How To Boost Blog Traffic Through Social Networking Sites

Though this may come as a surprise, extremely simple yet beneficial ways to boost blog traffic do exist. By engaging in regular online interaction and targeting the right audience, users can increase traffic to their posts almost instantly. While many creatives think to gain attention by posting as much as possible, it appears that online users prefer quality over quantity. Let’s go over a few sites where you can promote your work to increase those views!

StumbleUpon

The popular social discovery sharing platform “StumbleUpon” allows a user-based voting system to pick which blogs are boosted. Whether you are adding your own page or simply voting on other posts, it is important to keep “Stumbling” on a daily basis. Do not only submit your work, but submit work that you’re genuinely interested in. It’s important to stay active on the site (and especially not spammy). StumbleUpon recommends you stick to at least a 1 in 10 rule; 1 submission of yours per every 10 submissions/likes of other’s content.

The more likes or upvotes your post receives, the more likely StumbleUpon will deem your post as “good content,” increase the frequency, and feed the post to more users. Great submissions to the platform will see a snowball effect and thousands of visitors in a day. Keep in mind that the traffic won’t always flow in directly after you submit your content. You can see a spike in something one day, two days, or even a week after submitting your piece.

Sign up for StumbleUpon

Reddit

By simply tailoring your posts to the right audience and avoiding uninteresting content, you can boost blog traffic on Reddit. Though users may love posting on this site, it is highly recommended that they keep their posts to somewhat of a minimum. Considering the fact that Reddit also allows users to be downvoted when posting poor material, users should always be sure of their content’s relevance before posting.

Remember to read the rules for each subreddit, and post content that the community will be interested in. Don’t forget to engage with your audience! Similar to StumbleUpon, it is important to submit content (besides your own) to subreddits that you are genuinely interested in. Tailor your posts to seem organic and fit the voice of a “Redditor.”

While posting consistent quality content is beneficial and helps to boost blog traffic, too many posts in a row will get you labeled as a spammer. Your account, IP, and even domain can be blacklisted from the site entirely. Use caution and study up on Reddit before messing around with it!

Considering they are labeled as “the front page of the internet”, boosting traffic through Reddit should be a top priority for every blogger. This website consists of popular news stories, personal user commentary, individual blogs posts and more.

According to a recent post on the Kissmetrics website, Reddit ads also tend to garner more traffic than StumbleUpon or Facebook. Even though Reddit is not talked about as much as Facebook or Twitter, their advertising methods offer a much easier way of getting to the front page.

Sign up for Reddit

Flipboard

For anyone who is unfamiliar, Flipboard is currently one of the top “feed reading” platforms around. After originating as somewhat of an online mobile magazine, Flipboard now provides content on the web for desktop users as well. According to a post on the Magmaker blog website, it is highly beneficial for Flipboard users to build quality relationships with other users by commenting and liking their posts in hopes that they will return the favor. Additionally, sharing your Flipboard content on other social networks, creating a quality profile, and consistently interacting with other users will also help. The more positive interactions you have, the higher your Flipboard posts will rank.

Another important factor and tip to help boost blog traffic: It is highly advised that Flipboard users take their time choosing titles for their magazines. This is because the Flipboard database will likely rank your post higher if it pertains to commonly searched topics as opposed to topics that few people have interest in. Don’t forget your keywords!

Sign up for Flipboard

Pinterest

When looking to gain traffic through Pinterest, it is important to use good keywords and use as many images as possible.

Pinterest is a predominantly visual website; the more your pictures stick out, the more they will be clicked on. Assuming that the users who click on your image also read through the content afterwards, this is an incredibly quick and easy way to boost traffic. Much like with Facebook ads, an eye catching picture could mean the difference between being ranked and being ignored.

While aiming to garner more re-pins, make sure that you are also returning the favor. As childish as it sounds, many Pinterest users will stop re-pinning your posts if you fail to re-pin them back.

Sign up for Pinterest

Facebook

Even though you are aiming to provide as much quality content as you can, Facebook users tend to favor updates that are short and to the point. Statistics show that quick users who post catchy phrases and updates garner significantly more traffic than those whose posts are lengthy and informative. In other words, a few quick and to the point sentences will go far on Facebook.

Much like when using StumbleUpon, it is always good to keep track of what posts are working and what posts aren’t. By tracking your activity and sifting through certain variables, users can know exactly what their future updates should look like and boost blog traffic almost instantly. This strategy is used by well known online marketers all of the time and has proven to be extremely beneficial. Corrections as little as fixing a word in your title or changing the time of your posts can make a whole lot of difference.

Interested in reaching an audience that doesn’t consist of your friends and family? Search through some Facebook groups and find like-minded readers interested in your content.

