Grow Your Blog With Facebook

Grow Your Blog With Facebook

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Hey! So I'm finally back home from the Sunshine state. I've done very well at being lazy about blogging since I returned. In my defense though, I've only been home since late Monday night. Which technically was early Tuesday morning. So I'm actually doing really well here! 
I've slowly been working my way through this Grow Your Blog mini series. It's a lot of fun to do and hopefully is helpful to you lovely people! This go around is all about using Facebook to grow your blog. You may or may not be on the fence about Facebook. Some bloggers love it and some hate it. I've heard some bloggers say half of the time posts only make it to fourteen ( or less ) news feeds. Other's swear by Facebook. I was pretty skeptical when I created Boone+Owl's Facebook page, but as time has passed I have found it to be a useful tool. So I've picked a side and jumped the fence. 
I love Facebook.
If you're a blogger, you need to have a Facebook page. There. I've said it. It's just that simple. That being said, you must use it wisely. So here are some tips to help you make the most of your blog's Facebook page and drive more traffic to your blog!
| Images equal clicks. The main purpose of a Facebook page is to inform your followers/readers about your new posts and push traffic back toward your blog. If your Facebook post doesn't catch someone's eye, they're not going to follow the link. Images equal clicks. Make sure you include a lovely image from your post to catch your readers' attention on their news feed. This is one of the best things you can do to help your posts be seen on Facebook news feeds. 
| Engage with your readers. You don't have to only share your blog posts on your Facebook page. Offer up a conversation starter by asking your readers a question. Give your readers a chance to share something about themselves or share their opinion. Even if it's something simple. For example: Emily from The Freckled Fox is excellent at this. She recently posted a picture of a cute little cactus and asked her readers what the feisty little cactus should be named. (Emily and I share a love of naming things). It was a fun way to engage with her readers and she got a wonderful lighthearted response from many ladies, including myself. Asking questions is a wonderful way to engage with your readers. Make it fun!
| Status Updates. Share things about yourself, but keep it fun and professional! In the middle of a DIY project you plan to blog about next week? Share a snippet with your readers and tell them how it's coming along. Get hit in the eye with a granola bar and now have your first official black eye? ( This seriously happened to me ). Well, tell your readers about that too! Keep your readers up to date, and share blog related glimpses of your life. Keep it fun!
| Etiquette. When your readers do engage on your Facebook page, respond to them ASAP! It's important to respond to questions or comments left on a post. After all, blogging is about building relationships. You want to be accessible and personable with your readers. Be appreciative, caring, and friendly, it goes a long way. 
And there it is my lovely people! Four tips to help you grow your blog with Facebook.
Are you on the "love it" or "hate it" side on Facebook pages? How has Facebook helped your blog? Tell me about it!

B L O G L O V I N  |  F A C E B O O K  |  T W I T T E R  |  P I N T E R E S T   |  I N S T A G R A M

Check out this month's featured sponsor!

Using Twitter To Grow Your Blog

Using Twitter To Grow Your Blog

Monday, February 24, 2014

It's time for another Grow Your Blog post! We've done Pinterest and Image SEO, now it's time to use  Twitter to grow your blog. We all want our blogs to grow, right? Using Twitter to grow your blog is oh so important. I'll be the first to admit that it makes me smile to see my blog grow and reach more people. It's exciting. It's also a boatload of work. Blogging is a job, albeit a fun and rewarding job. If we want to reach others we have to work at it, and I've found that using Twitter is an incredibly important part of blogging. Twitter gives you the ability to engage in real time conversations with your readers and other bloggers. If you're a blogger and you don't have a Twitter, get one! Use it to engage in these real time conversations and build your following.

Here are some things to remember when using Twitter to grow your blog:

• Tweet each blog post three to four times the day that you publish it. Your followers don't all live in one timezone so put some thought behind the timing of your tweets. Space them out so that your post gets more traffic.

