To Promote a Blog with Reddit, Twitter, Pinterest

u/LTelamon

Promoting your Blog

What is your favorite way to promote your blog? What types of social media strategies do you use? And which sites do you turn to for guest blogging?

I'd love to here other people's tactics to get a better idea of how I might venture further than just social media.
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edwartica
I'm certainly not the most successful in this,but I do have a few strategies. One way, I am a member of several groups full of people who share my interest in music. I mention and/ or link to my blog when appropriate. Some of them actually have a weekly spam your stuff thread. Note: be An active participant in these groups. Don't just post your own stuff or you'll be seen as a spammer.

Two, I notice if I mention artists in Twitter, they'll sometimes like or even retweet. Mind you, this won't help most blogs, as they'll have a different focus… however, mentioning someone with a lot of connection s and a relevancy to your blog might not hurt. Note: probably best to use your blog's Twitter feed and not your own personal Twitter.

LTelamon ✍️
Do you use those Twitter artists art in your blog posts? Have you developed a relationship with some through this?

edwartica
By artists – I mean musical artists. I do often times post their songs and say something nice about said songs.

As far as relationships, this has not happened…yet.
LTelamon ✍️
I like the optimism!

Do you run a music blog
edwartica
Yep! And optimism is another one of my key strategies. Fake it until I make it! Good thing I'm passionate about my subject matter.

By the way – one thing that seems to be in fashion in this sub is to post your blog's URL as your flair. I notice you haven't.
LTelamon ✍️
You can do that!
edwartica
Yep. Make sure you have the box checked "show this subreddit's theme" in the right sidebar. Then click "Edit flair" right below that.
LTelamon ✍️
Cool, thanks. I wasn't aware of that.

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Rebeka
Something I noticed when I came back from a long blogging break earlier this year is that promoting your blog is harder than it used to be. You want what you've worked hard on and written yourself to be seen by lots of people, but being able to do so as a small fish in a big pond is almost impossible.

I used to use stumbled upon for quick bursts of traffic when it was still open, which helped, and I started to find that people were re-sharing my content directly to the website. That company was shut down at the end of last month, though, so it's out of the question now.

Instead, I started to experiment with things after returning from said blogging break.

One of my biggest successes, funnily enough, has been Reddit. This is good for people who use Reddit and regularly contribute to threads anyway, because you should never use this site primarily to promote yourself unless you want to be ridiculed. I ever reached success, with over 500 views on one of the days from using this method! You need a backbone as well if you use this method; if your blog posts are in anyway controversial then be prepared for the backlash! Even if you didn't think it could be controversial, someone will take something you've written out of context.
I also used Twitter super successfully until my account was age restricted just over two weeks ago. I'm nineteen–almost twenty–but Twitter didn't recognise this when I went to add balloons to my profile and alas, that profile, with almost 1000 followers, is no more. I may be slightly bitter about that one, but it was one of the biggest contributors to my traffic, and motivating myself to blog without it has been hard. Twitter's also good for networking, and it's the site I've turned to when it comes to promoting myself and being accepted to post guest posts for other people. I love establishing relationships with the people I write guest posts for instead of writing for any stranger that comes along, so this work really well for me.

I'm aware that this post is getting a little bit long at this point, but I couldn't leave it without talking about my final main source of traffic: Pinterest. The important thing to remember with this one is that it works like a search engine as opposed to a social media website, like many of the other options you have available for you. That means that you should use targeted keywords and rich pins with every image to make sure it's optimised as much as possible to reach your target audience. It sounds super complicated, but alas. You can also find lots of information about the algorithm by joining Facebook groups, which is good, because the algorithm is constantly updating itself and things change all. the. time.

P.S: Don't underestimate the power of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It's currently my second highest source of income, making the effort I've put into it worth it. I've also turned SEO writing into my career, so it's definitely something you want to be getting on with as soon as possible–from the beginning, if you can!

edwartica
Even if you didn't think it could be controversial, someone will take something you've written out of context.
This is offensive to me as a redditor. Just kidding. I actually agree, and one should always keep this in mind when putting anything on the internet.
I do wonder – do you find a particular genre of blog does better with pintrest? I've noticed most of the bloggers I've found there have been very arts and crafts type. I personally don't quite understand Pintrest, though my GF is going to help me a little.

