The importance of social media for your blog

This post brought to you by Valerie, NJ State Rep, who blogs at In-Between Life.

Do you use social media for your blog? Does your blog have its own Facebook page? Do you share your posts on Twitter and Pinterest? Have you gotten the hang of utilizing Google+ for your blog? If not—you should! When it comes to bloggers, social media is our best friend. It's the best way to get your blog out there. It's also the best way to network with other bloggers, which essentially helps out your blog, too. But you may be wondering, what social media platforms are the best to use, and why?

Depending on the type of blog you have, and who your target audience is, certain social media platforms will work better for you and your blog. For example, the types of posts that do really well on Pinterest: recipes, beauty/fashion, fitness. The key to making Pinterest work for you is quality pictures. Pinterest is all about imagery, so you want to make sure you have good graphics to pin so it will catch people's eyes!

Another very popular and effective platform to use for your blog is Twitter. Most bloggers have had the most success with Twitter. Hashtags are the perfect way to connect with other people who have similar interests. However, to make the most of what Twitter has to offer, it's important to have tweets scheduled throughout the day. A tweet is easily drowned by other tweets within minutes, so it's important for you to keep a consistent flow of tweets being sent out. You can use programs such as Buffer or Hoot Suite to help you schedule your tweets days in advance. Don't know what to tweet about? Asking questions (that pertain to your blog) is a good way to get conversations going with your followers. You can also tweet quotes or interesting links so people are more likely to retweet you or favorite the tweet, thus getting your Twitter name out there.

Regardless of what kind of blogger you are, if your blog doesn't already have a Facebook page, I highly recommend you go and make one right now! Facebook can drive a lot of traffic to your blog. It's an easy way for people to "like" your posts or share them on their own personal account, which gets the word out to other people. There are also programs that let you set up your blog directly to your Facebook page, so every time you have a new post, it's updated on Facebook. Another great way to keep your readers up to speed!

Then, there's the one that everyone always seems to be really confused by—Google+. You may think it's not much and not important enough to help your blog, but using Google+ is actually one of the best things you can do for your blog! The reason why? Sharing your posts on Google+ adds your link to Google's search engine. So when people search for something on google that relates to your post topic, chances are your blog post will show up!

For more information on using social media for your blog, check out these links:

Awesome infographic about social media

A guide to making the most of social media

75 places to share your blog post

How to effectively promote your blog on social media

Another awesome infographic on creating the perfect post on social media

Connect with us!