You pour out your heart and passion out on the page crafting your blog for the world to see. Satisfied with your words, you publish and wait. Days later, you view your blogs statistics to find few readers. How do you gain readers and raise visibility?
The following tips suggest ways to help you share your passion to a wider audience.
Do your Facebook family and friends know you have a blog? Tell them. It can be as simple as, “Hey, did you know I have a blog? Check it out here.” And then add your link. Note: You can share your blog on your Facebook feed if it is not sales oriented. If you want to sell your book or product within Facebook, use your separate author page or your business page.
You can also share a specific blog post on your Facebook feed and author/business pages. Don’t just share your blog post, tell the reader why they would want to read your blog. Many people won’t stop scrolling to read your blog unless you give them a reason to click on your link. Give the reader the hook of your post right up front.
Definition: Hook–this is a literary technique that grabs the reader’s attention within the first few sentences.
Carol Graham posted her blog in the Facebook group Blogging Lounge with this hook: Could you live off the grid for a year with little human contact–if offered $100,000? She then posted her blog titled: What Would You Sacrifice for a Huge Reward? Did Carol’s hook get your attention? Check out her blog here:
Are you posting your blog in appropriate groups? Is your blog themed toward mothers? Find a moms group in Facebook like Coffee & Motherhood with 51K+ members. Do you have a travel blog? Find a travel group like the Facebook group, Travel Bloggers with 4.5K members. Does your blog offer writing tips for authors? Try posting your tips in the Authors group with almost 40K members. Find your niche in Facebook groups to find your audience.
- 200 million people are members of meaningful Facebook groups.**
Many Facebook groups only allow you to post your blog on certain days only. And other groups allow for free posting without having a set time to post within the group. Here are a few examples.
Specific Post Days:
BTR–Blogger’s + Instagram Community:
Christian Moms Who Write (Share Wednesday):
Free Post:
When you post in a group, be sure to hook your reader. Posting the link with the title only may not be enough to encourage your audience to click to your blog. Also, interact with other bloggers to build your tribe.
Do you share your blog topics in group discussions? Have you ever been in a group discussion and thought, “I wrote about this issue in my blog.” As long as the group allows it, post your blog in the discussion feed. Use your blog post to share your passion and build your audience. The sales opportunity will hopefully come after you build relationships.
Note: Be sensitive to group rules if your blog post is sales focused or offers affiliate links.
Social Media Visibility
Being visible on your social media channels helps to fuel followers to your blog. Getting others to know you and your passion can naturally lead to an opportunity to share your writing. Here are some tips to encourage exposure.
- Be consistent–Post on a schedule that works for you.
- Engage with your followers as well as family & friends.
- Use Video & Live Video.
Be consistent in how often you post content. Look at your schedule and dedicate pockets of time where you are able to post. Perhaps, the best days for you are Monday, Wednesday & Friday. Whatever schedule you choose, keep at it. This should keep your followers engaged.
“If you make a habit of posting several times a day and then transition to only a few times a week, you will start to lose followers and generate less engagement per post. This means that the best posting frequency for Instagram is the posting frequency that you can consistently maintain for the rest of your natural life.” states Social media pro, Neil Patel. *
This post suggests the following posting frequency:
Instagram: Once a day.*
Facebook: Once a day or less.*
Twitter: 10 or more times. Lifetime of a tweet is 18 minutes.*
LinkedIn: 3 times a week.*
Engage with others by commenting on their posts to increase your visibility on Facebook. This engagement lets the Facebook algorithm know you are interacting. And when others respond, your posts will be boosted to your friends which increases your visibility.
Be sure to ask questions to draw others in to engage. Ask “What was the highlight of your day today?” And then add a picture of your pet for a visual. Or ask for a favorite family recipe and post a picture of your best dish. Ask “how to” questions like, “How do I get this stain out of my favorite shirt?” Your audience answering these questions equals engagement which helps to boost your visibility.
Use Live Video to gain exposure. 71% of people have increased their online video viewing.** With this increased viewership, your authentic and original content is more likely to be seen.
Go live to read an excerpt from your blog. Be sure to ask questions at the end to encourage engagement and start a conversation. For those not able to watch you live, label your video with an attention grabbing title and then offer your hook. Use a title generator to title your blog video.
To learn engagement techniques for your video’s, sign up for a live video boot camp.
**https://blog.hootsuite.com/facebook-statistics/
Evelyn Mann is a mother of a miracle and her story has been featured on WFLA Channel 8, Fox35 Orlando, Inspirational Radio and the Catholic News Agency. A special interview with her son on the Facebook Page, Special Books by Special Kids, has received 1.4M views. Along with giving Samuel lots of hugs and kisses, Evelyn enjoys hot tea, sushi and writing. Visit her at miraclemann.com.
We love helping your growing in your writing career.
No Comments