Also – what did you do to get so many followers on twitter?

Rebeka
Before I really got to grips with Pinterest, I'd be tempted to agree with you. After dedicating time to really understand how it works, though, I'd argue that anyone can succeed if they do it right. A lot of people only think about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) when they're writing the blog post, but stuff like that can become incredibly useful with Pinterest, too, because like I said, it's basically a search engine. What I will say is that it's very trial and error, and you'll have to try a lot of different designs before you find one which works for your audience. I had two viral pins in a month after implementing the strategies in the blog post I linked to, so it's worth trying!

I put myself out there through bloggers chats, RT accounts, and the like. If I saw a blogger ask a question on my timeline I'd answer it in the most helpful way possible, and I'd use hashtags wherever relevant. The biggest thing is not to get scared off by numbers: I am/was 'friends' with people who had much larger audiences and I genuinely loved talking to them, but this also helped with my engagement. My Pinterest one was shared by someone and received 60 likes, and my notifications went off with people asking for advice when another person shared it. It takes commitment, but it's personally my favourite social networking website when it comes to blogging, so I'd definitely recommend it.

LTelamon ✍️
I too would like to hear the tale of how you amassed your Twitter fame. I play around on it a bit, but in my personal runnings I haven't found a great way to grow.

Rebeka
Hey!

It's very much a game of playing around for a little bit, until you find out what works for you, but I've put a few of the things I've implemented that work for me above. If you have anymore questions I'd love to answer them.
deleted
How do you make good use of hashtags? I write a gaming blog, but spamming my posts with gaming hashtags gets me nowhere
Rebeka
I write a lot about my disability, so I'll go into hashtags relevant to said disability and see what they're talking about. If I have a post relevant to what they're talking about, then I'll add the hashtag to my latest tweet. I'm lucky that relevant hashtags often have a lot of discussions in them, but it may be harder to find this with gaming. Keep trying to find these discussion hashtags and post helpful things in there if you can.

Otherwise, I'd try looking for blogging RT accounts to help you reach larger amounts of people. You may then meet other people who are into gaming, and can ask them for advice about how they use Twitter to the best of their ability. Everyone does it slightly differently, but I hope this gives you a starting point.

OmNomNational
Very informative, thank you! I've been scared to promote my blog on Reddit for this exact reason, but unfortunately it's a good resource for my demographic within my niche. If not through direct promotion, through answering questions and then linking to a relevant post.

What kind of Twitter content do you post besides blog promotion? I tried Twitter, but struggled to make content people actually want to follow.

Rebeka
I'm glad this helped!

The fact that you're prepared, if a little hesitant, is great news. I didn't realise just how confrontational Reddit could be until I posted a blog post (I hang around on advice-like Reddit forums where things are nicer, for the most part), and that was a steep learning curve, for sure!

On Twitter, people like to know who YOU are. Something I found went down quite well were blogging tips. I hosted a small giveaway but that failed, so I'd say you need to really market it if you wanted to do something like that to increase your followers. I also joined in bloggers chats regularly, as and when they were on and I was available, which is a great option if you're able to do the same. Ultimately, a lot of my tweets were about my daily life, because people want to know who the blogger behind the blog is. It's hard, but you'll find your people eventually. Don't give up.
OmNomNational
Thanks for the Twitter advice! I'll try to put that into practice when I'm ready to promote! 😊

And oh yes, Reddit can be crazy! I actually experienced higher self esteem when I don't Reddit for a few days. Haha! But I must say, my debating skills is pretty on point! Though it doesn't matter how good you are, you will always be called a f*cking idiot. Oh Reddit…
Rebeka
You're welcome.

