Making Your Blog Social

Updated June 1, 2022

Connecting the Dots

In online marketing, there’s a close relationship between blogging and social media. Your tweets and posts are hopefully driving traffic to your website. Or they are creating conversations that convert suspects into prospects. One simple strategy is to make your blog social. Here are tips to do just that.

Their Preference, Not Yours

Not all social media platforms are right for every business. This may seem obvious but all too often we see marketing efforts fractured across too many mediums. Ask your customers and prospects what channels they use to find businesses like yours. By narrowing your focus, you can increase results.

Share Buttons

Now that you’re laser-focused on which social media channels that are best for your business, make your blog social with share buttons. Where to put these buttons really depends upon your audience. Test location — at the top, at the bottom of the page, or in the sidebar — to see what works best for your website.

Social Media Icons

This is actually different from share buttons. These are the icons that appear in a header, sidebar, footer, etc. Using these logos is a way to show credibility. If you post coupons and specials to those who like your Facebook page, say so. What better way of gathering your audience.

Pay particular note to your employees’ social media profiles especially as it relates to your brand. Customers and prospects may do general searches on LinkedIn, for example. Having a fully fleshed out company page indicates you pay attention to social signals.

Measure & Analyze

You can see what websites are your top referrers (e.g., directories, Facebook, Twitter) via Google Analytics. You can even take a deeper dive into which posts are most popular and what brings organic traffic in Google Webmaster Tools. Once you have insight on keywords and content that is already drawing an audience, conduct more research on related topics that are trending up.

Our Mobile Addiction

Staying connected via our mobile devices is becoming a cultural phenomenon. Go to any restaurant and you’ll find people at dining tables interacting with their small screen rather than each other. According to HootSuite, “38% of Internet users now access social media via a mobile device.” Is your website mobile responsive? If not, it’s time to change. Not convinced? Go into Google Analytics to check your visitor stats.

Ask a Question

In our post about Google’s Hummingbird algorithm change, we mentioned that content that answers a question has seen a lift in organic visibility. Does your post answer a question? Are you asking questions to encourage comments? It’s the little things that make a blog social.

What other strategies do you use to make your blog social?

photo credit – top: aussiegall
photo credit – body: Jun