Showing posts with label Relevant Hashtags. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Relevant Hashtags. Show all posts

Thursday, July 26, 2018

Drive Traffic And Grow YOUR Blog?


How to use social media to drive traffic and grow your blog on the side..
It's easy to become enamored with stories of people who manage to make a successful living through blogging revenue. After all, what could be better than creating content about something you love and earning money while you do it?



Of course, not many bloggers are going to become an overnight success. Many blogs struggle to gain an audience, even when they put out high-quality content.

The problem? Well, most new bloggers don’t fully understand how to drive a meaningful amount of traffic to their blogs.

Fortunately, I recently had the chance to interview Selena and Jacob Taylor, the husband and wife duo behind Find Us Lost, their wildly successful travel blog and Instagram account that's accrued over 157,000 followers to date.




During our conversation, I learned how social media has played a significant role in helping them achieve their incredible success.

With that in mind, here’s a closer look at some of the ways you can use social media to drive traffic to your own blog.



Find Your Unique Selling Proposition

As with your blog itself, being able to find a unique voice on the right social media channels for the type of audience you want to build, is essential for driving growth.

“Ask yourself, how soon can I figure out exactly who I am and who I want to portray with this brand?” Selena recommends. “Then once you’ve established that and paved your way, people will start to see it. Whether they have 1,000 followers, 100,000 or 1 million, they’ll still honestly be interested in you and the aesthetic you're conveying.”

Identifying the needs, challenges and desires of your target audience—which often align with your own interests—should play a central role in fine-tuning your unique voice. Selena and Jacob aren't the only ones who've identified the importance of this, either.



According to fellow podcast guest Nazim Agabekov, the founder of Lead Gen Black Belt , asking questions like, “What keeps your customers up at night? What’s their number one struggle in life and business?

What would make their lives easier? What are their biggest aspirations and dreams in life?” are key to defining this strategy.

Using these types of questions to guide your social media presence (and blog content) will help you craft posts that don’t just look nice—they’ll also be relevant to your audience's interests, ensuring that they’ll actually drive engagement.



Don’t Ignore The Hashtags

Great content is key, but it must be paired with the right strategy for blog growth—and on social media, this means using hashtags. “When we were in Venice I posted a photo in the Venice canals, and I hadn’t been using hashtags at the time—which if you're big on Instagram, you know that was probably silly,” Selena recalls.

“I wasn’t really leveraging people who could see the posts. That was the first time I thought, 'Oh, I need to start using hashtags.’ That post happened to be reposted within two minutes by an account that was really large at the time… and right away started bringing us a couple hundred new followers.”

This experience led Selena to begin researching the analytics and latest trends related to hashtag usage, which then fueled a more strategic approach to how they developed future posts. For those just starting a blog, Selena notes that large Instagram accounts tend to look for smaller accounts when curating content—and consistently using the right hashtags will put you in the perfect place to get discovered.



The Power Of Partnerships

It can be tempting to approach blogging as a completely solo endeavor, but it’s called social media for a reason. “It’s a very collaborative space,” Jacob advises new bloggers. He continues, "Develop relationships early on. Don’t assume someone’s not going to give you time, input or help you out just because they’ve been doing it for longer. Most people are very friendly and welcoming.”

New bloggers shouldn’t be afraid of reaching out to other bloggers for advice. But keep in mind, you should focus on investing time building relationships with those in your niche.

As Tamar Weinberg explains, “You can ask and ask and ask, but unless you research the writer and know exactly what it is that they cover, you’re wasting your time. For example, if you’re marketing a healthy food product, don’t just reach out to food bloggers in general, but find those that focus on healthy food, home cooking, cooking healthy for kids, and such.”

Organically reaching out to others and building these relationships has helped Selena and Jacob get their content shared on other bloggers’ Instagram Stories, resulting in new traffic. Whether you want to ask for advice or share your thoughts on another blogger’s latest social media post, reaching out can quickly lead to organic growth for your own blog.



Achieving Social Success

Now that Selena and Jacob have built a sizable community around their blog, whenever they release a new city guide, sponsored post, or other project, they already have a massive, dependable source of traffic to rely on. That's the real power of building an engaged social following.

Yes, you should always emphasize the creation of beautiful, high-quality content when promoting your blog through social media. But as these tips make abundantly clear, it’s far from the only thing you should be doing.

Guest Authored By Ryan Robinson. Ryan is an entrepreneur and content marketing consultant to the world's top experts and growing startups. He works with NY Times Bestselling authors, CEO's, startup founders, and has grown his business to over $160,000 in less than one year while keeping a full-time job. He reach over 150,000 monthly readers with his blog, ryrob.com and online courses designed to teach you how to start a profitable business while keeping your day job. Follow Ryan on Twitter.





"While fully leveraging the power of social media will require a fair amount of work, it’s well worth your time and energy.

As you use these tips to generate traffic for your blog, you’ll be better positioned to turn it into a revenue-generating machine and create the lifestyle you desire. -RyanRobinson

  • Post Crafted By:
    Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBrand.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, Colorado. I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)
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Location: Loveland, CO 80538, USA

Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Getting YOUR Business Noticed On Social Media


How to actually get noticed on social media - Promote your work like a pro..



Social media isn't just for sharing photos of your breakfast and arguing over Star Wars movies.

