7 Social Media Tips for Bloggers

I’m no expert (yet) in social media, but I have learnt a lot since starting the Digital Mums course in June that I can apply to my blog social channels and my just shy of 10,000 followers across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram). That is not a huge number for some bloggers, but for me that’s a fairly big milestone. It’s great to have an existing platform and live social media channels, that as I’m doing the course, I can start applying my knowledge to right away. So here are 7 social media tips for bloggers (and that isn’t just for parenting bloggers) that I wanted to share with you, that you can apply to your own social media channels now.

Engage, engage, engage

It so easy to fall into the trap of becoming a one-way street when it comes to social media. You’re either just pushing your own content, or not engaging with any of your followers. As your following grows you need to do just that, engage with them. Remember you wouldn’t have a following if people are not genuinely interested in your content or you. If you receive a comment on your latest Facebook or Instagram post, reply back, it’s simple, you wouldn’t leave a friend hanging would you, think of these people as your friends. The same goes for Twitter which is a minefield of promoted posts and competitions, so start a conversation and talk to people. I found that just by doing that, people find you, and if you use certain hashtags in Tweet Chats you might just find a bunch of new followers too.

It’s not just about you

I have been really guilty of this, of just promoting my own content on Twitter and Facebook. I need to stop this, it’s spammy. I still need to do it as it drives a lot of traffic to my blog, but I need to promote other blogger’s content too, as sharing is caring. It also shows that you’re a well rounded blogger, who’s interested in what other people have to say, and you want to share it with your following, because you know that they will be interested in it. So once a day if you find a blog post you love, then go ahead and share it on your social channels. You’ll also make the other blogger very happy that you’ve done this.

Post consistently and frequently

This goes without saying. I post everyday on my blog at the same time, and I need to apply the same principles to my social channels. As soon as you start to do this, your followers will know to expert something from you at a certain time of the day. This is one of the main things that I have been conscious about since starting the Digital Mums course, I need to really up the ante of my posting on social media. I’ve learnt that on Twitter you should post 10 times a day, with another 10 Tweets engaging with other bloggers or brands, on Facebook post twice a day and each post should be no more than 80 characters (which I found surprising), and on Instagram post once or twice a day. Lastly on Pinterest if you have 20 boards post three times a day to ten of those, and three times a week to other ten.

Who are your target audience

For my blog this is something I had never really thought of before, I had just assumed it was other bloggers. These people are also parents, and I hope that there are other parents who are following me who are not bloggers. But, think about who you are writing your blog for, what do they, how many children do they have, think about their lifestyle, what content they would like to see, and when they are online on social media. This will really help to understand when is the best time for you to release posts on social media to capture their attention, and also to set your tone of voice once you know who your user groups are.

Focus on 2 channels

Or one. If you’re a slightly time poor like me, it can all seem a bit overwhelming focusing on all four social media platforms at the same time. You’ll end up reducing your efforts on all platforms, and won’t be as efficient as you can be, plus you’ll learn less. So instead choose one or two social platforms you want to focus on and grow. This can be time limited, so say you focus on Facebook for 3 months, and then move onto Twitter. When you move onto the next channel, you’ll then have all the knowledge and more followers to hopefully keep the other channel ticking away in the background.

Pinterest is key for parenting bloggers

I hold my hands up, I’m not using this for my blog. Although I have a Pinterest account. However since starting the course  I’ve learnt loads, and know how to apply it and make it work. I just need to make it a reality. I need to do this as Pinterest is a key channel for parenting bloggers. Fact. 85% of the Pinterest audience are female, and a lot of these people will be Mums. So take advantage of this, set up a business Pinterest account for your blog, create boards, start pinning your content, and re-pinning other people’s content.

Keep your content exciting

There is nothing worse than seeing a feed that is full of text, or posts that you can’t easily read. These posts will not grab your followers attention. Your social media content should be a mix of text, images and videos. It is a known fact that any posts containing an image or even better a video will stand a greater chance of being seen, and this obviously encourages click through to the blog post. Also posts containing images and videos are somehow worked up the Facebook algorithm, which is even better, as more of your followers will then see it in their feed.

So there you have 7 social media tips that you can start applying to your blog right now. I hope that you found this useful. Do you have any top tips you’ve found that have really made a difference to your engagement and followers?

Claire x