When AmpliFound launched on March 3rd we knew we needed to get out there and promote the blog socially. The obvious first step was to create social media accounts for AmpliFound, which we did for Twitter, Pintrest, Facebook, and Google+. But then the big question was Where to begin when starting from a community of zero?
First Steps
Before we launched the site I began brainstorming ideas about how to promote AmpliFound through social media but when I took a look at my list I realized the majority of my ideas were for an existing community. What I really needed to be planning for was how to build and grow our social community.
The first step (and also an obvious one) towards growing our social community was to add social buttons on our site in easy to find places. Our social buttons are located in our header, footer, and at the bottom of each post. Check out social media buttons for bloggers or how to add social share buttons to your blog if you do not already have them on your site.
Our next step was deciding to initially devote our attention to Twitter and Facebook. While it is important to have presence on several social media platforms we wanted to be able to devote a solid amount of time to at least two platforms where we could start building our community, rather than spread ourselves too thin.
When our blog went live we sent a message to our colleagues, friends and family members encouraging everyone to check out AmpliFound. We also sent messages out through Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Google+ to share AmpliFound with our personal communities.
Strategies for Engaging Potential Followers
Once the site was live we began sharing the posts on Tuesdays and Thursdays on Facebook and Twitter. In addition, we began testing out other ways to engage with bloggers throughout the rest of the week.
On Twitter, Hillary would search for bloggers who were looking to improve their blog and share our content with them. Also, she began retweeting helpful tips from other bloggers that would benefit our readers.
On Facebook I began researching groups of bloggers who were looking for tips and who had questions about blogging. We have shared our content in the Facebook groups Blogger Help, Blogger Lounge, and Philly Blog Love.
Steps for the Future
One of the biggest challenges we have found when it comes to building our social community is making the time to engage one on one with bloggers. Whether on Facebook or Twitter finding the right people to connect with and start a conversation with can be very time consuming. To help myself remember to dedicate time to our social community I started setting up daily calendar reminders.
Going forward one of our biggest areas of focus will be to consistently make time throughout the week to engage with our current followers and build new relationships. We will also be dedicating time to building up our Pinterest community and Google+ page. Whether on Facebook or Twitter finding the right people to connect with and start a conversation with is very important.
Any social media tips you would like to share with us and our readers? Send us a tweet or post your thoughts on Facebook!
