You’ve managed to squeeze writing a blog post in between everything else you do to grow your business. So you can move on to other things now, right? Sorry, but not just yet. Before you do, make sure you promote it through social media sites.
In fact, your real work has just begun.
If you expect your website to be flooded with leads the minute you publish your post, you’re setting yourself up for a big disappointment. You can rely on search engines alone to drive traffic. If nobody sees what you wrote, your time will be wasted.
The following social media sites are the best ways for B2B marketers to make sure that people find your content, along with strategies for each.
Google+
When Google+ first launched, not many people took it seriously. It was seen as a half-baked effort on Google’s part to cash in on the social media craze.
Since then it has slowly built itself up with more and more features, growing into one of the largest social media sites, with over 300 million monthly active users and counting.
Not to mention that it’s run by Google. This means that sharing your blog content on your Google+ page will most likely have a bigger impact on your Google search ranking than other social sites. However, it’s the following two of the features that really make Google+ so effective for business blogs:
- Google+ Circles – Circles allow you to categorize your followers on Google+. Why is this helpful? It allows you to segment who sees the blog content you post. This allows you to target specific parts of your audience for specific pieces of content. For example, say your company sells pet food online. You can create Circles for the different type of pet owners following you – such as cat owners and dog owners. That way, when you post a piece of blog content about dog treats, you can post it to your dog owner circle only because there’s no point in trying to reach cat owners who don’t care about dog treats. Basically, Google+ Circles makes it easier for you to target a more specific audience.
- Google+ Collections – This is a relatively new feature that is hugely beneficial for business blogs. It allows you to “collect” a number of blog posts together on Google+ and to label it as a collection. This means that you can sort all of your posts by subject matter (or any other category). When someone reads a new blog post, they can see all the other posts gathered in the Collection that you’ve put it in. This allows you to get more exposure for older blog posts and makes it easier for readers to find similar content without having to scour through your blog in search of relevant content.
Facebook remains the king of all social media sites, and it’s probably going to stay that way for the foreseeable future. This means that you absolutely cannot ignore Facebook as a place to share your blog posts. With its 1.44 billion active monthly users, it blows every other social channel out of the water.
People love sharing, commenting and liking content that’s posted on Facebook. The problem, of course, is getting your blog content seen once you post it on your Facebook page.
There are millions of other businesses trying to do the very same thing. In fact, there are 40 million small businesses with Facebook pages that are posting on average 1.48 times a day.
Unfortunately, the organic reach for these posts is only 2 percent, which means that there’s no guarantee that your posts will be seen. One of your fans may also follow 5,000 other people and a couple hundred different brands. This means that their timeline probably gets pretty cluttered, so your odds of reaching them declines significantly.
You’re probably wondering why you should waste your time posting blog content to Facebook if the reach is so low.
Luckily, there are a few tactics you can use to get exposure on Facebook. Here are some tips for promoting your blog posts:
- Use Auto Play Videos – Videos that auto-play when they are scrolled over in the newsfeed tend to draw the eye of users immediately. It’s yet another reason why you should consider creating videos for your blog in addition to your written content.
- Use Larger Images – When using photos for your blog content, use photos that span the width of the Facebook newsfeed. This will help it stand out from all the other content on your followers’ newsfeed.
- Write About Current Events – Newsworthy blog content tends to get much more traction on Facebook than evergreen content. Facebook users are just more likely to comment on, like and share content about current events.
LinkedIn may not seem like a very sexy platform when compared to the other social media sites out there, but for B2B marketers, it’s one of the most effective channels for generating leads. This is because LinkedIn is the most professionally-oriented social networks out there, making it an excellent platform for reaching other businesses.
This isn’t the only benefit of using LinkedIn – the network also boasts its own publishing platform, making it easy for businesses to publish blog content with the aim of becoming a thought leader within the industry.
Of course, LinkedIn isn’t some niche platform – just because it’s business oriented doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a big user base. In fact, LinkedIn has an impressive 322 million users and counting and is used in 200 different countries.
Key Takeaways
It doesn’t matter how good your blog content is. If you’re not promoting it, nobody will read it. This is why sharing business blogs on social media sites is so vital. The following are the social platforms that all B2B marketers should use to promote their business blogs:
- Google+ – Not only is it run by Google, but it provides several features, such as Google+ Circles and Google+ Collections, that can help make your posts more effective.
- Facebook – Facebook’s user base and engagement possibilities make it a must-use platform.
- LinkedIn – As a business-oriented social network with its own publishing platform, LinkedIn is essential for B2B marketers.
Just keep in mind that some social channels are more effective for specific types of businesses. There are also many niche social networks out there that may suit your business. Determining which ones to focus on is a matter of knowing your target audience and the social media networks they use.