7 Ways to Use Social Media to Increase Blog Traffic

This is a guest blog post by Chad from The Blog Builders, a site dedicated to helping people learn how to run a blog and build a legitimate business online.So, you finally have your business blog up and going, but you're still not getting any traffic. Well, for one thing, you need to promote your blog in order to spread the work about it. If not, your blog's content will never obtain its maximum reach. Many successful bloggers use the powers of Facebook and Twitter in order to help increase blog traffic.What's the logic behind this? Both of these social media sites have extremely global, broad reaches. In other words, by leveraging Twitter and Facebook, you increase your global reach among your target audience.

Encourage Facebook and Twitter Sharing

The most important step to attracting your target market is creating relevant content that attracts your target audience. From there, your readers can help your spread the word about your content using one-click Twitter and Facebook sharing tools:

• Ask Visitors to Follow Your Business – Even if visitors like your blog post, there's no guarantee they'll return to your blog. However, they will almost certainly engage on social media sites. Therefore, the more your readers share your content, the higher your chances of gaining new readers from Twitter and Facebook posts.
• Make Social Media Sharing Simple for Visitors – Make sure that your blog gives readers a simple means of sharing your content within their own social networks. Your blog should include visually noticeable social sharing icons on the blog's home page, sidebar and/or after each post.

Complete the Twitter and Facebook Basics

The best way to extend your social networking reach is to create both a personal account, as well as a business account for your business blog. This is a common tactic, as it allows business owners to still remain social on a personal level, while remaining professional with business blog content. Here are the basic steps you need to complete to get this going:

1. Make sure personal profile is complete. Don't forget to ensure that your blog's URL is incorporated into your social media personal and business profiles.
2. Create your blogging profile. Blogging platforms, such as Blogger and WordPress, allow you to create a personal profile. It should include your blog's URL and its SEO-friendly description, your name, gravatar and your business bio information. Once created, all blog posts published through that platform will automatically include this info in the “Author Bio” section.
3. Incorporate your brand into your social media profiles. Social media is an effective tool for building your blog's brand. Therefore, you need to incorporate its brand into your Twitter background and image, as well as your Facebook Business Page.
4. Participate on both social networks. In order to successfully promote your blog on Facebook and Twitter, your posts need to capture the attention of your target audience. Remember that your goal is to network with your audience, socially. So, start, take part in and share conversations and relevant content across the board.
5. Encourage cross promotion among your friends and followers. Share relevant posts published by others on Twitter and Facebook. In return, many of them will share your content as well within their own social networks, increasing your blog's reach.

Want more ideas? Click here to learn more tips for leveraging the powers of Twitter and Facebook for promoting your business blog.Let us know some other ideas you use to grow your blog traffic in the comments below! Thanks!