29 Extremely Effective Tips On How To Promote A Blog

The Internet consists of over 1.6 billion websites and 500 million of them are blogs. If you are looking to start your own blog, potentially about makeup or fashion, then you should know before you start that you are in for a competitive ride. However, there are, of course, things you can do to reach through the noise, promote a blog and make it a brand that people know and love.

For some people, not familiar with how the Internet works these days and what runs it, it can be a challenging endeavor to find ways to promote a new blog post or a newly launched website. It is because of this that I decided to try my best to put together a helpful guide on how you, as a blogger, can best promote your newly written and published blog posts or your website.

Even though this post will be divided up in list form, you should be aware that you should not treat each list item as an individual way of strategizing your promotion. The post is a combined part of a wholesome strategy that will supercharge the promotion of whatever you are trying to promote within makeup and fashion.

So, now you may ask why I think I have any authority to give these tips and it’s a perfectly good question. Well, I have been writing blog posts since way back in 2009 and I have managed to write 5,500 of them so far. Sure, writing them doesn’t really give me the experience to tell you how to promote them, right? You are absolutely correct.

As a matter of fact, I have been trying different social media and online marketing strategies for over 10 years now and I believe that I have a few tips and tricks to share with you that can be useful and that’s the basis of this post. So, shall we begin?

IMAGE: PEXELS

1. Pinterest

I put Pinterest at the top of the list solely because of its incredibly visual marketing capabilities. Promoting your blog and blog posts on Pinterest is not only a great strategy to adopt, it is also a time-saving marketing platform that in general requires very little maintenance. So, what do I mean by that?

Think of Pinterest as a massive pinboard. Whatever you feel people should have a look at, you pin to your boards on Pinterest. There are, however, a few tips a tricks you should know before you go about pushing out your content and promote your blog.

Size Matters – Make sure that the images you pin are vertical. By pinning vertical images you get more real estate on the screen when people come across your pins. It will stand out among the horizontal images as your vertical ones will be far bigger.
Spacing – Don’t pin all of your images/posts at the same time. If you have many, try and space your pins out over a period of time to make sure that as many people as possible get a chance to see them. If you have 25 images that you would like to pin to your board then pin 5 at a time, wait an hour and then pin 5 more until you have pinned the images you want.
Audience – Be generous. You will not gain many followers by just pinning your own images all the time. Try and find images from other people that you like and intermingle them with your pins in your boards. This will show people that you reciprocate their kindness of repinning your pins.
Following – Don’t follow people just to get them to follow you. You will not gain anything from this. In today’s social media landscape numbers mean nothing if you have 100,000 followers and you are following 200,000 people yourself. It only shows that your pin search board is cluttered and you don’t really know what you like. Only follow people who pin things that you enjoy and like. This will pay of plentiful in the long run.

2. Twitter

Twitter is a social network that most people know about, however, only around 400 million people are on. Compared to Facebook’s 1.5 billion users, Twitter is a small player in the social media landscape. However, Twitter is definitely one of the biggest when it comes to how many people know about it.

You might think that Twitter is a straightforward social media platform for promotion. You might feel like you only have to push out your new blog with title and link and hope people find it. Well, I hate to disappoint you, but Twitter is way more complicated than that.

Engagement – Acquiring followers is your main objective on Twitter. However, not in the way you might think. You have no need for a million followers if they don’t pay attention to what you are tweeting. Growing your Twitter following should be organic and engaging. Twitter is the platform that people use when they want to engage with someone they follow. For example, if you publish a blog and then promote it on Twitter, make sure you also reply to people’s retweets and comments. This is what drives success on Twitter.
Visuals – Make sure that your blog is using “Twitter Cards”. This means that you have a certain script and validation from Twitter that allows you to include images and text in the tweet when people tweet things form your website. Research has shown that people react faster and more positive to things that are visual and where they can instantly assess what they are about to read.
Following – Don’t fall for the follow/unfollow trend. This is perhaps the most important tip for Twitter. Make sure that you only follow people that you are interested in following. Before following people, dig deep into their tweets and the content they share and make up your mind about whether you really like what this person is sharing. If you do, then follow him/her/it. If you follow this simple advice there is a great chance that the person you follow will have similar interests as you and follow you back. This is how you grew your following.
Video – Tweet videos. This is another power tip that has become popular in the last couple of years. It is said that you have about 3 seconds to capture the reader’s attention and what better way to do it than through a video. It’s effective and you can also include a link back to your website or blog post. It’s a great way to capture the attention of the reader and introduce a call-to-action.

3. Facebook

Yes, I am including Facebook on this list even though most people are on this social media network already. I am including it because there are a few things that have changed in the last couple of years on Facebook and knowing them will increase the potential of a viral share on the platform.

You might be familiar with the Facebook user interface, however, most people do not know the underlying mechanics of the features that Facebook offers.

