I’ve been blogging now for 19 months and in that time, the way I promote my posts has swapped and changed so much.
It started out as totally non-existent, you know what it’s like when you’re new – you really believe that just writing it is 
somehow enough!?
Then it went to the point of crazy – I was spending hours each day doing all the promotion.
Now, I think I have finally found a balance that works for me. Admittedly, I have lost a few views from when I was doing the crazy amount of promotion, but I have gained about fourteen hours a week so I think its a worthwhile trade.
I decided I wanted two networks to concentrate on and I chose Twitter and Facebook.
Click the links in the paragraphs below to go to posts about how best to use each network to promote your blog posts.
I chose Twitter because its always in my top five referrals and I love it as a network so I enjoy spending time there. I chose Facebook because although I curse it and its stupid algorithms, it does sort of work. What I also like about these networks is that both are easy to pre-schedule updates for.
I decided Instagram wasn’t working for as a blog promotion tool. I do still post there sometimes, but now I only post when I want to and what I want to – it was getting ridiculous posting photos just for the sake of posting them.
I have stopped pinning my blog posts altogether. I enjoy Pinterest and I do still use it sometimes to pin things I like, but as a promotion tool, I just wasn’t feeling it. It’s a great site for recipes, crafts, things like that, but for my post types, it just isn’t worth the time.
I also stopped using Stumble Upon. I adore Stumble Upon, it was a fantastic traffic referrer for me. I chose to stop because for it to truly work, you need to Stumble other people’s posts (a lot) and I found myself reading more and more posts and being on there for hours. If I do extend my promotion again in the future, I know this network will be top of my list.
So, with Twitter and Facebook only, it makes it much easier for me to concentrate on spreading the word. I still use Facebook groups to share my social media blasts, and now I am concentrating solely on the networks I felt were working for me, I don’t feel like I am wasting my time with them.
I still find that Google is usually my top referrer per month so I feel a little less scared of changing my promotion strategy than I did before I started getting organic traffic.
Did your methods of promoting your posts change with time? Do you have a tried and tested promotion strategy or do you just wing it? Let me know in the comments 
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Yes debbie. My strategies have totally changed and I’m like you in that some methods i used to use i am doing or have stopped and others I am working on. I totally get this post and can relate. I am however finding different types of posts work better on different social media so I promote certain things on twitter, others on facebook and others on pinterest. But i know what not to waste time promoting on certain networks and it has helped cut down on time wasting.
We sure learn as we keep blogging don’t we. Angela from Daysinbed
I agree that some posts do work better on certain networks, I just wish I had the time to work out what should go where for me! Yes, we’re always learning and I imagine in ten years time, we still will be!
Promote? That’s a thing?
Just kidding. I don’t spend much time promoting my blog posts. That time should be spend on my shop. And it will be. If only I could find the time to spend on it.
Have you heard of Buffer? It’s an app that schedules updates to all sorts of social media sites. I just found it yesterday and haven’t had a chance to play with it yet. Maybe that’ll help me with promo. (Probably not, but I can dream…)
There’s enough time for everything we want to get done is there?
I’ve heard of Buffer, but I’ve never tried it. I use Tweetdeck for Twitter and the rest I just do manually. I think scheduling does help because you can do it all in one go then just forget about it
I use twitter, pinterest and Stumbleupon. My referrals vary between all 3 but its definitely worth the effort.
I agree – when you find the networks that work for you, it’s totally worth the effort!
I use Twitter, Facebook, my email lists, and Pinterest…oh, and Google. But I don’t bother checking to see how effective they are anymore–I’m finding it difficult to keep up with the traffic I do have. Not that I’m complaining! It takes a lot of time to reciprocate, but it’s nice to see what everyone else is writing about.
I don’t check as deeply as I probably should! I generally just look at my referrals list and see what comes in at the top. It is nice to have the interaction, but I agree that it can be a bit overwhelming (in a good way) sometimes