If you're starting a new business or launching a side project, these networks can also spread the word about your work. But how do you stand out in the sea of information? Social platforms offer a variety of tools and tricks to help you.

In this guide, we'll cover the best of these attention-grabbing techniques, focusing on DIY methods you can employ without spending any money or hiring a team of promoters.

Embrace The Hashtags

Hashtags do more than add an ironic underscore to your tweets or Instagram posts. They can also connect you with a wider audience, including customers and contacts in your chosen market. Even if people don't follow you, they do search for relevant hashtags (something Instagram just added), which means they'll see what you post when you include key words.



Both Instagram and Twitter make it very easy to search via hashtag.

On their websites, you can find the search boxes at the top of the screen, and in the mobile apps, you can search by navigating to the separate tab.

There are no hard and fast rules about how to use hashtags—it really depends on what you're selling and what your business is. Still, you can pick up some ideas by looking at other accounts in your field and seeing what words they choose. One rule you should follow is to avoid hashtag overload. A post filled entirely with hashtags looks spammy, and people won't click on it.

While you decide which tags to include, remember that you need to strike a balance: Use hashtags that are too popular, your posts will get lost in the flood; use hashtags that are too obscure, and nobody will think to search for them. You may need a bit of trial and error to figure out what works and what doesn't.



Give And Take

Want to increase the number of people who interact with your own posts? First, you'll have to engage with others'. That means you can't just relentlessly promote your own stuff—you should share posts uploaded by other people, along with your own responses and feedback.

This advice applies to any social media platform. Other users, whether potential customers or competitors, are far more likely to notice you if you contribute something to the network beyond pushing your own goods and services. Think about congratulating a fellow small business on a job well done, or promoting a charity drive that someone else in your field has launched.

More specifically, on Twitter, many people post requests for help. You can directly reply to these, as long as you don't come across as too pushy. For example, if you fix laptop screens, search for people in your area who are looking for a laptop screen repair. Then offer your help in a public tweet. To perform this type of search, visit the Twitter Website and type your search terms into the box at the top right of the screen. Next, look for the Search Filters sidebar and hit the show link that you see next to it. A drop-down menu, which includes a location option, will appear. Then select Near You to filter for those who live in your region.



Many applications offer to improve your social media presence so you can promote yourself better. One of our favorites is the free service Buffer. Quite simply, it buffers posts on Facebook and Twitter, allowing you to line up multiple posts at once and then work on non-social obligations without worrying about posting throughout the day. The program can either roll out your posts gradually over the course of a day, or schedule them to go live at specific times.

Buffer essentially frees you from sitting at your computer or phone around the clock. It also helps target customers who don't live in the same time zone as you do. On top of that, it includes tools for analyzing how well your posts are doing and sharing the same message on multiple social media accounts at once.

The service offers free and paid plans through its website, as an Android app, and as an iOS app. For free, you can buffer one account per social network and schedule up to 10 posts at once. After that, prices start at $10 a month.

In order to accrue followers, you need to show them interesting or valuable content. Share special offers, behind-the-scenes glimpses, and entertaining facts to give clients, and other businesses, good reasons to follow you. Make sure to post regularly, and vary the type of content you share.



For example, let's say you're promoting your work building furniture out of reclaimed wood. Perhaps your social media account could give discounts or freebies to people who share your posts. In addition to offers, you can share guides to treating or caring for wood, show a step-by-step video of one of your builds, or both. Of course, you'll have to tailor these types of content to whatever business or project you're involved with.

People are also more likely to follow an account with which they feel they have a relationship. To foster that type of interaction, make sure to respond promptly when people get in touch with you or give you their feedback. For that reason, it's helpful to install social apps on your phone—this lets you reply immediately when you have an interaction. If you know you won't be able to respond during certain hours, then explain this clearly in your profile.

To make yourself better at social self-promotion, spend time studying Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and any other platforms you plan to use. Which posts engage and interest you, and which ones leave you cold? How do certain accounts stand out from the crowd? This type of critical browsing will help you figure out what works and what doesn't.



No matter what network you're using, eye-catching images will always draw more attention than plain text. Spend some time to put these visuals together, especially on Instagram, which was founded on the idea of improving mobile photos.

In addition, if someone else is sharing a grabby story, try reposting it. You don't want to fill your feed entirely with others' work, but as long as you leave a gap of a few hours (on the fast-moving Twitter) or a few days (on the slower-paced Facebook) between reposts, you should be fine. If you do link to the same piece of work twice, try varying the description or the headline the second time around—you may catch a separate batch of clicks.

When it comes to social media platforms, you get out what you put in. Ultimately, nothing pays off like putting in the time and the hard work to create thought-out, genuine, and useful posts for your followers. Even when you're starting small, don't be discouraged by slow growth. If you persevere, those sweet clicks will follow.

Guest Authored By David Nield. David is a Freelance Tech & Science Writer for Gizmo, Tech Radar, T3, Popular Science, New Atlas, Guardian, Telegraph, Popular Mechanics and More. Follow David on Twitter.




“Social media isn't just for sharing photos of your breakfast and arguing over Star Wars movies

If you're starting a new business or launching a side project, these networks can also spread the word about your work.." -David Nield


    • Authored by:
      Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBr@nd.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, Colorado. I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)
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    Location: Loveland, CO 80538, USA
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