Promoting your blog posts on Facebook is one
of the most cost-effective, efficient and smart strategies you can use to drive
traffic back to your blog.
First of all, Facebook audiences are _huge_
! 68% of Americans
use a Facebook account
regularly, which equals nearly 220 million people. Facebook also remains the
most-used mobile app. 81% of devices have it installed.
And, since the majority of internet traffic is
now mobile and the majority of mobile time is spent in-app,
Facebook represents one of the best chances you have at getting views, shares,
likes and new followers for your business.
If you’re a business owner wondering how to
drive traffic to your blog using Facebook, here are eight airtight strategies
you can use to get maximum visibility and a higher rate of readers with each
post.
Make It a Habit to Share Every Post You Write
Make sharing every single post you create for
your blog a habit. People are more likely to keep up with your content on the
social platforms they already use compared to obsessively checking your blog
page.
Consider each Facebook share as important as
the blog itself. Think of the Facebook post as your store window. You want it
to be enticing enough that people really want to go inside and see what else
there is. You also want it to be intriguing enough that people who are just
window shopping still remember your display and maybe even mention it through
word of mouth.
Keep in mind that Google SEO best practices [suggest not sharing each and every piece of new content\\
you create](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7451184?hl=en "Link: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7451184?hl=en"). However, this rule likely applies to larger publishers
who put out dozens if not hundreds of new blog articles a day. If, on the other
hand, you only publish 1-2 times a day or less, you shouldn’t run afoul of the
overpromotion threshold.
That said, if you are making new blogs
multiple times a day, consider limiting the number of times you share your
content. Pick just the juiciest ones to show the world.
Boost Your Post With Paid Facebook Advertising
It’s a sad reality, but Facebook has been
trending towards pay-to-play for years now. Organic reach for business page
posts has plummeted over the past few years.
Even worse, Facebook recently announced
changes that mean it’s _even less likely_ that audiences will see your blog posts
compared to content from their friends and family. Thanks, bots!
But the good news is that Facebook’s options
for “boosting” your post with an ad budget are truly amazing. Not only do you
have razor-fine control over how much you spend, but you can also target
specific user traits and demographics.
With just a limited budget per day, you can
earn spots on the news feeds of people who will be most likely to consider your
content interesting.
If, for instance, you create a blog post about
“Best Places to Eat in Downtown Austin,” you can manually target people living
in Austin, Round Rock and other cities nearby. You can even select particular
age ranges, allowing you to pitch some of the best bar/restaurant/music venue
places just to the 35 and under crowd.
Consider boosting a few of your most popular
blogs each month as you start out and then move toward consistently promoting a
higher ratio to get your posts the attention they deserve.
Think Mobile First
As we mentioned in the intro, if people are
seeing your content on Facebook, they’re most likely viewing it on mobile. Make
sure your post is optimized for smaller mobile screens, including limiting the
amount of text you use in paragraph form.
Also, make sure any image you use doesn’t have
tiny details that require zooming in. For instance, don’t share your entire
infographic in a thumbnail size; crop out part of it and share that instead.
Most importantly, ensure your blog site itself
is responsive and mobile optimized. If people click to read an article they see
on Facebook and end up on a messy site, most will back out immediately and not
bother reading the article in full.
Make Sure You’re Writing Great Headlines
80% of people who see your post shared on
Facebook won’t get past the headline. Some will keep
scrolling and not bother clicking or reading.
Others will start reacting to the post _based on the headline alone_
. We’ve all
seen it happen, and for your blog this can actually be a good thing. Great
headlines have a way of getting people talking. While it’s frustrating to hear
commentary from people who **clearly**
haven’t read the article, the whole point of posting on Facebook is getting
engagement.
So embrace hot takes and write good enough
titles so that people who actually read have an incentive to dig further. We
wrote a whole post on how to write great blog headlines for Facebook,
but the gist is to use phrases that get people’s attention without being too
clickbaity.
Most importantly, look to your own data for
feedback on headline quality. Posts that have a low click-through rate clearly
show that the headline wasn’t enticing enough. Posts with a high click or
engagement rate did a good job at getting attention.
Learn lessons from past successes and failures
and adjust accordingly.
Use Facebook’s Text Space to Your Advantage
Every Facebook post you create with a link has
room for additional text on the Facebook post itself.
Don’t neglect the importance of the space
Facebook gives you above the link! A lot of people will read that immediately
after seeing the photo.
The text you add to your posts can lend
context, provide a brief summary or reveal key benefits. In the example above,
the restaurant not only connected the link they shared to the current weather,
but they also explained that the link’s important because it was essentially an
endorsement from a notable local publication.
Just remember that the maximum amount of content
people can see without expanding is 480 characters. Avoid using chunks of text
to get your point across. Try to be descriptive yet brief. Use any hashtags or
cross-tags to other pages that are relevant to signal boost your post even
further. Maybe even consider using emojis😁
Attach Great Images to Your Blogs
Facebook posts with images get three times more engagement,
which is why most posts you see from brands now include some sort of image.
Images catch our attention, and they can also
begin to tell the story behind your blog. With the right image, you can elicit
emotion from your audiences before they even read a single word. Once they’ve
been engaged in this way, your audience will be more likely to read the actual
post.
Make images as relevant as possible to the
content of your posts, though. Don’t just use an image because it’s
eye-catching.
Also, limit the use of text within your image.
A spare amount of text can be great, but too much can prevent your boosted
posts from running. Check out Facebook’s own image guidelines
for more
details on what they do and don’t want.
A/B Test Different Variations of Blog Post Shares
One of your best tools for marketing is the
ability to split test two different versions of the same blog post
For instance, say you wanted to promote a blog
about how swimming pools add value to someone’s home. You can create one
version that uses an image of a happy family. You can then create another
version that uses a stock image of a pool full of money.
Now, show each version to roughly the same
audience and see which one gets the more clicks!
Performing these experiments can help you get
details just right for each blog post you promote. It can also reveal
preferences for different demographics when it comes to post design.
Pay Attention to Facebook Insights Data, and It Will Show You How to Drive Traffic to Your Blog Using Facebook
At the end of the day, your own data is the
best asset you have when trying to learn how to drive traffic to your blog
using Facebook. Take notes on what works and what doesn’t, especially when it
comes to what times you post and how frequently.
Also, A/B test post variations vigorously to
find out how to get the biggest reaction from your audience.