This is the second post of the series. Check out part one Birth of a Blog: Conception.
Last month, I wrote about how and why my old blog died and how I decided to start a new one. This month, I’ll tell you more about how I am trying to start off on a better footing with the new blog by starting my social media campaigns early.
First, I had to learn more about social media!
Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk
My husband brought home this book, all excited about it’s good reviews and what it could do for us. I ignored it for several weeks. Finally, because I knew my grasp of social media was extremel weak, I picked it up in desperation. Wow…the reviewers were right. He goes through several social media platforms, including Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook, among others, and the format is very visual and approachable, giving real life examples of companies doing social media right and doing it wrong. Regarding Twitter, my rock bottom low point social media wise, I learned to use trending terms to bring people to my tweets. (I haven’t done anything with it yet, though–I’m telling you, Twitter is my downfall!) One thing he pointed out about Pinterest is how underused commenting is. I’ve been commenting on pins that I like but can’t trace to their original source, and it’s another way to join in a relevant social media conversation while bringing attention to my new brand. Facebook was the highlight for me–he stressed using images and making sure to put a logo on them. When I get my logo, I’ll do that! The over-arching concept of the book is that you give your readers/customers lots of good, shareable, memorable content before asking them to do/buy anything. That’s been very instructive to me.
Pinterest
With the Pinterest associated with my last blog, I gained followers by using sort of a pin exchange program, with the result that I was following a lot of very spammy boards and, probably, the people following me through that didn’t care anything about my brand, either. It made my Pinterest feed useless. I never wanted to repin anything in it. This time, starting out “clean”, I followed many boards associated with my topic and of interest to me. Now my feed is full of pins that are perfect for pinning to my own wall. Also, as is typical, I got quite a nice base of people who followed me in return because, unlike last time, they were actually interested in my boards. They faithfully repin my pins. It’s great! But one word of caution–my initial following got WAY out of hand and I followed over 800 boards! At which point Pinterest said, “No more until more people follow you!” It never looks good to be following so many more boards than are following you. Next time, I’d do it more gradually, but I was giddy with all the interesting boards out there!
Want more information on Pinterest? Check out all of our Pinterest posts.
Facebook
Getting found on Facebook is an uphill battle. I really let my former page lag because having only one person out of 300 see a post got discouraging. One thing I learned from Gary V. was that you have to pay to get a business seen on Facebook. Just deal with it. I started out by just promoting to family and friends. It was slow going, but I got 49 likes that way. You need 50 likes to be able to boost a post so that more people see it. For $5, I usually have 1000 people see a boosted post, so that’s not bad for the budget I’m working with. At any rate, after languishing at 49, I started a targeted ad at $10 a day, and my likes shot up to 60 overnight. Now I can boost! I’m hoping this will get more posts in front of people and encourage more interaction, which in turn will help my posts be seen (for free, I might add.)
Gary V. also stressed visual content, so I try to have something visual with every post.
I finally figured out what the point of businesses liking other businesses is. It gives me a relevant, separate newsfeed. I know I need to post much more regularly than I did on my old page–a few times a day, at least. My newsfeed now gives me plenty of things to share that will interest my audience. Also, I comment and like under my business name, getting it out there and, occasionally, bringing in a few new–free–likes.
We have more resources on Facebook. Make sure to check them out.
My new routine is scrolling through my Pinterest and Facebook feeds in the evening while I watch TV. It’s fun, it’s relaxing, and I add something every day to my social media. Of course, I am adding original content as well. My hope is that by building an audience before the blog launches, it will start with a bang, with real participation and people actually reading it. I’ll let you know how it works out. The blog launches June 2nd!
