Love it or loathe it, Social Medias are part of our lives and are pretty much here to stay. If you are a blogger, this means you really really CAN'T ignore them if you want to get your content out there.
And it is confusing, and daunting and some of you might think it is stupid, I totally get it. I was like that at first.
But guess what? You could be writing the best content ever, and have the most stunning pictures there will ever be and no one would find out about it simply because you failed to promote it. A classic case of "If a tree falls in the forest and nobody heard it, how can we know it did fall?" To get people's attention, you got to make some noise (the right kind of noise)
The problem is that social medias are a plenty, and all work differently and it is hard to figure out where to start.
Home Cyn Home is on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Google + and Instagram. Each have their specific challenges, and strengths, and I will walk you through them below.
This was the first social media I got into to promote my page when it became clear that I could no longer avoid doing it. If you have a Facebook account, you can create a page (in fact as many as you want) for your blog, website or business. Your personal account will not be displayed on said page and you can start building a community from there.
That said, things have changed a lot with Facebook, and people who took the time to like your page might not see your content in their feed as easily as they would have a few years ago. Blame it on Facebook being too dense a network. You should not neglect it though, and the good new is that it isn't a very demanding media.
You can still get exposure if you post at least once a day. The best way is to share contents from other source. The big strength of Facebook pages is that it allows you to interact with your readers outside the blog and they get notifications if someone replied to their comment on Facebook. It keeps the discussion going.
Many consider this social media as frivolous and silly. I did that for years and that was a BIG mistake. Twitter is the platform where all bloggers and brands have a handle and presence. You can't afford not to be part of it.
Due to the 160 characters limitation, you need to go straight to the point and learn the art of catchy tweets. Bear in mind that these days, adding pictures is a must if you want people to notice you as well.
Of all the social medias, Twitter is probably the most demanding. The feeds are faced paced and you will need to promote your content several times to get it seen. Aim at posting at least 5-6 tweets a day and avoid too frequent repetitions. The good new is that you don't have to be glued to Twitter 24/7. It is fairly easy to schedule your posts in advance using a scheduling service app. I myself use Hootsuite and I spend about 15-20 minutes in the morning scheduling my tweets for the day. I then will check twitter on occasion and re-tweet and interact with those I follow myself. Favourite what you like, re-tweet what you really really love and think your followers will love too.
Google+
I'm going to be frank, this one is my least favourite social media. BUT, it is one that gets me a lot of traffic, with minimal effort. The reason being that Google loves Google. And things that get shared on Google+ will be appearing higher in search engines results. Things that get a lot of +1s even more so.
I really just post my links to the blog on my profile for all to see and am part of a few select communities in which I share the same links. This takes about 2-3 minutes of my time each time I publish a blog post. I know some people that are for more active than I on Google and get good results from it. It is worth giving it a try, and check it on occasion. Bloggers that have a presence there usually also have a presence on Twitter, so I find it easier to keep up with them elsewhere.
If you write a lifestyle blog, chances are you have lots of pictures to share. And Instagram is the absolute BEST place for that. I only started keeping an account specifically for the blog recently, and this is one of those things I should have done long ago (follow me there if you haven't already, just click the link above). A lot of the pictures I post there aren't on my blog but reflect the theme of the blog : colours, good food and DIY. It sets the tone for who I am and what Home Cyn Home stands for. The best way to get people noticing you there is the use of hash tags. Some are more popular than other and lots of people tend to follow a few that are dear to their hearts.
My favourites are #ABMlifeiscolorful #abmcrafty and #vscocam, whenever one of my picture fits one of these category I add the appropriate hash tag.
A Beautiful Mess also tend to re-gram what they like from their hash tags, so if you post quality pictures and they like it, they will share it giving you even more exposure. This happened to me recently after they re-grammed my dragon fruit picture (#ABMlifeiscolorful).
Confession : I am not as active as I should be on this one. But as a lifestyle blogger it makes a lot of sense to have a presence there. I will get to master it one day, that moment isn't just now. What I do however is make a point to pin all my DIY and Recipe posts to appropriate folders in my account. I have a Home Cyn Home Arts and Craft, a Home Cyn Home recipe and recently started a Home Cyn Home Blog tips folder as well.
And of course, I still pin recipes, home decors and ideas to my other non blog related boards, because we all need a source of inspiration
Still feeling a bit confused? Start small. You don't have to be on ALL social media platforms out there. In fact, many might not even be the right fit for you and your blog. And guess what? That is ok, completely ok. If you don't have crafts projects or pictures on your blog, then Pinterest and Instagram might not be your priorities. You first need to start hanging out where your audience is hanging out. And if you don't fully know your audience just yet, Twitter is probably the best place to start these days (my personal opinion,do what you must with it).
My advice is to be very active on at least two social media and do your promoting work correctly on them.
Have you given social medias a chance? Which ones are you favourite?