You spend hours writing a blog post. After it’s finally published, you open up Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to share away.
That’s all good! Sharing a link to social networks through Buffer or Hootsuite after publishing is the standard. Besides social sharing, here are three other tactics to promote your post immediately after publishing:
1. Comment on new posts from authoritative sites.
When you leave meaningful comments on authoritative blogs, you prompt others to check out your own blog. A well-thought-out (not spammy) comment provides validation to the post author and additional value to their audience.
We want to find posts that are brand new, and post on the same day; that’s likely when they’ll get the most traffic. If you’re the first to comment, your comment is more likely to be seen by both the post author and their visitors.
Make a list of 10 blogs to constantly check. Write meaningful comments when you publish your own posts. Most commenting systems let you share your own information in your display name or directly in the comment text.
Just remember not to abuse commenting by spamming links to your blog. Treat comments like awesome content!
2. Take advantage of social bookmarking.
The audiences of social bookmarking sites are there to discover specific categorical content. These sites act like shared bookmark lists with user voting and discussion. Your content needs to be primo in order to take real advantage.
Some of the most popular social bookmarking sites include:
- Digg
- StumbleUpon
- Delicious
- Hacker News
Before sharing your own content, research which types of content get the most hits (or upvotes). You’ll also need to share other content that’s not your own – remember that these are communities! Like anywhere else, too much self-promotion is frowned upon.
3. Add a link to your email signature.
We live in our inbox, which makes email a lucrative promotional opportunity for your latest blog. Contrast the number of times you tweet with the number of emails you send.
Email signatures typically include your name, title, and contact information. You rarely see links to blog posts. In fact, including a link to your blog is uncommon, and therefore actually makes you stand out.
There are a few apps that can help you do this:
- WiseStamp
- Sigbuzz
- Email Signature Rescue
Dedicate at least an hour to promoting your post after publishing.
You spent 3-5 times that writing your post. A little extra effort can go a long way!
John is the Founder & CEO of Wriber. He’s passionate about entrepreneurship, high-tech startups, thought leadership, content marketing, and artificial intelligence. John frequently volunteers his time at the University of Waterloo to help young entrepreneurs get their businesses off the ground. He’s also a faithful Toronto Maple Leafs fan, frequent Redditor, and lifelong learner.