Mini-Bloggiesta, Mini-Challenge; Marketing Your Blog

Posted on 1 February, 2013 by Faye - 31 Comments

Wahoo! The Mini-Bloggiesta is upon us! *waves to all*. Just as a little background to you all, I participated in the Spring Bloggiesta last year and it helped me immensely, I had just been starting out and I just got so many great tips and so I am so happy to be here now able to share my own tips with you all. Being able to help other bloggers is always something that I love to do.

If there is one thing that every blogger wants (and probably needs) is a little publicity to help get their blogs out there, to attract new followers but also just to get their posts seen so all the work that went into them doesn’t feel like a waste of time. But when we’re only blogging in our spare time and it already takes up too much of our time, when do we really have the time to market our blog and blog posts in that way?

Most commonly, we bloggers may have our posts set up through div.lr (or some other similiar website) which will automatically share our blog posts on facebook and twitter once the post goes live. While this is extremely helpful for busy bloggers, it also begs the question – is one tweet or one comment on your facebook page really enough to attract audiences?

When I first discovered HootSuite, I was incredibly grateful. It is a powerful marketing tool that helped me during a time I was really trying to market a vlog I had made. Since then, I use HootSuite an awful lot. Essentially, I know I should use it more often but just as I’m a busy blogger, I’m also a forgetful one but I’m really trying to drill it into my head to use it more as I know that it will help to get my posts seen.

But what is HootSuite?
HootSuite is a social-media management website which you can link up to your twitter, facebook, tumblr, google+, and more. It then allows you to schedule tweets and status updates incredibly easily. And you can even click to schedule them at a time when most of your followers – or just twitter users in general – are online. Then, you can simply walk away and let the website do the rest. Haven’t you always wanted to tweet your blog posts while you’re sleeping?

Is continuous tweeting enough?
Probably not. As much as it should be, a lot of people and bloggers who use twitter follow a large proportion of people and unless your tweet (or facebook status) is catchy and interesting, it’ll simply be scrolled past without much thought. So when you’re scheduling your tweets, make sure to make them interesting, use CAPITAL letters to draw people in, CAPTIVATING words to peak interest, and if you have space, you could always ask for RTs!

So, how do I do it?

• Well, first things first, you’re going to need to sign up. The process doesn’t take long at all.
• Next you’ll need to add all of your accounts you wish to use. Once again, this won’t take long but you will need to give HootSuite the permissions it needs to work.
• Now you have all of your accounts set up, you can simply schedule your tweets and updates! For more info on how to do this, check out the previews below.
• Schedule as many tweets as you like but remember you’re trying to get maximum publicity without spamming everyone’s twitter feeds!

Now, onto the mini-challenge!
I challenge you to sign up for a HootSuite account and to schedule some tweets and status updates for a blog post or even just your blog!
Once you’ve scheduled a few, you can either send me a print-screen of the scheduled tweets ready to go (you can view this by clicking on the paper-areoplane type icon under the home icon in HootSuite), or you can send me a link to one of your scheduled tweets!

Then, all you need to do is remember to use it! (And hopefully you’ll be better than me!). I like HootSuite because scheduling posts for it only takes a few extra minutes after you’ve posted :D

Do you like HootSuite? Do you have other ways of scheduling tweets and updates? Do you have any tips and tidbits to share about marketing blogs and blogposts as a busy blogger? Share in the comments we’d love to hear all!

Faye