How Bloggers Use Social Media
I
am a massive Pinterest fan and have been using it for quite a while now and it
has taught me lots of different design ideas, given me hundreds of blogging tips and showcased lots of entrepreneurs and bloggers. It has been really important to me as a blogger too as it has helped me grow my following enormously.
If any of you are unfamiliar with Pinterest, well to start with, where have you
been. But, Pinterest is a site which enables you to add pictures from the
web and from Pinterest itself and add them to different boards on your profile. These boards act as mind maps, plans, displays or pin boards, where you
collect all these images.
Many of the pictures that are on Pinterest are
originally from Tumblr, WeHeartIt or small businesses, so it can lead to all sorts of different places. It is a great place to find out how to do something or for inspiration with things like graphic design or style ideas.
How do you use it most effectively to gain followers and promote your blog or business
Pinterest is also great for marketing your blog and reaching out to new customers.
Board names and cover images:
Take advantage of board names and cover images these have to stand out and reflect the rest of the board. You should include the extra key word of the board and you could make it a little interesting by adding a keyboard symbol or using all caps to make your boards stand out from others.
Blog dedicated board:
Have a board completely dedicated to your blog so that all your posts are together. This is really important to keep people updated with your blog and to have a whole collection of your posts in one place so they are all easily accessible. It is also a good idea to pin your posts to other relevant boards as well in case your followers aren't following your blog board.
Bio and picture:
Add a bio and picture that stands out as being yours and no one else's. Include a link to your website or other social media accounts and have your tag line or a call to action as well so people who click on your profile know exactly what you do and what you are going to give them.
Pinning times:
Figuring out when its best to pin and to which boards would be really useful so that you can make the most of your use of Pinterest. If you don't do this your pins could just disappear down to the bottom of everyones feed and never be noticed.
Make yours a business profile:
Making your profile into a business profile, even if you aren't a business, is great because it gives you access to all the different statistics to do with your blog and pins. This can be useful for figuring out which kinds of pins are most likely to get clicked on and if your blog is getting much traffic through from Pinterest or not.
WOw I have so many followers
Finally I have to point out that I am amazingly impressed with how many people now follow my Pinterest account, because it has reached a massive 289, so I am extremely grateful for everyone who follows my Pinterest and cares about what I pin. And if you don't please do - My Pinterest.
Update: It's now May 2016 and I have managed to increase my number of followers on Pinterest to over 1200.
How do you use Pinterest to gain followers of your blog?
Social media can be a tricky thing to get to grips with and to use to you best advantage for some people but it can utilise blogging and help make sure that everyone is noticing your blog and knows what you are about.
Using social media to promote your blog or business will benefit you a lot and can make better connections with customers and readers. I've been finding loads of helpful sites that have tips about social media and how best to use it so that you get as much out of it as possible, so I decided to share what I found with you.
If you check out my Pinterest board all about Social Media you might find even more helpful resources too.
Design Instruct - Quick Guide to Social Media Image Sizes - an article including all the different pixel image sizes for all social media websites.
Hello Society - this is an agency that helps represent people across social media to create effective social media campaigns.
Oak and Oats - Social Media Musts - must do tips and tricks for using social media effectively to promote and market your blog or business.
Icons DB - social media icon resource, find any different style of icon to use to link to your social media accounts on your website or blog.
Coschedule - social media scheduler for most social networks although this is a paid option and read Shop the Bar - Coschedule to find out why they love coschedule so much and how to use it well.
Mashable - Social Media Tips for Bloggers - really useful article with simple easy ways to use social media if you're a blogger.
Quick Sprout - Guide to Building Your Blog Audience - detailed, useful and extensive guide on building you blog audience using content schedulers and social media.
Copy Blogger - Blogs and Social Media - really interesting article on why blogs count as a form of social media, no useful tips but a very interesting point of view.
