How to best implement social media for a blog for a newbie.

Hi

I'm ready to start social media to create new channels to drive traffic to my blog. Problem is I have never used social media so know nothing about it. Rather than dive straight in I would be interested in the views and experience of other members.

The blog's in the travel niche and is quite visual. Therefore, It makes sense to me to perhaps go with more contemporary social media like Instagram, Pinterest etc. but I don't really know. Also Google+ is of interest because I saw some info which alluded to the fact that Google searches lean a bit more heavily in your favour when you use it.

I know Facebook's the biggest but it's also probably the oldest, is it loosing favour now? Some people in the U.K I used to know, who used social media a lot said that people are gravitating more towards Twitter.

How should I approach this? Should I start one social media channel at a time, or a few/load together? I want this to be manageable. I obviously spend the vast majority of my time on the blog itself, so I don't want social media to take over - just drive more traffic to my site.

What do I write? Can I just write a brief comment with a link to my latest blog post or do I need to do more. I don't want to duplicate what I'm doing already on the main blog. Is there a way to streamline/automate this so it doesn't take up loads of time and is more manageable?

Any advice much appreciated

Thanks

 

Hello,

if it's visual, I would go on Instagram/pinterest.

You can just publish pictures with a short comment like "Hey, a nice photo of X", and a link to your blog.

There are softwares, but I don't know them. I use:
- IFTTT
-bufferapp

They are free (with limits), and they are powerful.

 

Hi, thanks for your reply.

You seem to have confirmed what I was thinking. Thanks for your suggestions. Still interested to hear other opinions and advice.

Thanks

 

you can still use facebook, it still has the biggest following

 

I have good experience of FB sharing.
Daily I'm writing article about SEO Tips & Strategies, Affiliate Marketing & Networks.
And Then I share its Link on Related Facebook Open Groups which having at least 10000 members.
Then you can try Twitter and G+.
And its work for me.

One more thing. Content obviously affect on its area of spread, but before that, First Title and then Images effects a lot on its popularity. So make Unique, Impressive and relevant title & image.

 

Hi,

Thanks for your other suggestions. I think I will still go with facebook because you seem to confirm that it still has the largest following. Your idea to use Facebook groups is interesting, I'll look into that. I can see how sharing is beneficial now - rather than post a lot of content on all sites, share them to others. This is kind of what I want to achieve anyway, by having my blog as the main source and have social media sites feed into it.

Many thanks

 

Also indulge in slide presentations and sharing it over presentation sites like slideshare etc would be great idea to get potential traffic to your blog, I am using Presentation sharing for throwing information about the products, Pintrest and Instagram for snaps and social media to make my videos viral over Video Channels like youtube, Daily Motions etc. All you have to keep your visitors busy in collecting, sharing of your content and driving towards your website.

 

I'd start with the more visual social medias, like Pinterest & Instagram & perhaps even snapchat. Usually people expect you to be on nearly everything, but I'm not sure this is the best idea starting out. Quality over quantity. If you do branch out into other social medias & need a place to keep track of everything you post (or to schedule posts even while you're away) you could always look into HootSuite to make the social media aspect of your blog more manageable since it very easily takes over your time! Good luck in your endeavor, I hope it goes well for you!

 

yeah I think it's good to look at these big websites like hubs. You want to build yourself a satellite presence on them. You have to provide good value with everything that you post on them. It's like a small base or an extension of your true website. You provide this good value on facebook or youtube or pinterest or whatever hub you are working on but always there is a link back to your website. Always on the back end you are driving traffic. But truly the focus should be on building a presence at that hub. what will happen is you will build a reputation for providing value on that hub and traffic will come to you. You won't really need to push it. Just focus on providing free value on those hubs.

 

Also keep busy yourself in throwing information to viewers via Info graphics

 

Hi

Thanks for your other comments - some very interesting suggestions. I've started off on Pinterest and rather surprisingly I'm really enjoying it. I guess because it's more visual and that's why I chose it anyway. Images can just tell a story so quickly and grab someone's attention. I've found it beneficial too as there's loads of things I've discovered by using it: great places to visit and other interesting blogs.
It's also made a significant difference to my traffic, even at this early stage. As I'm starting fresh I track everything. When I started all my traffic was coming by bookmarks - nothing from google etc. Now after using it for just a few days I'm getting Google and Bing search traffic and links to my site.
I like the idea about making social media sites like a satellite site of your main site and adding value to users. I can see the benefit of this and it makes sense to me. I see many sites where they post poor quality pictures just to get a link. In the long-term I can see this as maybe a weak strategy as people are naturally interested by alluring and quality images. It's a bit like the old days when people showed you a load of their travel photo's - they mean something to them but nothing really to you except maybe a few that grab your attention. I approach my choice of images with this is mind and only post my best images and also I don't only put someone else's image on my board just to get a link, I only pin quality, attention grabbing images.

Thanks again

 

Social media will not take much of your time but if it possible make sure to update on the right time of the day, meaning if you are going to optimize a social media account post in the morning, lunch or after lunch hours and then after working hours. Why? Because those are the times that you are probably get engagement.

 

Do a research and see what your competitors
are doing to be successfully and mimic them.
If you have to use social media for promotional
gains then go for them, if facebook ads or writing
helpful articles then do that.

 

Agreed with everyone else, facebook is a very good start, initially you can create a page for your blog and ask your friends/relatives to like it. Then afterwards ask them to share the page and the contents you are sharing with their friends or post them on their walls. Organically you'll have a good following

 

I would get yourself on all the major players:

Instagram
Twitter
Facebook
Google+
Pinterest

And firstly get your profile looking amazing and putting a few updates out. Then work on making sure all your previous content is on all of them.

Then work on a daily timetable. One that you follow to the letter so that you are constantly using social media to bring lots of traffic your way.

For me in the weight loss niche I find I do best from Pinterest, Twitter & Facebook but everyone is different. Work on it bit by bit and you'll see what is most popular then you can increase on what works and have fun as you do it!

 

It's good to start with one account at a time but there are social media tools where you can manage your multiple accounts like Hootsuite. On the implementation there are plugins that you can use and just embed or add code to your blog in order to have your audience view your latest activities.

Good luck!

 

Definitely its a good to start social media account , give best n interesting info on ur pages, share as many text u can it should be informative there are many social media site choose the top site and work on it