I have already previously discussed how to gain attention to a blog post over social media in several different ways; however, this just developed another question to answer; what platforms are best to get views and traffic to the original blog source? This is an important question to ask, for any company, before setting off on a blog strategy as they need to ensure that they are getting the best out of their blogging.
With so many different platforms including; Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Google +, Linked In, Pinterest etc. it is difficult for a business to recognize where their best chances of success lie. They all have benefits to organisations in their own right, but for generating views and accessibility to blogs some may be more efficient than others. To ensure the right method is chosen, a firm must first recognize the social media landscape using the honeycomb framework (Kietzmann et al. 2011).
Source: Ibid.
This outlines some of the key functions of social media to consider and evaluate, which areas are best for the features needed for blogs, what platforms offer for blogging, and audiences that utilize them. For blogs to gain exposure the following features should be available through social media sites:
Sharing: This key feature will determine whether readers share to other potential readers and how willing they are to do this. Some key social media platforms that allow the sharing of blog type content are Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and LinkedIn and are some of the top examples of users that want to share content with their contacts. However, you must consider what each platform is generally used for in the ‘sharing sphere’, for example, LinkedIn is for professionals and businesses so is the content suitable for that environment (Kietzmann et al. 2011) and Twitter and Facebook generally share a variety of thing including photos, other users status’s and articles or opinions (Social Times, 2014). Take a look at the percentages of what people share via social media here:
Conversations: There are many forms including tweets, writing a status, blogging etc. and for many different reasons. The key is to tap into which platforms again have each type but also to find out what people are conversing about and providing something from your business blog for people to converse with each other. For example, Unilever gave its community something to talk about by introducing the ‘Dove Real Beauty’ campaign, which attracted positive discussion boards over several social media platforms (Kietzmann et al. 2011).
Relationship: This is in terms of how users can relate to each other and share content, so will require some form association by friends, followers or the like (ibid).
Demographics
The demographics of social networks are an important factor to ensure the blogs are reaching the right target audience of your company. The table below shows a general view of the percentages of each generation that is currently maintaining a social networking site profile (Pitta, 2010).
Although here is a link to a more comprehensive breakdown of age groups using each of the most popular sites: http://bit.ly/1y3VXq8
Source: Pitta, 2010
This gives you a general idea although there are different general user functions in each age group. The millennials and generation X age groups are the easiest to reach via social networking sites and are the most eager to pass on messages and make referrals for specific brands. For boomers, it is necessary to contact them on social networks that they are already a part of and creating that ‘share worthy content’. Whereas matures are most likely to use social media to connect to others such as family and friends, however, they also use the platforms to comparison shop for low prices (Pitta, 2010). This gives a short guide to develop and consider what social media platform is right for your company, as it is smart to consider whether it will reach the target audience, and be used as a benefit to your company’s brand, products or services. It will also give you a further guide on blog content.
Hoot Suite
Now that you have determined what platform suits for blogging and the age group of your audience, how do you get that traffic to read and be directed to the original blog source? There is a simple method for this that is available for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google +. It allows you to post content to all of these platforms at the same time, put a link to the original content site, helps to make sure that the content is seen, and customize the images that can be seen to interest readers to click on. A further consideration of sharing on Facebook is to share it to your Facebook page and not to a personal profile page, as this can be shared later. The reason for this is due to Facebook’s edge rank that pushes very few page posts into other people’s streams unless there is interaction of liking, commenting and sharing (Social Media Examiner, 2012).
Here is what the tool looks like:
Source: Ibid
Tumblr
Tumblr is also a very easy way to share content as it is a blogging platform and can let you use a text or blog option to post your blog. Just after publishing a blog post all you have to do is put the HTML code over to Tumblr (Social Media Examiner, 2012). The only thing with Tumblr is the relatively young user demographic so this would have to suit your purpose of blog posts (Social Media Examiner, 2014).
Overall, this is just but a few considerations for when a company wants to get the most out of blogging as a digital marketing tool. It is also important to ensure the content is interesting to gain the views, which have previously been examined in my blog post. If you are interested the link to this is below:
https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/sb653/?p=34
References
Adweek (2015) Infographic [Online] http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/new-social-stratosphere-who-using-facebook-twitter-pinterest-tumblr-and-instagram-2015-and-beyond-1622 [accessed 23/04/2015]
Kietzmann, J., Hermkens, K., McCarthy, I & Silvestre, B (2011) Social Media? Get Serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media. Business Horizons. Vol. 54, No. 3, pp 241-251.
Pitta, D (2010) Using Social Media. Journal of Consumer Marketing. Vol. 27, No. 5.
Social Media Examiner (2012) How to promote your blog with social media. [Online] http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/blog-promotion-social-media/ [accessed 24/04/2015]
Social Media Examiner (2014) How to use Tumblr for your business. [Online] http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-use-tumblr-for-business/ [accessed 23/04/2015]
Social Times (2014) What (and why) do people share on social networks. [Online] http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/what-why-social-sharing/500025 [accessed 23/04/2015]