Ah, Facebook. We love to hate it; we hate to love it. But with 650 million active users worldwide and 155 million Americans on Facebook, it’s worth considering how you, as a blogger, can use Facebook to grow and engage your subscriber group.
Facebook is the ultimate, all-inclusive social media site. Chances are, you already have a profile and are connected to friends and family. In addition to sharing photos and connecting with others, Facebook is an incredibly important tool for promoting your blog content. Let’s take a look at some of the basics of using Facebook to amplify the success and readership of your blog. If you’re just starting out, check out our Intro to Social Media Tools for Bloggers post before reading on.
Quick, Easy, and Familiar
You’re likely quite familiar with Facebook, but the best part about using it for promoting your blog posts is that your friends and followers are also familiar with it! If they enjoyed your blog post, picture, or status update, they are likely to ‘Like’ it, comment on it, or share it. This is great for you and your blog – free publicity!
When a new blog post goes live, be sure to share a link to it on Facebook. Your update will appear in many of your friends’ and followers’ News Feeds. You can either share your link manually after you publish each post or share automatically using IFTTT or Publicize (if you have a WordPress blog)
Creating a Facebook Page for Your Blog
Depending on your goals for your blog, you may want to consider creating a Facebook page for your blog that is separate from your personal profile. There are many benefits to creating a separate page for your blog. A separate page helps you maintain your personal privacy, and Facebook pages give you access to analytics.
With Facebook analytics, you can see your most popular posts and updates on the Facebook page, determine the best time of day to post to your Facebook page, and learn more about the demographics of your fans. Facebook pages also allow you to install applications to facilitate contests and collect emails for blog subscribers.
Engage Readers
Use Facebook to start a conversation with your readers. When you share your blog posts on Facebook, consider asking your readers a question to help foster a discussion. You can learn more about your readers, and when you jump into the discussion your readers will get to know you a little better too.
Not every Facebook update should be about you or your blog. Ask your followers to suggest blog post topics, share their projects or blog posts, and use shared articles in your NewsFeed and Facebook Trending Topics as fodder for discussion. Asking your friends and followers for their opinion or input (and then responding or following up on it) is a great way to build online relationships with your readers.
Show that you’re excited by your readers’ projects by sharing their recent posts or photos. Just be genuine and true to your personality and the theme of your blog. Don’t share anything and everything, unless you think your friends and followers will really appreciate what you’re sharing.
Social Plugins for Success
Facebook has a number of plugins that allow Facebook to integrate seamlessly with your blog. The most useful is the comments plugin, which allows your blog readers to comment directly on your blog posts using their Facebook profile in a familiar interface. These comments will in turn show up on the commenter’s profile and in their friends’ NewsFeeds, greatly increasing the reach and visibility of your blog.
You should also consider other social plugins from Facebook, like the like button, share button, and send button. These buttons allow your readers to like, share, and send your post with a single click directly from your blog. The counters next to the buttons indicate how many times that action has been taken. This works as social proof for others, as it shows that others enjoyed the post and found reading it to be worthwhile.
People care about what others think. A 2012 study by Nielsen found that “Ninety-two percent of consumers around the world say they trust earned media, such as word-of-mouth and recommendations from friends and family, above all other forms of advertising.” You can think of a Facebook like, share, or comment as a small testimonial to others that your blog is worth checking out.
If you’re not convinced, consider this: Zynga, an online social game service, added a feature allowing its users to invite friends to play through Facebook. In just one year, Zynga grew from 3 million to 41 million average daily users! While you may not end up with 41 million daily readers, this is a great example of how integrating your site with social can boost your blog’s visibility and reach exponentially.
Facebook offers incredible opportunity to engage your readers and grow your audience. In 20 minutes, over 1 million links are shared on Facebook. Make sure your blog posts are included!
Do you use Facebook to promote your blog? Do you use your personal profile or a separate fan page?
