Becoming a blogger: #2 Being successful on Social media, the ins and outs

No word of a lie, if you want to make it in the blogging world in any way shape of form then social media is literally THE most effective tool you can use. Being able to share any post, idea, question and poll instantly to thousands upon thousands of people and content consumers is massively handy, especially when you're only just starting out.

Over 90% of young adults use social media and 35% of older people use it! I mean even though your Auntie Sue only goes on to comment on your profile picture with the usual "How are you hunny, you coming over for the family meal on saturday?xxc"they still count as social media users, and if they open your post then hey! there goes another page view.

This post will cover how to use social media efficiently allowing you to get your blog out there and get the pageviews increasing with every post!

1) Use it.
There are countless bloggers who set up social media accounts and use them for about 3 days before they get bored and just stick to using Facebook. There is no point in creating social media accounts on tonnes of different platforms if you're only going to be active on one. The key to getting interaction is creating content and staying active!


2) Finding the right platforms for you
There are literally hundreds of different social media platforms out there. It can be quite baffling but you just need to finds the one that YOU like, and YOU want to use. There are different social media platforms for pretty much every type of hobby there is! If you like photography why not get tumblr, Instagram and things like that? Fan of music? Soundcloud, 8tracks and things like that might be more to your taste. But I would also recommend using the mainstream and generic social media platforms like twitter and Facebook because they are perfect for sharing pretty much anything!


3) Scheduling
Scheduling social media posts can really be a life saver. If you know you're going to be bust at a particular time then being able to post without actually posting can be a godsend! I tend to write a load of tweets/ posts in bulk and schedule them for when I want them to go up. Best thing is you can do it for pretty much all social media platforms now, you can download apps for your phone or chrome extensions, or you could just use a website! 


4) Interaction
If you expect people to interact with you on social media then you had best be up for interacting with them too. There is nothing worse than someone taking time out of their day to interact with you because they like your content and then not once ever getting a reply out of the countless times they have tried to get in touch. If you wan't people to look at your blog then why not look at theirs, leave a relevant and sincere  comment on a post that you like and then at the bottom add a link to your blog! A reply to a blogpost tweet with a nice comment and a link to your blog never goes a miss either so why not give it a go.


5) Use sharing accounts
There are loads of different sharing accounts on every different social media platform, these are basically accounts that if you tag them in a tweet or a post they will share it n their account so that all of  their followers will see it. Seriously handy if your following isn't huge and you're just starting out.


6) Use tags efficiently
Pretty much every single social media platform out there in the mass of words that is the world wide web, uses tags to make sure that searching for things out actually want is easy and efficient. We all know how annoying it is to search a tag on Instagram or Twitter and the post is completely irrelevant in every way shape and form? If you're going to use tags make sure that they are relevant to whatever you're tagging, it makes the people that see your post actually want to read it and interact!


7) There's no harm in self promotion
You will never get anywhere if you're not willing to promote yourself, I mean come on, let's be serious, no one else is going to do it for you. Especially when you're starting out. One thing I will say is that not every post on your social media accounts should be a promotion, people really dislike it if you're spamming them with tweets telling you to read this or do this and you never post anything else. Mix it up a little!


8) Get involved with the community
The blogging community on social media is ever growing and oh so kind, and I'm not just saying that. Our little community isn't so little (it's pretty darn huge actually). There are thousands of us dotted over different platforms so no matter what you choose to use there will always be people to get involved with and chat to! There are tonnes of twitter chats daily/ weekly for different types of bloggers to get involved in! Have a root around and I'm sure you will find one to suit you! The more you get involved with the community the more your blog will grow, I can tell you that right now. Honestly.


9) It is okay to take a break
Everyone likes taking a break from social media every once in a while, especially if you spend loads of time on it, and as a blogger, believe me, you do. It can get tedious and boring sitting behind a screen constantly and it is nice to get out and about and not be constantly on your phone, tablet and laptop. Even though social media is amazing and a great tool you shouldn't forget to actually go out there and live life! Go for walks and grab a coffee (without instagramming it) I dare you. If you do want to take a break but you're frightened of people losing interest because of inactivity then just schedule a few posts for however long you want the break for!


10) Don't listen to negative nancy's 
There are always going to be people who have something to say about every little thing you do, including what you do on social media. But let's be serious if they are literally just talking about what you do online and being super negative then it say's more about them than you. It is also most probably because of jealousy, you do you Boo. The opinions of others really don't matter if you're having fun and doing what you want!

Do you have any social media tips for bloggers? leave it in the comments!

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Thank you for reading,

Mandy x