I’ve been blogging now for 19 months and in that time, the way I promote my posts has swapped and changed so much.
It started out as totally non-existent, you know what it’s like when you’re new – you really believe that just writing it is 
somehow enough!?
Then it went to the point of crazy – I was spending hours each day doing all the promotion.
Now, I think I have finally found a balance that works for me. Admittedly, I have lost a few views from when I was doing the crazy amount of promotion, but I have gained about fourteen hours a week so I think its a worthwhile trade.
I decided I wanted two networks to concentrate on and I chose Twitter and Facebook.
Click the links in the paragraphs below to go to posts about how best to use each network to promote your blog posts.
I chose Twitter because its always in my top five referrals and I love it as a network so I enjoy spending time there. I chose Facebook because although I curse it and its stupid algorithms, it does sort of work. What I also like about these networks is that both are easy to pre-schedule updates for.
I decided Instagram wasn’t working for as a blog promotion tool. I do still post there sometimes, but now I only post when I want to and what I want to – it was getting ridiculous posting photos just for the sake of posting them.
I have stopped pinning my blog posts altogether. I enjoy Pinterest and I do still use it sometimes to pin things I like, but as a promotion tool, I just wasn’t feeling it. It’s a great site for recipes, crafts, things like that, but for my post types, it just isn’t worth the time.
I also stopped using Stumble Upon. I adore Stumble Upon, it was a fantastic traffic referrer for me. I chose to stop because for it to truly work, you need to Stumble other people’s posts (a lot) and I found myself reading more and more posts and being on there for hours. If I do extend my promotion again in the future, I know this network will be top of my list.
So, with Twitter and Facebook only, it makes it much easier for me to concentrate on spreading the word. I still use Facebook groups to share my social media blasts, and now I am concentrating solely on the networks I felt were working for me, I don’t feel like I am wasting my time with them.
I still find that Google is usually my top referrer per month so I feel a little less scared of changing my promotion strategy than I did before I started getting organic traffic.
Did your methods of promoting your posts change with time? Do you have a tried and tested promotion strategy or do you just wing it? Let me know in the comments 🙂
You can find me here: Twitter Facebook Bloglovin Pinterest and Instagram Please do stop by and say hi!
Yes debbie. My strategies have totally changed and I’m like you in that some methods i used to use i am doing or have stopped and others I am working on. I totally get this post and can relate. I am however finding different types of posts work better on different social media so I promote certain things on twitter, others on facebook and others on pinterest. But i know what not to waste time promoting on certain networks and it has helped cut down on time wasting. 🙂 We sure learn as we keep blogging don’t we. Angela from Daysinbed
I agree that some posts do work better on certain networks, I just wish I had the time to work out what should go where for me! Yes, we’re always learning and I imagine in ten years time, we still will be!
Promote? That’s a thing?
Just kidding. I don’t spend much time promoting my blog posts. That time should be spend on my shop. And it will be. If only I could find the time to spend on it.
Have you heard of Buffer? It’s an app that schedules updates to all sorts of social media sites. I just found it yesterday and haven’t had a chance to play with it yet. Maybe that’ll help me with promo. (Probably not, but I can dream…)
There’s enough time for everything we want to get done is there?
I’ve heard of Buffer, but I’ve never tried it. I use Tweetdeck for Twitter and the rest I just do manually. I think scheduling does help because you can do it all in one go then just forget about it 🙂
I use twitter, pinterest and Stumbleupon. My referrals vary between all 3 but its definitely worth the effort.
I agree – when you find the networks that work for you, it’s totally worth the effort!
I use Twitter, Facebook, my email lists, and Pinterest…oh, and Google. But I don’t bother checking to see how effective they are anymore–I’m finding it difficult to keep up with the traffic I do have. Not that I’m complaining! It takes a lot of time to reciprocate, but it’s nice to see what everyone else is writing about.
I don’t check as deeply as I probably should! I generally just look at my referrals list and see what comes in at the top. It is nice to have the interaction, but I agree that it can be a bit overwhelming (in a good way) sometimes