Automation – The most important tips I can give you in this all-things-automated social media world is that you should not use third-party apps and services to automatically schedule publications of Facebook posts. It has become known among marketers that using third-party services will render your shares basically useless. Why? Well, Facebook wants you to be engaged and use their platform (after all, they earn money when people are actually on their platform) so therefore, when you post something using an automation tool Facebook flags it as such and don’t show it in people’s feeds. What you will see is that only 1 person has seen it, which is you.
Video – For a platform whose primary purpose from the beginning was to show people’s relationship statuses, Facebook has become more or less of a video sharing platform. If you have the chance to, make sure that you upload your video to the platform (not sharing it) in order to reach the most people with it. Facebook has no intention of giving, for example, YouTube (Google) a ton of view on their YouTube clips when they can rack them up themselves and keep their users on the site longer.
Mentions – Facebook is a great platform for mentioning people in your posts on the platform. When you “at” people in your posts you make sure that they are aware of your new post. Sure, this works on Twitter as well, however, with the previously popular #followfriday trend, people feel being mentioned in tweets of newly published content has become saturated and it’s not as fun anymore. However, this still works on Facebook and it’s a way to make your submission a whole lot more personal.If you feel a topic that you have written about is something that a certain person would really enjoy, don’t hesitate to “at” that person in order to let them know you are thinking about them. You can always say “When I saw this / wrote this I thought of you.“

4. Email

One of the most frequent mistakes that bloggers do (even I did it when I started out over a decade ago) is not to include an email collection feature on your website. There are more people than you think that would like to get the latest news whenever you post something on your website or have an important message for your readers.

Why I put this in the fourth place in this list is because social media promotion is more instant than email marketing, in general. Well, the collection of email addresses is.

Capture – Always have an email collection features, such as a popup or a call-to-action button somewhere on your website. Starting the collection of email addresses early will not only allow you to build a following faster, but it will also help you understand your audience faster. By using services such as MailChimp and OptinMonster you will be able to integrate this feature quite easily. Also, they offer you the ability to create a newsletter based on new articles that you publish etc.
Frequency – Don’t overload or boost your email marketing efforts to the brink of it becoming a spamfest. The norm is a weekly or biweekly newsletter (depending on how much content you publish) that contains the latest developments and posts published. This can be automated with most available services, however, this requires some design work and some setting up.
Personalization – Nothing is more annoying than being seen as another set of eyes or a way to gain a page view. In your effort to understand your audience, always make sure your emails or weekly/biweekly newsletters are as personal as they can possibly be. This will help you grown a more tight-knit community where people feel included instead of just the means to a successful blog.
Visuals – If you have the skills (or if you know someone who does), always make sure to include images and your emails by creating an HTML email instead of a text email.As mentioned earlier in this list, people react more positive and have a higher engage factor when things are visual. The bigger the visual is the higher is the chance that they will react on it.

5. LinkedIn

When it comes to LinkedIn, well, if you have a makeup or a fashion blog then perhaps LinkedIn is not the best platform for you. It all depends on the content that you produce. If it is business-related and you talk about the industries and don’t create amazing makeup tutorials then LinkedIn is a perfect place for you.

Value – The LinkedIn platform is all about value. People on this platform is there to network and to gain an “in” on a job or collaboration they want. If you have been on LinkedIn for a longer period of time you know that you get connection requests from people that you have never heard about. Most of the time it’s because they see that you know someone that they would like to get in touch with and the way they can do that is through you. So, if you want to promote your blog on LinkedIn, make sure that what you share has value for the people that you are connected with. The more value you give them, in the form of tips and skills, the higher is the chance that they will re-share your content and make it viral.
Connections – Make sure that you research the people that you would like to connect with before you send them a connection request. Why? Well, it’s always good to know tíf they share the same interests as you do. If they do, then it’s more likely that you will have an ally on your side that is willing to help you market your blog and help you reach your goal easier.
Post – LinkedIn has several ways you can share content. You can either share a blog post from your website or you can actually use the LinkedIn post feature to write a post directly on LinkedIn. Many people republish their content on LinkedIn in order to allow people to stay on the platform, which reduces annoyance for a lot of people. After all, you donät want people to leave the party just to connect with you, right?
Messages – This a vital part of the way that LinkedIn works and a perfect tool for you to promote your blog or blog post. All social media networks have a messaging feature, however, none as important as the one on LinkedIn. Not because of its features but because of the way the platform works. LinkedIn is all about networking for business so connecting over messages is perhaps the most personalized and important tool to gain people’s attention and generosity to look at and share your content.

6. Communities

There are literally thousands of makeup communities and forums around the Internet and you should really utilize these in your promotion and marketing strategy. One of the more prominent and easiest community platform available is, of course, Facebook. Posting and engaging on Facebook Communities is a great way to gain popularity and show off your awesome makeup skills and posts.

