How To Promote a Blog Post Across Digital Channels

You found a niche you can fill by creating consistent, quality content and crafted blog posts with the best intentions for bringing in views — carefully chosen keywords, compelling titles, smart meta descriptions and helpful images.

Without taking additional steps to share your blog, you’ll likely lose out on connecting with the audience you’re hoping for. After all, there are over 500 million blogs on the internet, with new ones created every day.

To engage with your followers and expand your audience, try your hand at these seven strategies to promote your blog post.

Read on to discover: 

• • The importance of optimizing your content for various online platforms.
  • Organic and paid strategies for expanding your brand’s reach on social media. 
  • How to boost brand awareness by establishing multiple digital touchpoints with your audience. 

1. Create and publish social media content for all your brand’s channels with unique visuals.   

The average person spends almost two and a half hours a day on social media. 

According to Statista, globally, Facebook has the most user activity, with over 2 billion active monthly users, followed by YouTube, Instagram, Reddit, Twitter, Snapchat, LinkedIn and Pinterest. Your brand should have a presence on more than one social media platform, but promoting your blog is more than posting links. Each platform has a unique interface and user experience, so you’ll need to take time and care to tailor content to the strengths and expectations of the platform.      

Take this example from Lightning Media Partners’ recent blog post:

 

 

LinkedIn is a social media platform focused on professional development and networking. Users come to LinkedIn to interact with recruiters and professionals in their fields. They aren’t looking for entertainment. Because of this, LinkedIn favors succinct, no-frills content. Instagram, however, is a network with a more casual feel, created specifically for sharing photos and videos. Successful content on Instagram has artistic visuals and easily-accessible language.

Pay attention to the culture of the social media platforms linked to your brand. By creating unique content for each of your outlets to promote your blog post, users will be more likely to view and find your content.

Related article: Tips to Help You Manage Your Business’s Social Media

2. Share it directly with industry peers and colleagues who might find it interesting.

You know who your content is created for, so share it with those in your network who might utilize it. Is there a problem your blog can speak to? Offer a solution through an email or social post that pulls from content in your blog, and share the link. If your content is useful, your connections may pass it on to others as a resource. 

There’s no guarantee to word-of-mouth sharing, but promoting your blog through real-life applications may give you insight into whether or not your content is useful. This can help you decide if your content needs a new direction or a new audience. 

3. Send out an email newsletter to your subscribers.

Email is a common way to connect with followers. Most internet users check their email regularly, with the ability to do so almost anywhere. It’s inexpensive and beginner-friendly, and with email tools, you can manage distribution lists, include links to social media profiles and even personalize newsletters to address subscribers by name.

The voice and feel of your newsletter should match the content of your blog. However, your newsletter shouldn’t just be a repost of text. Why should someone read your blog? Why is it relevant right now? Think about how the content of your blog posts relates to seasons, local events or current events. If you have an older post that can use a little love, this can be a great way to get more views and revive content.

4. Reach out to media contacts who cover the topic you wrote about.

This can be a challenge if you are still establishing a budget and authority on your content. However, if you are able to prove that your content knowledge and expression are worth sharing, you can increase your exposure and brand awareness to audiences that are already engaging with specialized content related to your niche.

For example, podcasts, due to their specificity and convenience of access, cultivate a unique loyalty in media. By being a guest or advertising on a podcast that is targeted at a similar audience to your brand’s, you can bring appreciative eyes to your blog — with viewers who will be more likely to share it with like-minded people.  

5. Run a paid social media ad to promote your post.

Posting to your brand’s social media pages and accounts will get your content to your current followers, but to reach a larger audience, consider using paid advertising. With paid ads, your social media posts can be promoted to users who aren’t following your account — yet — based on demographics you select for your target audience.

Who needs your content and finds it interesting? Where do they “hang out?” Understand this, and budget for advertising on the platforms your audience is most likely to use.

Related article: What You Need to Know About Pay-Per-Click Campaigns

6. Republish it on a self-publishing platform like LinkedIn or Medium.

Once your post is indexed by Google, consider republishing it for more readership.

Medium is a collection of published material — amateur and professional — with over 120 million readers. By creating an account, you can directly import your blog post to Medium to republish. From there, subscribed readers will be recommended your blog post if its content matches their interests. 

LinkedIn also has a built-in publishing platform that will share articles you write with connections and followers. Articles remain on your LinkedIn profile and can be searched, so they have lasting power compared to posts. When republishing on LinkedIn, consider sharing the most relevant parts of your blog post if you are constricted by word count.  

7. Share your link on content aggregator sites or community forums for more exposure.

Where do people go when they don’t go to Google? Content aggregator sites and community forums.

Reddit, known as “the front page of the internet,” is a combination of both. With “subreddits,” communities dedicated to specific (sometimes very specific) subjects, you can find audiences who will be exceptionally receptive to your content. However, beware self-promotion posting. Reddit users are especially negative toward users who post simply to promote their own content, and many community rules won’t allow it.

If you’re planning to share your blog with Reddit, other aggregator sites or a community forum (like a Facebook group), make sure you’ve established yourself as a community member and regular contributor to conversations — and only share links to your content when it is addressing a particular community need.

To bring awareness to your blog and your brand, try one of these promotion strategies. Each works best when it is given focus and time to develop.

If you need help with creating great blog content and/or implementing any of these tactics, Lightning Media Partners offers content marketing packages that can meet your brand’s needs.