This is, essentially, what I’ve been doing with my blog.
I had another blog that I had been posting to regularly for over four years, incrementally growing my audience by making small promises and delivering on them. But over the course of a couple months, this blog has caught up with and surpassed the traffic and impact of that old blog.
How did I do it? It was simple. I wrote some posts I knew would resonate with people who would share them. Then, I joined the conversation, shared relevant stuff, and watched the content spread.
It’s not always that easy, but then again, it’s not exactly rocket science either. If you share meaningful, worthwhile content focused on a particular niche topic, you’ll see good results.
I had another blog that I had been posting to regularly for over four years, incrementally growing my audience by making small promises and delivering on them. But over the course of a couple months, this blog has caught up with and surpassed the traffic and impact of that old blog.
How did I do it? It was simple. I wrote some posts I knew would resonate with people who would share them. Then, I joined the conversation, shared relevant stuff, and watched the content spread.
It’s not always that easy, but then again, it’s not exactly rocket science either. If you share meaningful, worthwhile content focused on a particular niche topic, you’ll see good results.
How to use social media to boost your traffic
1. Get on Twitter. Start following my Twitter tips for beginners. And if it’s not already on your blog, add the “tweet” button to all of your blog posts.
2. Start a Facebook page for your blog. This is a great, additional subscription option for heavy Facebook users, and it can be a means of expanding your platform. I’ve met several new people who “liked” my page and weren’t previously friends with me on Facebook. Visit my Facebook page to see what one looks like.
3. Regularly share your content on Facebook. There are some great tools to help make this easier for you. Encourage your readers to do the same by adding a Facebook “like” or “share” button.
4. Ask others to promote your blog via social bookmarking sites, such as DIGG, Stumbleupon, Reddit, and others. You may occasionally do this yourself, but be careful of doing it repeatedly, as some sites penalize sites with multiple submissions from the same user.
5. Implement social sharing tools on your website. An excellent tool is Flare, which allows you to combine sharing options via Twitter, Facebook, email, and social bookmarking sites into one tool.
6. Use a social-powered commenting tool like Disqus or IntenseDebate.
7. Write catchy headlines that people will want to share. Most people neglect this by posting well-written articles with crappy, nondescript titles. Don’t do that.
8. Write compelling content. You might be thinking, “Duh,” but I mean that. It has to be really good. Like, better than your average blog.
2. Start a Facebook page for your blog. This is a great, additional subscription option for heavy Facebook users, and it can be a means of expanding your platform. I’ve met several new people who “liked” my page and weren’t previously friends with me on Facebook. Visit my Facebook page to see what one looks like.
3. Regularly share your content on Facebook. There are some great tools to help make this easier for you. Encourage your readers to do the same by adding a Facebook “like” or “share” button.
4. Ask others to promote your blog via social bookmarking sites, such as DIGG, Stumbleupon, Reddit, and others. You may occasionally do this yourself, but be careful of doing it repeatedly, as some sites penalize sites with multiple submissions from the same user.
5. Implement social sharing tools on your website. An excellent tool is Flare, which allows you to combine sharing options via Twitter, Facebook, email, and social bookmarking sites into one tool.
6. Use a social-powered commenting tool like Disqus or IntenseDebate.
7. Write catchy headlines that people will want to share. Most people neglect this by posting well-written articles with crappy, nondescript titles. Don’t do that.
8. Write compelling content. You might be thinking, “Duh,” but I mean that. It has to be really good. Like, better than your average blog.