This is a Guest post written by Amanda Thomas. If you would like to write for TechieMania, check our guest posting guidelines.
The internet has shaped our world in so many vast ways. In advertising alone, the web has allowed businesses to reach target audiences with only a click of the mouse. Now interactive exchanges create ongoing productive dialogues with social groups that can serve to promote, shape and change today’s digital marketplace. Social media marketing opens many doors when looking for a new avenue to reach consumers. In this type of marketing, bloggers strive to create the most engaging content to develop online conversations which can provide websites with additional exposure. Here’s a look at some general ideas for leveraging social media to help market your blog.
New Visitors :
Getting more interest for your blog isn’t as simple as just creating various social media profiles, however. Social media marketing often requires a more active approach than just passively creating an account with a profile page and hoping that your audience will find you. Leveraging the various social media sites to find new visitors or to find yourself a few fellow bloggers that share the same topic are a good way to bring in more visitors to your blog. When it comes to social media site, using Twitter to gain “followers” is one strategy, though you can also use Facebook as another common medium, both of which are used throughout several different demographic lines. Depending on the type of blog you have, you may want to offer instructional media, which would either require photos or videos. Keep this in mind if you end up branching out with YouTube, Flickr or Picasa as you can use these sites to provide images of products and testimonials.
Repeat Customers:
While you can reach out to new visitors with social media, you can also utilize these sites to help establish a rapport with your existing loyal visitors. Even if you have a very basic blog, allowing user generated content can help reward your visitors by allowing them to feel that their voices are being heard too. Social media sites can offer an even greater potential for user generated content as they often allow other users to provide feedback and even referrals that would have otherwise been overlooked. Having a lot of user generated content about your blog signals to Google that a lot of people are linking to your blog because of a buzz-worthy post, and therefore helps with search engine optimization. At the very least, user generated content will allow you access to feedback from your visitors who can provide a unique and personalized persepective about your blog.
Design:
Your blog’s design is very important because not only can it make the difference of first impressions with your new visitors, it also serves to help make the navigation process easier as well. Make sure that your blog is easy to navigate and that any of the social media icons you may want to present are noticeable but not obnoxious. Though it is certainly commendable to find creative ways of incorporating an RSS feed icon or social media button like a Twitter bird into your site’s design, you want to make sure that it doesn’t go completely unnoticed.
Convenience:
Another thing to keep in mind is that most of your site’s visitors will want to have some convenience when it comes to bookmarking your site so adding widgets to your blog such as Facebook “Like” buttons or Digg buttons will help make the bookmarking process easier and quicker. You don’t have to bombard your visitors with social bookmarking buttons, but having a few to the sites you use the most for marketing should be sufficient. Also, removing the hassle of extra steps can improve your blog’s usability. For instance, having YouTube videos on your blog posts for your visitors eliminates the extra step of going to another website, so it might be a good idea to imbed the video on your post as well as providing a link to it.
Your blog’s design is very important because not only can it make the difference of first impressions with your new visitors, it also serves to help make the navigation process easier as well. Make sure that your blog is easy to navigate and that any of the social media icons you may want to present are noticeable but not obnoxious. Though it is certainly commendable to find creative ways of incorporating an RSS feed icon or social media button like a Twitter bird into your site’s design, you want to make sure that it doesn’t go completely unnoticed.
Convenience:
Another thing to keep in mind is that most of your site’s visitors will want to have some convenience when it comes to bookmarking your site so adding widgets to your blog such as Facebook “Like” buttons or Digg buttons will help make the bookmarking process easier and quicker. You don’t have to bombard your visitors with social bookmarking buttons, but having a few to the sites you use the most for marketing should be sufficient. Also, removing the hassle of extra steps can improve your blog’s usability. For instance, having YouTube videos on your blog posts for your visitors eliminates the extra step of going to another website, so it might be a good idea to imbed the video on your post as well as providing a link to it.
When to Ask for Help:
If you are running a blog that has a considerable following, or maybe just has great potential but cannot seem to get the attention it needs, you may want to consider consulting an internet marketing company to help provide the extra social boost that you need. Although it may not show, many non-profit organizations and personal blogs take this approach, much the same as businesses do, because the increased traffic often results in greater revenue. Whether you’re trying to make money online through personal blogging or e-commerce, sometimes a little professional help is necessary to get the ball rolling.
Are you using Social Media Marketing for your blog? Do share your experience with us, here in the comments section.
If you are running a blog that has a considerable following, or maybe just has great potential but cannot seem to get the attention it needs, you may want to consider consulting an internet marketing company to help provide the extra social boost that you need. Although it may not show, many non-profit organizations and personal blogs take this approach, much the same as businesses do, because the increased traffic often results in greater revenue. Whether you’re trying to make money online through personal blogging or e-commerce, sometimes a little professional help is necessary to get the ball rolling.
Are you using Social Media Marketing for your blog? Do share your experience with us, here in the comments section.
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