Last Updated on by Michael Brockbank
Social media plays a massive role in society today, but will it help a blog grow organically? The short answer is yes – but with a massive caveat. Don’t think that just because you have 100 followers on Twitter your blog will see that traffic.
There are a lot of cogs turning when it comes to blogging and social media. They’re not always connected or exclusive. And a lot of experts will tell you that a social presence will make a difference in the success of your site.
At the end of the day, it’ll come down to your content, audience, and purpose.
A Blog With Social Media
Some experts believe that you should use social media to promote your blog to drive traffic. It’s the same premise when you publish a book. More eyes on the post means more chances of making money, right?
Not necessarily.
A lot of things have to click perfectly for you to generate a lot of interest in your content. Even if you have quite a few ardent fans of your social media account, they still might not see your blog post when you share it.
That’s because of the sheer volume of social content that is shared every second. Think about it; in August of 2022, there were about 6,000 tweets made on Twitter every second.
What eventually happens is that your post gets buried among thousands of posts at any given time. The odds that your specific audience will see your content are pretty low at that point.
Now, I’m not saying that you should never share your blog posts on social sites. I’m just pointing out that you shouldn’t hold your breath that your blog will blow up overnight.
Your Audience
Your niche is going to play a massive role in how you’re going to cultivate your audience. And niches that aren’t as popular aren’t going to generate as much interest.
For instance, the health and fitness industries are far more popular than freelance writing. You can see the vast differences in audience types just by scrolling through Instagram.
Your Content and Trends
Niches aren’t the only thing that is going to affect the interaction of your posts. What you share and the trends going on at the time can also influence engagement.
Here’s something to consider: people on social sites will often get more engagement through responding to another post than they will when sharing something from their blog.
I think that has more to do with algorithms hating creators, though.
When You Post
The time of day is quite important when trying to target specific individuals or groups. Some posts that you make at 9:00 am may fall flat compared to posts you make at 1:30 pm.
Every audience type is different, and it’ll take a bit of trial and error to engage your social media followers to read your blog post. Luckily, there are all kinds of tracking tools to help find when it’s ideal for you to post new content.
Frequency of Your Posts
If you post something once per day, it’s far less likely that you’ll see any positive results. According to AgoraPulse, 5 to 7 posts per day on Twitter is a good place to start. I’ve seen people state how they post more than 20 times per day.
That’s just on a single social media app. What about posting on the others as well?
That’s why a lot of businesses, celebrities, and influencers have social media managers. It could easily become a full-time job just to post content on all social channels.
Engaging with Others
Lastly, you can’t just post something on social media and then let it ride. This is especially true if you have people commenting or asking questions. The whole premise of social media is to be social.
The more you interact with your audience, the more likely they’ll trust your content. The more engaged they are, the greater your chances of capitalizing on it for your blog.
A Blog Without Social Media
There are a lot of people who swear up and down that every blog should have a social media account. And to some degree, I agree with them. However, I don’t believe social media is a make-or-break element for a blog’s success.
Let me introduce you to blogging with SEO in mind.
In reality, organic search will generate more traffic to a blog than any social media platform, especially when done right.
Sure, you’ll get a few clicks here and there from Twitter, Threads, or even Facebook. But Google will always reign supreme with the right keywords and search intent.
However, blogging for search terms is not as easy as you might think. Experts say to use the right keywords, but it’s not nearly as cut and dried as that.
Extremely Difficult for Popular Searches
High-volume search phrases aren’t always the best option when writing a blog post. It’s extremely difficult to rank in the top 10 for articles that others have written and answered.
You have to provide the best information for certain search queries if you want to drive traffic to a website. That means beating out the competition.
Saturated Markets & Competition
Speaking of competition, the Internet is full of it. Every hour, there are 10,500 new websites that come into existence. And it’s safe to assume that at least some of them are going to write about the same topics as you.
The competition for any niche or industry grows every day, and you need to provide the best content among them if you want to be successful on Google.
Writing to Appease the Algorithm
One of the biggest pains in the butt as a blogger is having to appease the Google algorithm. At any moment, the search engine could have an issue with your site and instantly decimate your traffic.
