Why Social Media Isn’t Helping Your Blog Grow + How to Fix it
Social media. Love it or hate it, your blog needs it to grow. But if you feel like social media is still a mystery and you can’t figure out why it’s not helping you, stick around.
Today, I’m going to go over a few reasons why your blog’s social media might actually be hurting your growth. And we’re gonna talk about how to get you back on course.
Social Media Mistake #1: You don’t have a goal for the platform.
This is one of the biggest pitfalls I see from bloggers. Someone told you that you needed to be on social media, so you created the account and started posting your best blog posts.
Unfortunately, posting for the sake of posting might be hurting you more than simply not posting at all. Why? Because you are training your audience to expect a certain kind of content. Look at it this way:
When you post your latest blog article with a link and title to your facebook page, you start to set the standard for content on the page. You are training your audience to expect links to your blog. That’s it.
Would you engage on a page like that?
On the other hand, you can create content with a goal of getting people on your email list or sharing the post or commenting. When you do this, you create a platform that encourages engagement from your avatar.
Which sounds better for your business?
When you begin creating with an end goal in mind, your content turns from haphazard to strategic.
Action Step: Create a goal for your social media and write it down.
Social Media Mistake #2: You’re on too many platforms.
I’m 100% guilty of doing this. And let me tell ya, trying to do it all is both exhausting and counterproductive to your goals.
I’ll give you and example.
When I was in college, I was a champion for a few organizations on social media. I knew the power it could provide for breathing life into recruitment and so I dove in
But, I tried to be on all of the platforms. And I tried to be good on all the platforms. I was trying to use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat to connect with people and failing miserably on most of them.
I was overwhelmed. I was overworked and I didn’t feel like I was moving the needle forward as fast as I wanted.
Have you ever felt like that?
And I discovered, after I graduated, that I didn’t need all of the platforms. I just needed one really good one to send people
That’s the lesson I want to share here. You don’t need to do it all at once. Start with one, then build.
Action Step: Decide that it’s ok to focus on one platform for now.
Social Media Mistake #3: You’re not on the right platform.
So, now that you’re only focusing on one platform are you using the right one?
I like to look at this through the eyes of a Girl Scout selling cookies
You can try to sell Girl Scout cookies in the forest, but you’ll make a lot more money sitting in front of a grocery store.
AKA You can hang out wherever you want, but if you aren’t hanging out where your people are you won’t sell any Girl Scout cookies.
So, take a look at the demographics of all the social media platforms and make a decision about your primary social media platform based on where your people are. I like this article from Sprout Social that breaks down each platform into digestible data bites.
I’ll walk you through my thought process. Say your ideal customer avatar is male, age 18-29 and works as an engineer in the suburbs. Cool?
So. You’re a blogger and everyone says that Pinterest is the place to go for traffic and growth, right?
Take a look at the data for Pinterest. Only 16% of men online are using the platform. But, if you look at the data for Facebook you’ll find that 1. the user base is much larger. Second, the gender split is just about 50/50. Plus, 81% of online users ages 18-29 use the platform.
Pretty big difference, huh?
In this case, I would recommend the blogger with this avatar start on Facebook. Because the odds lean more in their favor here.
That being said, Pinterest is growing in the male demographic and will be a good platform to do the bare minimum on until growth for that demographic increases.
You see how choosing the right platform can send you in the right direction?
Action Step: Take a look at the demographics of each platform using the data from Sprout Social. Compare it to your avatar and choose which platform you’ll focus on.
Social Media Mistake #4: You’re not using the platform as intended.
There is something to be said for using social media in a way that resonates with you as a human and makes you fall in love with the platform.
Here’s the thing though, each platform has a set of best practices. A specific way that they want their platform to function. So, when you follow the best practices of the platform and use the platform how they want it used, good things can happen.
Their blogs and business education websites are a great place to get a feel for their intended use, I’ve listed those here:
The name of the game on all of these platforms is engagement.
Facebook thrives on likes, comments, and shares.
Twitter encourages favorites and shares.
Instagram looks for likes, comments, DMs, and saves.
Pinterest, though not really considered social media, likes fresh pins, saves, comments and tries.
We didn’t join Facebook because we wanted to be sold to, we joined Facebook because we wanted to connect with real people and make real connections. And the best way to keep the social media gods happy with you is to use it to do just that. Isn’t that the point of blogging anyway?
Action Step: Dig a little deeper into your one platform. Get to know the best practices and take notes of the important things and ideas you get as you’re reading.
Social Media Mistake #5: You aren’t letting the data inform you.
As women, we tend to let our wins and successes inform our self-worth. Our business success becomes a personal triumph so much so that any kind of failure or road bump becomes a personal crisis. And our self-talk starts to look like this:
“I failed. I’m a failure. I should just quit.”
Guilty. I’ve literally said these words out loud to myself before. Have you?
The reality is that failure is going to happen at some point in your business simply because you’re trying things.
That’s it.
The more you try new things, the more likely you are to fail.
It’s just data. And that’s a mindset shift that will save you as you grow your business. So, when the negative self-talk creeps in, try saying this instead:
“That didn’t work. That’s ok! Let’s try something else and see if it works better. Everything is data, let’s use it as a tool to grow. Let’s do this.”
Here’s the cool thing. When you do find something that works, do more of it. You’ve struck gold with your audience. Data is a clue to serving your people better.
Action Step: Dig into your analytics. Whether that’s Google Analytics, Pinterest Analytics, Facebook Analytics, or Twitter Analytics. Take note of the posts, photos, videos, and calls-to-action that have done well.
Social Media Mistake #6: You aren’t sharing valuable content.
Ouch. Isn’t everything we post valuable?
It feels like everything we create is valuable because we used our time and energy to create it.
It’s valuable to us.
But I want you to ask yourself: Is this valuable to my avatar?
You don’t get to determine what is valuable to your audience. You get to decide who they are and then listen to what they have to say. Listen to what they NEED. Serve them.
But, when it comes down to it, they decide whether the content was valuable to them or not.
Action Step: Write down or print information about your avatar to keep with you when you’re writing ANY content. This helps keep your avatar in mind when you’re writing.
Social Media Mistake #7: You only post about you.
You are likely a one-woman show right now. And you should 100% be infusing as much or as little of your life into your social media as you want.
People want to connect with the people behind their favorite content.
But, before you post that Instagram story about something that happened in the grocery store, ask yourself a few questions:
- How does this serve my audience?
- Is this valuable to them?
- Does it teaching them something?
- Is it something my avatar can connect with?
- Is this showing them what’s possible?
Ultimately, social media content isn’t for us. It’s for them.
So, when you focus on creating content that speaks to their struggles, success, and dreams, you create content that resonates with your avatar.
Action Step: Audit some of your recent content on your choice of platform. Ask yourself the questions above and if it doesn’t fit any of the questions take note of what to change, add or avoid later. As a bonus, if you want, edit the content to refocus back on your avatar.
Social Media Mistake #8: There’s no clear benefit or value to following you.
What are people getting out of following you?
And it doesn’t have to be a tangible thing like a freebie or something like that, it can be as simple as:
“My avatar follows me because I offer tips, advice, and inspiration in a simple and actionable way.” or “My avatar follows me for real-life mom to mom conversations that lighten up
Once you know the clear benefit of following you, keep it with you. It’ll help you create content that supports the benefit.
Action Step: Write a benefit statement for whatever platform you are focusing on.