Day 8

What You Need to Do to Improve Your Social Media Engagement.

Hi everyone and welcome to Day 8 where we move our attention to social media.

We have already talked about how important it is to promote your blog posts after you hit publish. Today we pick back up on the topic and dig a little deeper into how we can leverage social media to do just that. I’ll show you how you can use social media to improve your blog and come up with endless post ideas. Here is my simple five step process of using social media to promote your own stuff.

Step One – Identify Where Your Target Audience Hangs Out Already 

The first thing you need to do is figure out where your target market hangs out on social media sites. Yes, most of us have a Facebook account, but it’s not the best social media platform for every single niche.

Do your research and come up with a short list of platforms where you want to focus your efforts. I mainly concentrate on Pinterest and Twitter for this niche.

Step Two – Establish a Presence and Learn the Ropes

Then get active there and start making friends. Figure out the social media platform and pay attention to what other bloggers are doing that seems to be working. Things always change on social media so this will be an ongoing thing. Start learning and start making connections with your target market.

This is not a quick step. it has taken me a couple of months to start concentrating on Twitter and Pinterest and slowly increase my followers and my content. Do it naturally and gradually and it does work.

Step Three – Tailor Your Posts and Your Images to These Social Media Platforms

Figure out how to best present your content. What images should you use, should they have text on them and what sizes work best? Find that out and start tailoring your content to those specs. Try different approaches and see what works best for you, your blog, and your niche.

Remember that it doesn’t just have to be images. Videos work really well on most social media sites.

Step Four – Promote and Interact

Now you have started establishing a presence on the social media platforms where your target audience hangs out. This step is crucial. You don’t want to use your own favorite social media sites, or the ones where you think your people should hang out. Instead, do your research and find the places where the people you’re trying to reach are already hanging out.

With all the prep work done it’s time to start promoting your content. Aim for a mix of interaction, sharing other people’s content, and of course sharing your own. Mix it up and don’t just blow your own horn all the time. This will give you better results.

Start interacting on those pages and in those circles and groups. Not only will this help you to build a platform that you can then use to promote your own content, you’re also getting to know your target audience better. And best of all, you can get almost endless content ideas from your social media interactions.

Step Five – Grow, Rinse, and Repeat

As you spend more time on each social media platform and interact with other users, your reach will start to grow. Keep it up and spend a little time each week connecting with new people in your target market. Keep growing and of course rinse and repeat on an ongoing basis so your content is continually promoted.

I schedule time onto my weekly schedule to use specific social media sites. That means that if I haven’t been on them all day, I do have some planned time each day.

Some of the content ideas will come as you’re interacting and answering questions. Those are great opportunities for quick content ideas similar to the idea I shared a while back about taking email questions and turning them into blog posts. The same works here and you can either copy and paste the question and your answer, or even take a screenshot and then elaborate a bit in your post.

That technique alone is great, but don’t stop there. As I’m interacting on social media, I always keep either a notebook and pen close by or a document open to take notes. As I read through posts and discussions, a lot of ideas for future blog posts come up and I make a note of them. Start creating lists like this yourself and you’ll never run out of ideas for things to blog about.

Don’t just plan to build up a following and that’s it. The more you interact with your target audience on social media, the better you get to know them and the better you can serve them with your blogging content. That in turn will result in larger email subscriber numbers, more visitors to your blog overall, and hopefully a larger income from your blog as well.

Don’t discount the information and research you can do on social media sites. It’s a treasure trove of information and content ideas.

Every few months re-evaluate what you’re doing and see what’s getting you the best results. Do more of that and try new tactics, techniques, and social media platforms as you come across them.

Let’s Recap

Start being a bit more productive on social media sites!

Think these things through before you start spending time on different sites.

• Establish which social media sites you know and can use already. You don’t want to add in a big learning curve.
• Identify where your potential readers hang out. The type of niche should give you some guidance.
• Join the relevant sites and start emulating the best and most engaged users.
• Tailor your future posts and images to each social media site you will be using.
• Promote and interact but don’t be too pushy.
• Keep trying to increase your audience, post good content, and engage..
• Don’t get dragged in to the time suck that can be social media!

So, these are your tips for Day 8. Go out there and be social! See what you can do to engage your readers or increase your list by using the relevant social media platform. Let us know what works for you.Any questions or problems, ask in the comments box below. I will be in touch tomorrow with another tip.

Previous Days Posts

Click here for the post from Day 1

Click here for the post from Day 2

Click here for the post from Day 3

Click here for the post from Day 4

Click here for the post from Day 5

Click here for the post from Day 6

Click here for the post from Day 7

Disclosure: Please note that some of the links are affiliate links. This means I will earn a commission at no additional cost to you, if you make a purchase after clicking through my link. I have experienced these companies, and recommend them because I find them useful, not because of the small commissions I make if you buy something through my links. Please do not spend any money on these products unless you feel you need them or they will help you achieve your goals.