15 Ways to Increase Blog Traffic with Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is one of the best ways to increase blog traffic and grow your audience of blog readers. The tools of social media like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and more give you a broader reach to get your content in front of more people. The best part is that most social media marketing can be done for free. Following are 15 easy ways that you can increase blog traffic with social media marketing.

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Feed Your Blog Content to Your Social Media Profiles

muharrem Aner/E+/Getty Images

Use a tool like Twitterfeed to automatically publish links to your blog posts on yourTwitter and Facebook profiles. Also, take the time to set up your blog posts to automatically publish on your LinkedIn, Google+, and other social media profiles that allow it. This configuration can usually be done within your social media profile settings.

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Add 'Follow Me' Social Media Icons to Your Blog

 Social Media Icons. commons.wikimedia.org

Add social media icons to your blog's sidebar inviting people to connect with you on Twitter, Facebook, and your other social media profiles. If your blog content is fed to those accounts (see #1 above), then you've created another way for people access your content when they're not actually visiting your blog!

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Link to Your Blog from Your Social Media Profiles

 Blog URL. You Tube

Make sure your blog URL is included in all of your social media profiles. For example, include it in your Twitter bio, your Facebook profile, your LinkedIn profile, your YouTube channel description, and so on. Your goal is to always make sure your blog is just a click away.

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Include the URL to Your Blog in Forum Post Signatures

 Online Forum. Gregory Baldwin / Getty Images

If you actively publish posts in online forums, make sure a link to your blog is included in your post signature.

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Automate Cross-Profile Publishing

 TweetDeck. Flickr

Use a tool like TweetDeck, HootSuite, SproutSocial, or another scheduling tool to automatically publish links to your blog posts on multiple social media profiles at the same time.

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Syndicate Your Blog Content

 Syndicate Your Blog Content. Peter Dazeley / Getty Images

Syndicate your blog content through free and licensed syndication companies to increase exposure to your content.

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Use Widgets and Social Tools Offered by Social Media Sites

 Social Media. Tuomas Kujansuu / Getty Images

Most social media sites offer free widgets and tools to help you promote your profiles and ultimately, give all of your content more exposure. For example, Twitter and Facebook each offer a variety of widgets that you can add to your blog or other websites quickly and easily.

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Publish Comments on Other Blogs with Your Blog URL

 Comment on Other Blogs. -VICTOR- / Getty Images

Find blogs related to your blog topic and publish comments to join the conversation and get on the blogger's radar screen as well as the radar screens of people who read that blog. Be sure to include your URL in the appropriate field in the comment form, so people can click through to read more of your content.

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Hold a Blog Contest and Promote It Through Your Social Media Profiles

 Hold a Blog Contest. PeopleImages.com / Getty Images

Hold a blog contest to generate short-term traffic to your blog and promote the blog contest to increase awareness and entries.

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Include Sharing Links on Your Blog Posts

 Make It Easy for Readers to Share Your Blog. pixabay.com

Make it as easy as possible for people to share your blog posts on their Twitter profiles, Facebook profiles, LinkedIn profiles, Google+ profiles, social bookmarking profiles, and so on by including share buttons. For example, the Retweet Buttonfrom Tweetmeme and the Sociable WordPress plugin provide easy ways to make your blog posts shareable.

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Write Guest Blog Posts for Other Blogs in Your Niche

 Be a Guest Blogger. Flickr

Find blogs in your niche and reach out to the owner of each blog to find out if the blog publishes guest posts. If so, write a great guest blog post and be sure to include a link to your blog in your bio that accompanies the post.

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Join Groups on Facebook and LinkedIn and Share Your Relevant Blog Content

 LinkedIn. Carl Court / Getty Images

There are many groups on both Facebook and LinkedIn, so search through them and find active groups related to your blog topic. Join them and start publishing comments and joining conversations. In time, you can start sharing links to your best and most relevant blog posts. Just don't overdo it or people will view you as a self-promotional spammer!

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Be Active on Your Social Media Profiles

 Be Active on Social Media. Flickr

Don't just publish links to your blog posts on your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media profiles. You need to actively interact with others, retweet and share their content, acknowledge them, and publish meaningful content. You need to be active and visible.

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Hold a Tweetup or Tweet Chat

 Tweet Chat. pixabay.com

Do you attend events related to your blog topic? Why not gather people together at those events for a tweetup (a local in-person gathering of fellow tweeters) to deepen your relationships with them? Or schedule a tweet chatto bring a group of people together virtually to discuss a topic that's relevant to your blog.

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Repurpose Content for Multiple Social Media Destinations

 Repurpose YouTube Videos. Gabe Ginsberg / Getty Images

You can turn your YouTube videos into blog posts, Slideshare presentations, tweets, podcasts, and more. Think about how many different ways you can use a piece of content to give it (and ultimately, your blog) more exposure. Don't just republish content. You need to modify it so it's not viewed as duplicate content by search engines or it will do more harm than good. Instead, you need to revise it (called "repurposing") before you use it elsewhere.

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