Sharing Your Thoughts on Social Media and Blogs

by | digital marketing

Blogging, Social Media, or Both? 

I often work with entrepreneurs who are one-person shops. I understand they need a work-life balance to thrive, so the last thing I want to do is tell them they MUST do all the social media channels (I do always recommend Facebook, if possible for the possibility of running targeted ads, read more about that here). 

These folks often come to me having been through so many webinars and coffees and “brain-picking sessions” (they are hard-core entrepreneurs, they do their research!) that they often have shiny object syndrome, aka they want to do it ALL. Do it all NOW. 

I don’t support that plan, but I DO have a plan of action to increase your “ROI” (Return on Investment, aka what are you earning with your time spent on the project).  

 Combine Blogging and Social Media

Create Long-Form Social Media Posts

If you realize that very few folks are actually going to your website to interact with you, you realize it is okay to share your newest thoughts on social media first. 

    1. So type out a “blog post” but instead of going to social media and saying “new post and here’s the link” share the full text of your post on social media. 
    2. This is known as a long-form post and continues to get engagement because it’s authentic and doesn’t require your fans to exit the platform to visit your website to read the article (so your message gets out). 
    3. What about getting people to my website you ask? Don’t be gamey about it. If your post is in service to your topic, interested minds know how to get there. 

 Create a “logo/quote graphic” for each post

  1. Use this image to post on instagram and twitter. Experiment using it on Facebook and also with NO photo on facebook to see what gets the most sets of eyes from that algorithm. 
  2. You will also use this image on your website as a blog post “featured image” with the same text you shared on social media 

Create a blog post

  1.  See 2b above: upload these elements to your website
  2. Simple slug: make sure you change your url to be something easy to remember so you can reference this blog text later (eg: mywebsite.com/topic1 vs mywebsite.com/this-is-the-full-title-for-topic1-article-and-is-silly-to-read

 Further Time Saving Tips

Cross Post From Instagram 

If you have time to show up differently on all the social media channels, that is amazing and I say go for it. But we have found that people have their own channels and tend to stay there. For now, work on getting content to the various channels rather than trying to completely customize it. Until then: 

  1. Post your long form copy and image from Instagram and cross post it to your business facebook page 
  2. If you cross post from Instagram to Twitter users don’t see the image, they only see a link, so set up an automated robot at the website: if this than that. Once set up you can have it post all photos to Twitter or just ones with certain hashtags. 

 Consider A Scheduling Software & Use LinkTree

  1. Consider using Buffer (or another scheduling software) that allows you to upload a basic post to one channel (FB for instance) then you can go to a twitter window and shorten that message for twitter, check another window for Linked In and yet another for Instagram (you can three accounts in the free version or eight in the paid). 
  2. Install Linktree on your Instagram site and have a link to your blog and key website pages. 
    This app allows people to visit your Instagram profile and find the links of things you’re referencing on instagram. 

 You May Want An Editorial Calendar…

 Don’t Just Post About It Once

  1. Once the text is up on the website you can post about it multiple times, some people do a yearly rotation or even quarterly rotation for “key content.” 
  2. Instead of doing the same post again, this time try a quote graphic that links to the blog or just a photo that links to the blog with a short excerpt from the blog. 
  3. Always consider an Instagram/FB story with a quote (you won’t be able to “swipe up” link until your account is at 10K followers) but you can put your username with the “@” and say link in bio — having the bio with @ is the only way to make a hyperlink in Instagram)

 Further Flush Out Your Editorial Calendar

  1.  Find & Create Weekly Posting Schedule for Ideas: 
    Look for hashtags that make sense based on days of the week, for example
    #mindfulmonday
    #thoughtfulthursday
    #wellnessnesday  
  2. Look for “National Days Of” that relate to your brand and make (and save graphics to reshare) on these days (year after year).