Engagement – It’s all about engaging. Don’t just post your content and be done with it. It won’t work and people see that as spam. Engage with the people on the community of your choice and make sure to check out and like/share other people’s content as well.
Spread – Don’t just settle for one community or forum. Join multiple, however, don’t join so many that you won’t have time to maintain your engagement level. Marketing is not a game of who can post the most content in the shortest amount of time. It’s all about who can engage with the audience in the best way to gain their attention and convert them into a follower or a reader/visitor.

7. Instagram

When it was launched Instagram quickly became one of the most important social networks on the scene. Today, when owned by Facebook, the platform has evolved into a melting pot of photography aficionados and social celebrities all competing for the attention of the vast audience on it. If you are looking for instant recognition then Instagram is the perfect platform for you.

It might not be as powerful as Pinterest when it comes to sharing images, however, with the right kind of posts and content, you can create a brand (or become one yourself) if you have the guts to do what it takes to please this audience.

Stories – A great way to reach out to the Instagram audience is through Instagram stories. It makes it easier to create and share your thoughts and content through this ever-evolving visual platform.
Hashtags – If you have been on Instagram for any amount of time you know that hashtags are the core of any marketing strategy on the platform. With the right hashtags added to your images and stories, you can literally reach an audience of millions without even having an audience. Don’t miss out on this opportunity and always make sure to research your hashtags before you add them. Don’t just add them because everyone else does. Make sure they tell a story of the images or videos that you share.
Following – As with all of the other social media platforms, building an organic and engaging following is only achieved by letting people find you. What I mean about this is that, once again, having thousands of followers that don’t engage with you or your posts does nothing for your brand, right? Instead, make sure to put your energy into creating great imagery to post and let people find you through friends of friends liking your posts or through your researched hashtags.
Direct Messages – Once you have built up a following and you have a healthy engagement level, make sure to share other people’s posts with people that you would know would like them. People that already follow you. This will make them feel more appreciated and they will also keep a keen eye on the stuff that you post.
Swipe-Up – If you have been utilizing the above marketing tips to promote a blog on Instagram for a while and managed to accumulate more than 10,000 followers, you have the option of creating swipe-up affiliate linking on Instagram. This is a perfect way to promote your posts and affiliate offers on your makeup or fashion blog. However, if you are just starting out, then this might take a bit time to achieve but it is definitely worth it. – By the way, DON’T buy followers on order to reach this threshold, it’s not worth it and you always run the chance of being banned from the platform.

8. Sponsored

There are also a ton of sponsored options that you could utilize to market and promote a blog. However, my experience is that with the right amount of attention and research, free social media marketing is always the best way to go. Not only is it free, however, with every new follower you gain you earn something. If you pay for a sponsored tweet for example, then you are already behind of your return on investment, whether it is time or money.

Facebook Boost – If you have a Facebook Page (not personal profile) you have the option of boosting your post. What this means is that you increase the reach a post has by paying money. What it does essentially is to widen the reach area to people that might not have a direct interest in your page or is directly connected to your page (or you). This may be an option if all else fails, however, I wouldn’t encourage you to start boosting your posts right off the bat. Save your money and invest it in your blog posts instead. Organic SEO can do way more than a boosted Facebook post can ever do and it’s free.
Promoted Tweet – Yes, on Twitter you also have the option to send a promoted tweet. Depending on the reach you would like your tweet to have, it can be insanely expensive and the RIO is not at all guaranteed. Even though this is an available option to you, I would not advise you to hop on this train without having been on Twitter for quite a while so that you understand the platform and how promoted tweets work.
Sponsored Instagram Post – Instagram has of course also adopted this quite lucrative (for Instagram/Facebook that is) option. If you have ever seen an Instagram ad then you roughly know what a sponsored Instagram post is. They basically look the same but with a sponsored Instagram post you reach a larger audience than your own following. Somewhat like a Facebook Boost. Sure, it could work, however, as always, I would encourage you to explore and deplete all of the free options before you start dabbling in the marketing and promotion of a blog for money.

Wrapping Up

There are of course many more ways to promote a blog and whatever marketing strategy that you utilize, make sure to always try all of the free ones on a platform for a while before trying the paid options. What you will find is that the foundation that social media platforms are built on is the free service of building a following.

The sponsored options are just a means for the company behind it to make a profit. The tools made available to you for free are way more powerful if put to use in the right way, than any sponsored options that you may come across.

Should you have any additional tips on how to promote a blog or a blog post, then I would definitely urge you to let us know in the comment section below. The more options that we make available to each other the more powerful our social media promotion and marketing strategies will be.

Rest assured that with time I will most likely come back to this post and add even more tips as they come into my mind. However, in the meantime, I leave you with these 29 effective ways to promote a blog.

If you are interested in even more business-related articles and information from us here at Makeup By Kili, then we have a lot to choose from.