Social Media Marketing Basics for Bloggers

In the digital world, social media marketing is a crucial skill for bloggers. It’s not just about posting content; it’s about strategically using platforms like TikTok, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to drive traffic to your blog. This guide will cover the social media marketing basics needed to effectively promote your blog in the unique digital landscape of each platform.

If you haven’t already started generating Email leads, you might want to start by understanding how important it is in my post about Generating Leads Like a Pro.

Social Media Marketing Basics — This post may contain affiliate links. When utilized to shop, we may receive a small commission at no cost to you!

Each social media platform has its own set of rules and audience. Knowing the unique attributes of each and choosing the right ones for your blog’s content and audience is the first step in effective social media marketing.

TikTok for Bloggers: A New Frontier

TikTok has emerged as a significant force in social media. For bloggers, it offers an opportunity to create short, engaging videos that can drive traffic to their blogs. Understanding how to craft content that resonates with the TikTok audience is key.

Depending on your niche on TikTok, you may do best with photo reels featuring text from your writing or showing off creative endeavors. Or, for a blog built to accommodate monetization through courses or other digital services – your ideal client may want to get to know you more “behind the scenes” where you are conveying information with them personally in your video.

Pinterest: The Visual Search Engine for Bloggers

Pinterest functions like a visual search engine, perfect for driving traffic to blogs, especially those with strong visual content. Learn the best practices for creating pins and boards that not only attract viewers but also lead them to your blog. While it is a search engine, it does have some functions more in line with social media.

To increase traffic you can join group boards in your niche.
For pins that convert, you will want to own the photos used in your pins (in other words, no public domain stock photos) and you will want to use large text to convey the idea behind your post.

You can make the most out of Pinterest by scheduling posts using their built-in timer and rotating days and boards you post your content too! Some posts that don’t do well at 10am one day, might go viral at 10pm a week later. Experiment to find out.

Instagram: Telling Your Blog’s Story Visually

Instagram is all about visual storytelling. This section will discuss strategies for connecting your Instagram content with your blog, ensuring your followers are engaged with your images and encouraged to visit your blog. Full disclosure: I do not personally maintain a professional presence on Instagram! I have invested in Instagram training and can vouch for its incredible reach potential. However, it is a very aesthetic, millennial environment. Although I am a millennial – nothing in my life is aesthetic! So, I don’t relate to Instagram or enjoy it very much. You can and should utilize social media that you enjoy! However, posting a few aesthetic, niche specific posts each week, and doing only a little bit of keyword research for your hashtags can help you grow significantly on Instagram.

Facebook Marketing: Building a Community Around Your Blog

Facebook’s diverse features offer unique opportunities for bloggers. From groups to pages, learn how to use Facebook to build a community around your blog and engage effectively with your audience.

This website has a Facebook group in its beta stages, although I am a faithful Kajabi Subscriber and could host my community there. I’ve found that the path of least resistance is to go directly to where my audience is, instead of dragging them to a new platform. I strictly use Kajabi for e-learning and landing pages! Most of my e-learning leads through my Facebook page audience though.

I highly recommend maintaining a good Facebook page if, like me, you choose not to pursue a presence on Instagram. The majority of your ideal clients will be on one platform or the other!

Twitter/X: The Art of Conciseness and Timeliness

Twitter’s strength lies in its brevity and timeliness. You must learn effective strategies for using Twitter to provide quick updates, engage in real-time conversations, and drive traffic to your blog. This doesn’t work for every niche. For a marketing/lifestyle niche, it is not generally the best platform. However, it is one of the social media outlets that can be hard to beat when your website focuses on news/journalism-style updates!

A successful social media strategy requires a cohesive plan that integrates various platforms. I would suggest having at minimum, a Pinterest account (remember, it’s technical a search engine, not social media) and one other social media platform. If you are capable of managing a third, feel free to add that in too!

I share all of my new content on Facebook.
Then I discuss all of my new content or content cluster themes on TikTok.
I advertise both of the above on Pinterest.

This formula has worked well for me, along with rotating and reposting content every 1-2 weeks on Pinterest and Facebook. If the content doesn’t perform well twice, I spread out its rotation or remove it from my rotation entirely.

Creating and curating content that resonates on each social media platform is crucial. Remember how I pointed out the aesthetic aspect of Instagram? This is a beautiful place to share beauty, to you can stick with specific color schemes and your audience will love your content! It’s a great place for baking, cooking, photography, and travel to thrive!

If Instagram thrives off aesthetic, TikTok thrives off of chaos. Sure, there are high-performing aesthetic influencers! But your average creator on TikTok shares their opinions, ideas, and the “mundane” parts of their life. It is a great trust-building platform as it provides ample opportunity to relate and communicate with your ideal reader!

Measuring the performance of your social media activities is vital to understand what works and what doesn’t.

Most platforms require you to create a business account to analyze social media content. There are minimum requirements for doing this on most platforms; Pinterest and Facebook are exceptions to that and will accept brand-new creators.

Each video I post on TikTok, I receive notifications about their performance when TikTok notices something noteworthy. This can be very helpful!

Every social media platform has its set of challenges. Identifying these challenges and developing strategies to overcome them will help you navigate the social media landscape more effectively.

One of the biggest challenges I see most bloggers face is their introversion. Many writers tend to be introverted (of course there are exceptions to this) and this can cause us to forget the SOCIAL aspect of social media. It is imperative that as creators we don’t allow ourselves to become consumers. Regularly relate to your ideal reader by commenting on their content – no matter how big or small their audience is. When people ask you questions – always be fast to respond (bonus points if it’s TikTok and you respond with a video!)

Collaborating with influencers can significantly boost your blog’s visibility. But, this tool is really best reserved for bloggers who are selling or promoting a specific course, product, or service. Courses, in particular, can sell well this way if you have affiliate programs available for promoting your course.

The future of social media marketing for bloggers is bright and filled with opportunities for growth and engagement. As we conclude, we encourage bloggers to continuously learn, adapt, and innovate in their social media marketing strategies.