Promoting & advertising your blog via social media

Tim LiewSlouching towards Thatcham

mail@slouchingtowardsthatcham.com

@thatchamdad

• Why do I need to promote or advertise my blog?

• Getting the basics right

• Promoting your blog for free

• Advertising on Facebook

• Advertising on Twitter

In this session …

The internet is full of content… And it’s getting busier with every passing second

The internet is full of content… And it’s getting busier with every passing second

“Content is king” … but is the truth still as simple as that?

16%Average reach of a postto a Facebook page in 2012

1,500Posts that could appear on an average Facebook user’s News Feed per day

Why do I need to promote or advertise my blog?

1 billionHours of video watchedby YouTube users every day

3%Average reach of a postto a Facebook page in 2016

Good content remains fundamental – but the biggest challenge facing bloggers is how to be seen when there is so much content competing for readers’ limited attention.

““ 6,000

Tweets per second

24Half-life of a tweet in minutes

1.7 secondsThe average time a Facebook post is visible on a phone as a user scrolls

Promotion enables you to reach more of your existing audience - advertising

enables you to reach new, targeted audiences

• Facebook page (not personal profile)

• Distinctive, consistent branding

• Unique voice

• Promotion drives readers to your

blog …

• … Relevant, quality content brings

them back

Get the basics right first

Why you need a Facebook page

• Separate blog from personal audiences• Native scheduling capability• Access advertising• Access to post insights (organic & paid)

How do I promote my blog for free?

Scheduling tools Facebook ‘invite to like’ Tricks of the trade Like-minded communities

Timing

How many is too many?

Facebook groups

LinkedIn & StumbleUpon

Linkies

Pods & tribes

Twitter chats

Hashtags & mentions

Competitions & giveaways

Share & engage

Email lists

SEO (Yoast)

Headlines

Subscribe & SM buttons

‘After the hour’

https://coschedule.com/headline-analyzer

Calls to action

• Don’t over-promote

• Tag other pages and users

• Share, not repost

• Share other people’s content

• Dates & milestones

• Time zones

Top tips for promoting your blog

Advertising on Facebook

Basic requirements

Facebook page

Advertising account

How it works Other considerations

‘Boosts’ (also adverts)

Can promote post or page

Standard image size

Minimise text on image

Credit card / PayPal Embedded content > external linksObjective-optimised campaigns

Minimum £1 per day Avoid ToS violations

Setting up a Facebook advertising account

How to boost a Facebook post

• Demographics (gender, age, geography)

• Top tip: restrict countries

• Interests

• Places & events

• Behaviours (e.g. charitable donations,

recently travelled)

Targeting your audience

Narrowing down your target audience

• Ignore Facebook recommendations –

set your own

• Define total budget: minimum £1/day

• Note estimated reach and potential

audience (varies)

• Set desired campaign length

• And boost!

Set budget and duration

Understanding your post insights

Click here to access post insights

Split between organic & paid reach (hover to see numbers)

Reach data (as displayed on post)

Engagement data (includes image & video views where relevant)

‘Negative’ actions

• Same setup as a standard boost

• Focus on quality, not quantity

• Top tip: Target selected countries –

avoid the farms!

Promoting your page for new followers

• Good targeting maximises reach – and best chance of beating

Facebook’s algorithm

• Use short videos and strong images with few words – pay

attention to size/shape

• Experiment with different targeting (e.g. broad vs niche)

• Avoid external links where possible

• Use post insights to learn for future boosts

• Adverts Manager for A/B testing and different objectives/calls

to action

Top tips for Facebook advertising

Advertising on Twitter

Basic requirements

Any Twitter account

Credit card

How it works Other considerations

Promoted tweets

Can promote post or page

Standard image size

Objective-optimised campaigns

Up to 4 images

@s & images no longer count in 140

Twitter advertising setup & analytics

Audience targeting options

Target followers of specific accounts (e.g. @BlogOnUK, @RCN)

Budget & creatives

• Good targeting maximises campaign performance and

‘bang for buck’

• Experiment with different targeting (e.g. broad vs niche) –

especially the follower targeting capability

• @ mentions and hashtags (but don’t overdo #s)

• Use campaign analytics to learn for future boosts

• Set up different promoted tweets for A/B testing

Top tips for Twitter advertising

3M confidential © 3M 2017. All rights reserved.

Summary

► Increasing content online makes it difficult for audiences to find blogs

► Promotion and advertising can help drive reach and follower growth

► ‘Free’ promotion can be effective – and easily automated

► Simple, guided processes for creating adverts to meet different objectives

► Advertising offers the ability to highly targeted audiences –without costing a fortune

► Valuable insights available that can help refine future activity