The second in our four-part series discussing ways to increase blog traffic is all about growing your readership using the site you visit most: Facebook.
Consider this: A study last week from PEW found that Facebook users who share with friends of friends reach an average of 156,569 other people. Which brings up the questions at the heart of today’s blog traffic discussion — how many of your Facebook friends are reading your company’s blog? Or have you even told them that you have a blog? If you answered “Uh… none of them” to the first question and then just shamefully shook your head to the second question, you are not alone.
Many Facebook users who also use the social media mecca professionally are, for some odd reason, reluctant when it comes to promoting their blog and websites to friends. And that’s just dumb. It’s like being at the world’s biggest cocktail mixer and not handing out your business card to anyone. Everybody schmoozes and pimps themselves on Facebook and so should you.
Granted, there is an art form to promoting your blog to your Facebook friends. After all, you don’t want to be deleted for endlessly blathering about your company and how great you are. So in addition to talking about whatever the heck you normally talk about on Facebook, drop in a link once or twice a week to your blog. Facebookers love to post links to blogs they’ve read and therefore bloggers should always post links to blogs they’ve written. If you’re not bombastic but rather thoughtful about when and how you post professional links, chances are you’ll get a positive response. More than likely you’ll even get comments from those smarty pants friend of yours who want to start a discussion.
Remember, these people are allegedly your friends and are probably interested in what you’re doing. The same goes for promoting your company’s Like page on Facebook. If you personally have 400 friends on Facebook but your page only has a dozen or so likes, something has gone terribly wrong. Promote the blessed thing in your backyard first, then worry about world domination later. Just start small. Post your fantastic blog on Facebook and do it today. Sure, you might feel awkward about shameless self-promotion but you’ll get over it. Especially, when there’s 150,000 potential readers and buyers just waiting to bask in your brilliance.
Join us tomorrow when we talk about using the secret blogger handshake to get more readers while becoming a blogging superstar!
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