• Use a social media management tool like Hootsuite or Buffer to schedule your tweets. This is so important! You will get swallowed up if you try to manually tweet your posts, photos, sponsors posts etc. You'll end up feeling defeated and your content will not be seen like you want it to. Schedule those tweets!

• Shorten your links ( URLs). Since Twitter only gives you 140 characters to play with, the last thing you want is for your blog link to take up half of your tweet. You want to be able to use as many of those 140 characters to write an interest catching tweet. Shrink those links! If you have Hootsuite, you can easily shrink your links before scheduling. I use Hootsuite mostly from my laptop, but you can download the Hootsuite app on your phone for free!

• Hashtags. You know this little doozy ( # ). That is the hash in the situation. In case you're unfamiliar with hashtags: "On social media sites such as Twitter, a hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by a hash or pound sign ( # ), and used to identify messages on a specific topic". Hashtags are a powerful way to extend your reach on Twitter. It is important to keep in mind your contents relevance for the audience of the hashtags you use, and don't bombard your followers with a gaggle of hashtags. Three should be your limit. Be thoughtful and make your hashtags relevant to the content you're sharing!

• Participate in relevant Twitter chats. These are basically virtual meetings that begin at a set time, and you can chat with other bloggers about blogging, share tips and advice. A specific hastag is used so you can track the conversation in real time. Twitter chats are a great way to get to know other bloggers, and building relationships is an important part of blogging.

Here's a helpful infographic to help you compose the perfect tweet!

Twitter has a great viral marketing effect. Your tweets can spread across the Twitter community quickly. For example: say you're hosting a giveaway on your blog, send out a few tweets to let your followers know. Chances are they'll spread the word as well, and now your giveaway is going out to a broader range of people. As word of your giveaway spreads, more people will stop by your blog and see what you have to offer. This applies to more than just giveaways. Make your tweets about a blogpost intriguing; People will be curious what you have to say and share.Your followers are an incredible asset to you. If they're interested in what you shared, then they'll share it and your reach will go out so much further.

This brings me to another important point: Thank your followers and readers for sharing your blogpost. If someone in Twitterland shares your post, just write a quick, genuine thank you or at least favorite their tweet. A thank you lets them know you noticed and helps build relationships. Give a little love back! Now get out of here and get to tweetin'!

Was this post helpful? What tips would you share about using Twitter to grow your blog?

Check out this month's featured sponsor!

Grow Your Blog | 8 Not So Secret Ways To Tweak Your Pinterest Page

Grow Your Blog | 8 Not So Secret Ways To Tweak Your Pinterest Page

Friday, February 7, 2014

It's time for another Grow Your Blog post. This time around, Nicola is sharing 8 not so secret ways to tweak your pinterest page! Hope it's helpful!

Pinterest needs no introduction. It's valued at nearly $4 billion, more popular than email and the third most popular social networking site in the world and according to Comscore, Pinterest sees over 11 million unique visitors every month...

Real estate on Pinterest is BIG thang so if you blog you want to have it!

Here are 8 not so secret ways to tweek your Pinterest page to gain the monopoly on blog street...

1// Tell us who you are and what you do!

Jazz up your profile photo, add a little about you 'blurb' and be sure to include your blog url. Here's mine and Jen's as an example

2// Your blog board is the most important..

and should be the first board that everybody sees when they click on your Pinterest page. Moving around a board is as simple as clicking and dragging it to where you want it.

3// Bored of that board?

Give your boards a little personality by whipping up a snazzy title. For example, I remained my fitness board to Active Living, my goals to The Year of Me, and my blogging tips to Rock Your Blog.

4// What have we got here?

adding descriptions is the best way to get traffic to your site. Use has tags and your blogs URL so that your pincers know exactly where the pics have come from.

5// Words just say it all

Pictures with words grab your attention especially if you're looking for tutorials. Play around with fancy writing over your blog post pictures and see what gets the traffic flowing to your site.

