cover image reflect your brand?
Is your bio updated?
Are their links to your website?
Conclusion:
You will see more results now that you will be only focusing on one platform. You will be able to connect and learn about your audience’s interests. Take some time now to choose one social media platform to focus on.
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