Bloggers need social media! Are you a blogger too? Awesome! Are you on social media? You should be. For a few different reasons. Social media can be good, it can be bad but you need to be on it if you are a blogger.
There are three main reasons for this. To connect, to promote and to make money. Yes, you can make money on social media if you are a blogger. Pretty cool huh?
To Connect
This is the most important reason that bloggers need social media. To connect with others. To connect with other bloggers and to connect with your readers or possible readers. You will do this in different ways depending on the platform. On Twitter, you will set up your account and start following people. Then start replying to what they are talking about. Start retweeting what you like and your numbers will start to grow. On Facebook, start a Facebook page for your blog, connect with other bloggers to gain followers, share with all of your friends and put the page on your blog. There are many ways to connect with others on social media. Just keep doing it. Not only will you make friends but you will help get your blogging name out there.
To Promote
Social media is great for bloggers because it is an easy and free way to promote your blog. Although you can pay for some of it, you don’t have to. You can just put it out there for the world to see. Make sure you have a strategy of some kind. Some people like the posts to automatically end up on social media. Others would rather have control over that. You might need to try a few things before you figure out how you want to do it. Use tools like Buffer and Hootsuite to help you schedule your posts. Don’t forget to go back into your social media accounts in real time. Your followers want to know you are a real person and that you are really there, even if some of your posts are scheduled.
To Make Money
Once you start to get a good following on social media, you can actually make money with it. I do this in a few different ways. People can buy Twitter mentions from me from my blog. I also get offers from Izea, Sverve and Advowire. Each of these sites operate a little differently.
- Izea– Here you connect your social media channels and then check for offers. Some might be for your blog or Instagram, most of them for me have been for Twitter. You bid a certain amount and have to wait to see if you will be accepted by the company. Sometimes you are and then it allows you to write your tweet right there on the website. Then it will be Tweeted out after it is approved. Other times you won’t hear anything so either they didn’t pick you or they dropped the campaign. It is hard to really know. It is a good idea to pay for one of the plans. The cheapest is only $1 a month and it will allow you to bid on a lot more campaigns.
- Sverve– This is more of a blogging community where people share their posts but they also have campaigns. They have them for blogging, Twitter and Youtube but I have only done blog campaigns as well as Twitter ones. The pay is a lot lower than you will find on Izea but you can Tweet the campaign once every 24 hours until the campaign ends.
- Advowire– I like this place because they always have something you can Tweet out. They give you points and then you turn in the points for prizes. I like to get the movie tickets because we love going to movies and will always use them. You can move up and get paid a little more, the more tweeting that you do. You can only use this every 12 hours but I try to go there at least once a day.
I am also able to do Facebook or Twitter campaigns through Blogher and MSB New Media. If you are a Military Spouse Blogger you must join their network.
As a blogger, there are a lot of tasks I do on a regular basis. Social media is one of them. It is the best way to get your name out there while connecting with others. And let’s face it, in most cases you would be on social media anyway, why not make it work for your blog too?
What is your favorite thing about social media as a blogger?
* This post contains affiliate links!
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