Do You Have a Social Strategy for Your Blog?

It never seems to fail—people spend a ton of time writing and creating great content for their new blog, but then forget a key component: promotion. Despite what many assume, just because you publish your blog doesn’t mean people will flock to it. If your target persona doesn’t know about it, how will they find you? You may be thinking, SEO, of course! And yes, that is a huge contributing factor (and certainly not to be ignored), but not one that happens overnight. It’s a slower, organic form of driving traffic. So, when you’re first starting out, you want to make sure you have a social strategy for your blog, and proactively get the word out. 

How, you ask? Social media can be a great way to do this! Just one caveat: make sure you’re getting in front of the right people. So it’s best to have a social strategy. This means going where your target persona(s) are. What networks do they frequent most often? Constantly promoting your blog on your personal Facebook page where you’re not connected with anyone in your target personas won’t do you much good. (However, asking your friends to share with someone they know who falls into your target persona is a good work-around for that.)

4 Tips on Developing a Social Media Strategy for Your Blog

First and foremost, make sure you’re properly set up on social media – especially the core four. (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google Plus). You’ll want a company/brand page(s), not just your personal page. Google Plus is especially important because it will help you with SEO in Google (even if you don’t have a lot of interaction from followers on this site).

1. If you’re using a social media-publishing tool (like HootSuite or HubSpot), make sure your pages are linked for easy social sharing and tracking of analytics.

2. Identify what you need to remember about your target persona:

• Where are they most active?
• How do they use each site?
• What kind of material do they respond to on each site?
• How do they interact?
• If you’re not currently connected with them, how can you get in front of them?

3. Develop a plan that will help you grow your audience on each site:

• Connect with your target persona in the most effective way (so that you drive them back to your site).
• Promote your blog and original content.
• Increase lead generation.
• Rank higher in search engines with social sharing.

4. Set goals and measure success. 

• What is your baseline for metrics for your goals (e.g., how much social traffic are you currently getting? How many followers do you currently have)? 
• What kind of growth would you like to see? 
• What sites are providing the most lead conversions and clicks? 
• How often do you want your employees to share and interact with content? This is a fantastic way to get the word out about your blog, so don’t forget to use your own employees as a resource. 

Remember, having a company blog is an important way to set you up for success in inbound marketing. Just don’t let your efforts go to waste by assuming that because you built it, they will come.