Yes, Reddit has definitely given me a backbone and developed my arguments with people. It's also taught me about people who just aren't arguing with. My favourites are when you give advice and then people shout at you because it's not the advice they were looking for.

graymankin
Hey, I just want to say your Pinterest post is great! it's exactly what I've been looking for since I've only decided now to get into Pinterest, so I feel a lot of advice that's quick to find is already out-dated or just super vague. Thanks!

Rebeka
Thank you! I tried to compile what I'd read in many different articles with my own, because I experience similar in terms of vagueness, so I'm glad it's helped you. Good luck!

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OmNomNational
Right now I'm building up content before I promote, but I'm currently building up an Instagram profile to promote on that when it's time. Its growing slowly but surely, hoping to hit 500 followers by summers end.

Future plans include Pinterest and Twitter but haven't mastered these yet.

LTelamon ✍️
How are you building hour Instagram audience? Do you make posts with excerpts of your blog content?

OmNomNational
I'm building up content for a hedgehog care blog, so I post pictures of my hedgehog and follow/socialize with other hedgehog petstagram accounts (there are lots!). Sometimes it's just a super cute picture with a small caption, sometimes it's more of a hedgehog-related story that happened that day with a random hedgehog picture. I've managed to get up to 291 followers so far and I get a few more each day. Not viral growth, but slow and steady.

When I'm ready to promote (we're expecting our first soon, so I don't want to promote until I know I can keep a set schedule), I'll eventually make graphics for my article to post and promote each article when they come out. I will probably take about the post in the caption section rather than putting excerpts on insta. But I will still put out hedgehog content so that I'm only promoting like 15 or 20% of the time, so that i don't seem so spammy.

LadyCatTree
This isn't exactly a strategy but I've found it helpful – I go to a lot of local events, at which there are usually other bloggers. Some are even specifically blogger meet-ups. When I then write a blog post about the event, I include links to the blogs of everyone I met, and I make sure I put that blog post out quickly after the event and tag everyone in it on twitter.

People like to read things they're mentioned in, and then when they write their blog post about the same event, they're more likely to include a link to MY blog in return (which is why it's important not to wait too long or they will have already posted). It's been the biggest thing bumping my Domain Authority (DA) score up so far.

LTelamon ✍️
That's actually a really great strategy. You're creating a stronger community and connection like this. Bravo on that!

graymankin
Mine is also Reddit. Secondary is Facebook Groups in exact subjects I'm writing about. I care more about engagement than views per se, so I go based on how much time people spend on my site, comments, shares. I guess I'm less financially motivated so I can be more relaxed.

LTelamon ✍️
How do you find you Facebook groups? I've honestly run away from Facebook, but in more of a "I'm bored of this platform" kinda way.

graymankin
Go on Fb and literally type what I'm interested in. I join the main ones, comment on things I genuinely am interested in, post occasionally, and over-time the Suggested Groups feature recommends me groups that are more niche/better quality audience. After some time, you get a sense of which are a waste of time. I'm at the point I add myself to a handful of groups and can see in a matter of 30 minutes if I want to stay or not based on the post engagement and comments. The other thing with Fb is you have to post everything in a way that invites a conversation. Formatting almost anything as a question instead of a statement helps.

There's not really another way because most are private and don't get archived by search engines like Google. I am very tired of Fb myself, but a good group is really the reason I still have an account. I actually made new IRL friends because of these groups! My regular feed is really boring nonsense and I don't even pay attention to it at this point. It really is like any other platform though…you get what you put in, and you gotta find the hidden gems.

msjezebe
Nobody seems to say this but Facebook is my biggest source of traffic! I'm part of a few blogging Facebook groups in my niche (e.g. Female Travel Bloggers) and the groups often have days where we can post our own content and do a kind of 'share for share' thing. This is great because often bigger bloggers will share my content and get me new readers, and it also allows me to discover cool new blogs and share them with my followers!

LTelamon ✍️
Sounds great. I'm trying to find a couple groups to join. I'm glad to hear Facebook has worked so well for you.

msjezebe
Good luck!

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