One of the key points I explain in my book, 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, is that for a business to succeed in building a brand and growing, it needs to surround consumers with branded online experiences, so those consumers can self-select how they want to engage with the brand. The same theory holds true for bloggers who want to grow their own blog brands and audiences across the social web.
Following are 20 easy things you can do to promote your blog across the social web. You’ll notice that many of the suggestions listed below require a one-time set-up and you’re done. Some of the suggestions don’t even happen online! Others require you to do a bit more work, but the end result is worth it in terms of directly and indirectly promoting your blog to a wider audience. Take a look and try to implement as many of the suggestions listed below as possible to jump-start your blog promotion efforts.
- Feed your blog content to your Twitter profile, Facebook profile and page, LinkedIn profile, and so on. Use tools like Twitterfeed and the tools incorporated into social networking accounts to do this.
- Publish eye-catching social media icons in a visible location on your blog’s sidebar, so visitors can easily connect with you on your other social media profiles.
- Make sure your various social networking and other online profiles include current links to your full spectrum of online profiles, blogs, and so on.
- Feed your blog content to any LinkedIn groups that you belong to that allow you to do so using the News feature in LinkedIn.
- Include the URL to your blog, Twitter profile, and so on in your offline correspondence.
- Include links to your various online profiles and blog in your email signature.
- Make sure links to your key online profiles and blog are included in the signature line in any forums you participate in.
- At the very least, the URL for your blog and Twitter profile should be on your business card.
- Make sure your blog content gets in front of as many people as possible by syndicating your content through services like Demand Media Blog Distribution Network and Newstex.
- Use widgets and social tools offered by Twitter and Facebook (such as the Facebook Like button) to publish your other social web activities on your blog.
- Continually publish comments on other blogs and link back to your own using the same keyword phrase in the name box every time.
- Hold a blog contest and be sure to promote it on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and so on.
- Make sure you offer sharing links on your blog and other online content using tools like the TweetMeme Retweet button.
- Write guest blog posts for other blogs in your niche and be sure to include links back to you blog, Twitter profile, and so on.
- Hold a tweet chat or tweetup with people attending the same events or conferences that you plan to attend.
- Create an email newsletter to go with your blog and be sure to include links to your Twitter profile and other social networking profiles in it.
- Be retweetworthy in an effort to get more of your tweets that include links to your content retweeted.
- Publish press releases about your blog with links to your blog and social media profiles.
- Brand your Twitter profile background and provide more URLs than the standard profile allows.
- Keep publishing amazing, shareworthy content and organically interlink your branded online destinations!