Wednesday 20 May 2015

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Discussion: Blogs and Social Networks - Promoting Your Blog

Blogs and Social Networks - Promoting Your Blog

I've been thinking lately about the different ways bloggers promote our blogs.

Social networks has changed a fair bit over the years I've been blogging. I think when I started, Facebook and Twitter were the prevalent social networks in use. Now, it's not uncommon to see blogs linked to Google+, Pinterest, Tumblr or even Instagram.

At the moment, I only use Twitter. I used to have a page on Facebook which was updated with Networked Blogs, but I found it wasn't really bring much traffic my blog's way, so I deleted it. I tried Pinterest for a while, and Google+ for an even shorter time, but I gave up on those, too. I found it became too much work, too time consuming. As things stand right now, I write my review, I post it, I Tweet it, I also post it on Goodreads, Bookbridgr and Amazon. Then I post the link in the various places it's needed on my blog, add it to challenges on other blogs, and email it to the publicist, if it's a review copy. Depending on the book, this can take from an hour to an hour and a half. Without promoting my blog and reviews on other social networks. I do not want to spend any longer on one book, even to promote my blog in the process. It becomes a chore, and seriously frustrating.

Yet I know there are others who do a whole host of things to promote their blog and their reviews elsewhere, and I simply don't know how you guys do it without spending hours on your computer.

So how do you do it? What social networks or other online tools do you use to promote your blog? How much time does it take you? What do you find is most helpful to your blog? And have you tweaked things over time so promoting your blog is more time efficient? Share your tips, because I think I might need to change how I do things, and I'm really not looking forward to the idea.

Thank you!

9 comments:

  1. I basically only use twitter! I used to use facebook, but gee, facebook is rubbish these days since it cuts of views and all sorts of things. -_- I love instagram and goodreads, but I don't feel like I actively promote my blog there, per se. I'm more just promoting pictures or reviews, but it's super easy to find links to my blog in my profiles! So I have no idea how to promote effectively. >_< I don't want to be spammy, you know? So often I just rely on twitter and people randomly finding me. I should probably work on this too!!
    Thanks for stopping by @ Paper Fury!

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    1. I feel exactly like you. Just don't know how to do it! I don't use Instagram for reviews, but I might post a photo of what I'm reading, but that's about it. I don't know what's the best way to go about it.

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  2. Great topic! I have been looking more into this recently and it is very time consuming to actively promote your blog. (this is probably why being a blogger can be a full-time job :P) I think using the correct hashtags, joining readathons, challenges etc are all good ways to promote! Bloglovin' helps to automatically tweet out a link to your new blog posts if you enable it. That can be quite helpful and you don't have to spend time doing it. ;)

    - Ee Hwee @ Bursting Books

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  3. I've wondered the same things myself. I mostly only use Twitter though I have my blog set up to automatically post to both Twitter and Facebook - I get hardly any traffic via FB. I've cared a little less about the stats at the moment, I'm more focused on having fun. I am curious as to how others do it though - how much time they must be spending just with promotion and networking.

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    1. Yeah, it feels like other people spend a lot of time promoting their blogs. It's not so much for stats, it's more about conversation; very few of my posts get commented on. I might get some replies on Twitter, but not on my actual blog. It's sad.

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  4. I agree that Facebook doesn't bring in visitors. It is more of a numbers thing, like a badge of honor when you have a lot of followers, which means nothing without the traffic. That is why I don't use GFC. It is just a number. I get clicks through Twitter, but more frequently visitors are generated from an author spreading the word, and RSS readers. I don't pay a lot of attention to the following numbers, it is more important to me that I have engaged readers. This is a great post.

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    1. Thanks! That's it, engaged readers! I want the readers, and I want them to actually read my posts and talk to me about them. Too many of my posts are getting zero attention. And I feel it's my fault for not promoting properly? People talk to me on Twitter, but I'm not sure how many of them come over here. :(

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  5. LOL...I absolutely stink at social media, so I'm probably not the best person to ask about this! But I do use both Twitter and Instagram, and have found them to be extremely helpful in terms of comments, page views and whatnot. Thanks for sharing this and, as always, fabulous discussion! ♥

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    1. Thanks! :) Perhaps I should try using Instagram more for reviews? I don't know. I'll look into it. We'll see! Thanks again!

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