Sign up for Facebook

Twitter

According to a recent Smart Blogger post, Twitter is slowly becoming more of a visual site. As opposed to simply posting a funny 140 characters, adding attention grabbing images tends to attract more Twitter traffic. If, however, you are able to include both, then that is of course even better. Twitter allows for up to 3MB sized images in either a GIF, JPG or PNG format.

A rule of thumb (especially with Twitter) is to make sure you are not annoying your followers. By continuously posting the same content or tweeting too often, users can lose followers. To keep track of this, simply figure out what topics your followers are interested in and make sure not to tweet at the wrong time. For example, more people will see your tweet mid-day than they would at 2am. Additionally, it doesn’t look good if you have an overabundance of tweets and a low number of favorites. However, if Twitter users see that a lot of people enjoy your material, they are more likely to trust it.

In addition, tag influencers in your posts who will be interested in the subject matter. Explore Twitter and find mid-range influencers (1,000 to 7,000 followers) to attract. Retweeting your post will bring it to an entire new audience. Heck, you can even try attracting some bigger fish if you like too!

Sign up for Twitter

Tumblr

When on an extremely visual website such as Tumblr, you would think that traffic would go to the users who post the best images. However, this is not the case. According to the World Tech Tricks website, Tumblr users who create quality profile pages, provide regular updates, and consistently engage in re-blogging are likely to attract the majority of the attention.

A good profile page can never be overlooked, especially on Tumblr. By simply selecting an appropriate theme for the audience you hope to target, choosing eye-appealing colors and writing an excellent bio about yourself, you can boost blog traffic. Granted, you will still need to create quality content, but assuming everything else is in line, your quality Tumblr profile page will go a long way.

As far as re-blogging goes, it is suggested to only re-blog material that is in line with what you write about. For instance, if you write about technology and have like-minded followers, re-blogging content about clothing would be counter productive. By posting and reblogging quality, eye opening material, you will garner an almost automatic connection with like-minded followers and also see your traffic start to increase post by post.

Sign up for Tumblr

Youtube and Vimeo

Youtube receives more than three billion views each day; don’t you want to capitalize on some of those? Not only does it receive three billion views, but according to the latest Alexa ranking, it is the second most visited site, with the second highest domain authority, in the world. Youtube, and its similar competitor Vimeo, are ideal for content creators who not only write, but create videos to go along with their writing (or vice-versa).

The three most popular ways to convert your Youtube viewers into visitors are to 1) Tell you viewer exactly what to do, 2) Tell them exactly how to do it, and 3) Tell them why to do it. For example: 1) Go to my Vocal author page (or my latest post), 2) By clicking the link in the annotation or the description, and 3) To learn more about this topic/get involved.

By uploading a video to Youtube or Vimeo, you have the opportunity to add a unique description. Don’t forget to take advantage of it! Your video’s description, complete with a call to action to your article, site, or page, is essential in driving traffic to your post through these video platforms.

Don’t forget to include your SEO strategy in Youtube and Vimeo content as well; keywords that are effective and match your article content are crucial in having your content be successful. Make sure to optimize: title tag information, keywords in title and description tag, tags in general, comments, and your call-to-action with links.

Sign up for Youtube

Sign up for Vimeo

Instagram

In addition to Tumblr and Pinterest, Instagram is a highly visual site. Links are not recognized within your captions – but you can add a link to your bio. Every time you are published, update the Instagram link, and post a screenshot of your published piece in your Instagram feed, encouraging your followers to check out the link in your bio with your caption. Tag the appropriate hashtags relevant to your article so it is shared within the community of that hashtag. Who knows, maybe you’ll even gain a few followers!

When new followers click on your account, the first place they arrive at is your Instagram bio. Limited to 150 characters, make it a priority to showcase your work through links! Your views will only go up.

Sign up for Instagram

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the largest professional social network out there. Moreover, it is now a valuable publishing platform. Be sure to share and post your work with the professional community; especially if it is applicable to your field of career. Doing so can boost blog traffic to your posts.

Join like-minded groups of professionals in your field or interested in the topic you have to share. Share your updates. The community wants to see you succeed!

Sign up for LinkedIn

Dark Social

As ominous as this sounds, we all engage in “Dark Social” daily. This includes sending emails to your friends, family, and coworkers, texting, What’sApp, Facebook Messenger, Twitter DM’s, Tik Tak, and other related platforms. One key point to increasing your readership is to get people you already know will promote your content (Hi, Mom!) involved from Day 1. Think of it as your core fan base, who is extremely reliable.

When aiming to boost blog traffic, posting quality content while making sure to target the right audience is a must, no matter what site you’re on.

By simply posting your content in the right manner and building friendly online connections with other users, you can expect to boost blog traffic through these major sites almost instantly. However, no matter what online platform you are using, make sure you aren’t annoying/spamming other users. While consistent posting is good, too much of it can drive potential traffic away.