I’ve seen this happen to a few of my websites for various reasons. All it takes is a simple change to how the search engine looks for content and BAM…your traffic is decimated by more than 90%.
Mastering Off-Site SEO
Another aspect of SEO is managing things that happen off of your site. This could include backlinks, generating a social media presence, brand reputation, and more for your blog. And off-site SEO can be a full-time job as well.
It’s not always the easiest thing to manage, especially if you don’t have a lot of time on your hands. However, it’s a vital part of creating a successful blog.
Push Notifications & Newsletters
A lot of people get around dealing with algorithms by offering push notifications and newsletters. These work exceptionally well as the people who subscribed are those who are ultimately interested in your content.
They are your key audience and supporters.
In my experiences, I’ve generated about as many visits from push notifications as I do from sharing a blog post on social media. A few more eyes are better than none at all.
Your Definition of Success
At the end of the day, what you view as “success” is what really matters. Not everyone is focused on high-traffic numbers or generating a ton of ad revenue. For some, simply helping others and getting a few likes is all it takes to make them happy.
In some ways, success is a very subjective term.
Case in point, would you call me a success even though I don’t drive a Bugatti, live in a million-dollar home, or flash the Benjamins on Instagram?
My bills are paid, my kids are happy and healthy, and I get to do what I love for a living. To me, that’s successful.
Not to mention the number of comments I get on the blog and YouTube channel about how much I’ve helped someone. Those, alone, make every moment worth it for me.
Don’t judge your success on what others think it means. What does success mean to you?
Combining a Blog with Social Media
In all reality, it’s not a bad idea to combine your blogging efforts on search engines while managing social media accounts. You’ll get a few more visitors overall, and there are a lot of platforms available to automate the process.
For instance, I use WordPress and Jetpack to share blog posts automatically to LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook. As soon as the blog post is published, WordPress sends the posts out to social media.
It’s a hell of a time saver.
I also use apps like Buffer to share on other social sites such as Twitter and Threads.
My point is that there are all kinds of automated tools that will let you cultivate a social media following without actually using social media. Just remember to respond to people who comment.
Remember, you want to be social.
Scheduling Automated Posts
Buffer, Hootsuite, and ZoHo are just a few apps that will help you automate social media. You can spend two hours on a Sunday and schedule enough posts throughout the week to simulate an active account.
With that being said, you’ll still need to share more than just blog posts on your social media profiles. No one wants to follow an account that is nothing but links back to their blog or YouTube channel.
If seven is a good number to have for daily posts to Twitter, make six of them thoughts on relevant subject matter. Or, even share a few memes with your followers that might make them laugh.
It All Comes Down to Traffic
Now, there will be some who will blow up on social media relatively quickly. It just depends on how they engage their audience and what they’ve chosen to share. Yet, most will not have the same success.
It’s going to take a lot of work to generate traffic to your blog, whether it’s from social media or Google. Blogging is all about playing the long game. It could take months before you start to see a meaningful amount of traffic for your needs.
The best thing you can do is provide the highest quality content you can, whether it’s on your blog, Twitter, or Facebook. Building a reputation for awesomeness will bring awesome people to you.
Don’t get discouraged if it takes you a bit longer than it does someone else. Remember, there are a lot of things turning when you’re blogging or posting on social media. There are too many variables at play to determine what methods are going to work best for you on day one.
Keep an eye on your blog data, track the interactions on social media, and keep trying to improve your content strategy.
Social Media Helps a Blog – Ish
The most I’ve ever seen social media contribute to a client’s website was roughly 4% of the traffic. The other 96% came from Google search. That’s despite the client having a social media manager.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean that will be your experience. You could drive a ton of traffic to your blog from social media with a single post. Then again, you could fall flat.
Don’t be afraid of trying new strategies or changing things up a bit. How do you know something won’t work if you haven’t tried it yet?
In any case, getting a few hundred visitors to your blog each month from social media is better than none at all. Use social media to expand what your site offers. Use them in tandem to get the most out of your marketing strategy.
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