6// Taller Pins work

500px x 800px is the ideal Pinterest picture size - well actually the taller the better but if you are like any other blogger then you'll probably be posting horizontal pictures. Hmmm! What to do? I find the best is to edit your pictures into the perfect Pinterest picture size, add text, a lovely border and your good to go!

7// Put a pin button on your site

Adding this nifty button to your site makes it easy for your readers to Pin your images. Here is a great tutorial on how to add Pin buttons to blogger sites.

8// Be a pioneer Pinner

85% of Pins are pinned from Pinterest which you've probably seen already. Yawn! When you are on a site and you want to pin something, you can highlight a portion of text before clicking the 'Pin it' icon. The highlighted text will then appear as your post description. Easy peasy!

- Nicola Tweed

_________________________________________________________________________________

Check out this month's lovely featured sponsor!

Grow Your Blog | Image SEO Adding Alt Tags To Images

Grow Your Blog | Image SEO Adding Alt Tags To Images

Monday, January 20, 2014

You might have heard about Alt and Title tags for images. They are one of the best things in terms of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Alt and Title tags can bring you a lot of traffic from Google Image Search. 

Now, I have only been blogging for eight months. The majority of which I was blissfully ignorant of SEO, particularly in the imagery area. With a few simple tips, that I found on the interwebs, I started adding tags to pictures on my blog, and badda bing badda boom, a lovely little stream of traffic. Ignorance may be bliss, but knowledge is infinitely sweeter. We all want to be seen and heard and reach others. In order to do that more effectively we have to make it easier for others to find us. So here's a little knowledge for ya!

The Alt + Title Tag
An image tag is an HTML language that is used to display images in webpages. Simply adding an image to your blog post is not enough. Search engine robots can't read an image like they read text, therefore, they don’t understand what the image is about. In order to describe and categorize your images to both your visitors and search bots you need to add title and alt text.

An image tag has three attributes; src (image source), title (image title) and Alt (alternative text for image).  For example sake, let’s say you're writing a post about “Blog SEO” but you're focusing in on “adding alt tags to blog images”. 
You would define the image tags like this -

<img alt="adding alt tags to blog images" src=”https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKuCvWFd_h-BGz09TDGnf192UEF_ih09y6ywgm43iJtXkZKW3TqaJ7x71S97jl9gVltURRoMRZ-nOY5wM0LteE4fJU71s9ZCT6eopG5TDv2r_zc5qIOmrriu8ZVuTpn1okwYTCV413Dg/s1600/Grow+Your+Blog+Through+Image+SEO.jpg” title=”Blog SEO” /> 

Now, you can have fun with the alt tag. Depending on what you're writing about, adding SEO rich titles and being descriptive with your alt tags is key! Here's an example of a saucier alt tag.

<img alt="adding alt tags to blog images, image seo, blogger images, blog seo" src=”https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKuCvWFd_h-BGz09TDGnf192UEF_ih09y6ywgm43iJtXkZKW3TqaJ7x71S97jl9gVltURRoMRZ-nOY5wM0LteE4fJU71s9ZCT6eopG5TDv2r_zc5qIOmrriu8ZVuTpn1okwYTCV413Dg/s1600/Grow+Your+Blog+Through+Image+SEO.jpg” title=”Blog SEO” /> 

The more descriptive you are, the better! 

Adding Alt Tags To Blogger Images
My blog is powered by Blogger, which I happen to really love! It is super easy to add these image tags, and here's how you do it in Blogger.

Upload your image in compose mode on Blogger and select the image. Select "properties" from the menu. In image properties add the title and alt text that are your keywords. 

And there you have it! Some basics on using the alt tags to improve SEO on your blog posts.  This really is an easy, but super effective way to bring more traffic to your blog!

Do you use alt tags to help improve your SEO? Any advice to add on using these tags? Let me know in the comments! Have a beautiful day! xo, Jen