7 Strategies for Promoting Your Content on Social Media
If you’ve been following along for the last year or so, then you know that my wife and I create a lot of content. Over the last year, we’ve uploaded nearly 60 coding tutorials and published another 70ish blog posts. Additionally, we’ve published about 35 podcast episodes as well. Those numbers may not seem like a lot, but we are just getting started. But, over the course of a year, we’ve found it challenging to grow our audiences. We’ve been trying to grow organically, mainly because we don’t feel like spending money on advertisements and also because I don’t want to buy people’s attention. I want to work hard and try different things until I find that one thing that works for my content and my audience. We’ve been experimenting a lot over the last few months and while we haven’t grown as exponentially as I would like, we’ve been witnessing a steady increase that I’m very proud of. Today, I’m going to walk you through our seven social media strategies and how you can implement these strategies if you are trying to grow as well.
If you build it, they will come
In 1989, Kevin Costner uttered these words in the movie Field of Dreams. This used to be so powerful, and for the last 30 years, it helped shape companies around the world. But, it’s 2021 and we are constantly fighting for people’s attention. The world is a different place than it was in 1989. There was no internet and if you wanted to get a message out, while expensive, you could do so with little challenge of obtaining attention. Now, getting your message out there in front of the whole world is not only super easy, but basically free. And because of this, you have people all over the world sharing their messages, flooding our internet. It’s hard to get attention, but it’s not impossible. People are looking for things all day, every day. And, there is a method to get your content in front of the right people. Let’s talk about it.
1) TikTok
Growth on this platform is straight fire! It is so easy to put content out and have thousands of people see your content. The probability that you can create a piece of content and have thousands watch is just unheard of. Well, at least at the pace that you can do it on TikTok. If you aren’t taking advantage of the TikTok algorithm, then you are missing out. I started making videos on the platform at the end of January. In a short few weeks, I have grown my followers faster than on any other platform. I also average 150 views per video and have even had a couple videos hit over 1,000 views. I know these numbers aren’t not worthy of showing off, but compared to the platforms that I’m publishing content, TikTok is just blowing my mind. In fact, I’m dedicating the month of March to figuring out how to maximize my exposure and growth on the platform. Start considering this platform. You can’t monetize like you can on YouTube, but those that grow exponentially here, figure out how to divert your audience to the other platforms where you can monetize.
2) LinkedIn
If you think that LinkedIn is only for people looking for a job, then you are seriously misunderstanding the power of the platform. I haven’t written anything specific on LinkedIn, but I have used the platform to share some of the content that I’m creating. I’m more mindful of how I use/post on LinkedIn. The content I’m putting on there is usually geared towards professionals. I tend to write about more technical tutorials or more technical content in general. I definitely don’t post any of the personal stuff on there and reserve that for the Twitter/IG spaces. But, like the TikTok algorithm, the LinkedIn algorithm is really helping creators grow organically. It’s very easy to post something of value and have hundreds if not thousands engage with your content. Consider utilizing the platform to promote your content to a different type of audience.
3) Twitter
This place is challenging to break into, but if you provide consistent valuable content, you will do extremely well. Every day, I hear stories about folks writing that one tweet that allows them to grow exponentially. Finding that one tweet can be a struggle and something I haven’t quite figured out how to do just yet. But, in the past year, I’ve been able to grow over 200 followers with just interacting with the community. If you can figure out how to use Twitter effectively, the returns on investment can be magical. I hear stories of folks converting tweets and followers into thousands of dollars. The reach and power of Twitter is amazing. The community and interactions that you can have on the platform are unique. The ability to follow people and jump into conversations with these total strangers and learn so much is just something I haven’t really seen on other platforms. If you aren’t on Twitter, I highly recommend you get on there. Their hashtag game and ability to tweet companies is really something that I find really interesting. I’ve been able to communicate directly with CEO’s and companies directly to get issues resolved. Start tweeting today if you haven’t already!
4) Instagram
This platform, like Twitter is super interesting to me. You mainly communicate with pictures, unlike Twitter where most of the communication happens in words or memes. But for those really using IG as a platform for brand growth and awareness, my hats off to you. IG allows you to really focus on growing your brand and there are so many business tools to help you achieve that. People are shopping on IG and if you aren’t on that platform, then you are missing out on potential sales. I find IG to be my most challenging platform to grow on. Most of my interactions on that platform are just me sharing stories about my personal life that I think others might find interesting. But, if you are a business owner or manage a brand, then IG is platform you want to be paying attention to. In the month of April, I will be shifting some of my focus away from TikTok and trying to grow on IG. IG has been putting a lot of time and energy into growing out their REELS feature and as a result, it’s become crazy easy to grow your presence on the platform. Pick up a camera, shoot some video or take pictures and share them on the platform. Hashtags are super valuable for discoverability and I really do believe that if you invest in this platform, your brand and business will do extremely well. Take advantage of the highlights and reels features. These really do help you grow on the platform and reach hundreds, if not thousands of people.
5) Pinterest
This is the newest space that I’ve been exploring. I haven’t really given Pinterest too much attention, but most recently, I started buying into it. I’ve been experimenting with promoting my content and seeing how it performs. Pinterest is playing a huge new role in how I promote my content. All of my content going forward will have an associated blog post that goes along with it. I create a pin, promoting my blog site. I also create a pin promoting the individual piece of content (podcast, YT video, etc). I’m still trying to figure things out, but based on the results I’m seeing from other folks, I do think there is some promise here. I’d recommend you do your research and see if this platform is right for you. The userbase is significantly lower but depending on your brand, your audience might be part of that userbase.
6) Facebook Groups
This platform is a gift and a curse. If you find the right group, then the results can be very good. When I first started out making YouTube video tutorials in Scratch, I was able to find a Scratch group that allowed me to promote my content on there. Initial growth to my channel was primarily because of this and to this day, I get about 25% of my views to my content because of Facebook Groups. Now for the curse, some of these groups are controlled by admins. Because of this, they control what content makes it or doesn’t make it. If they don’t like you or your content, then they can essentially just block you and you can’t utilize the platform for maximum growth. I get it, people spam and ruin it for everyone, but it really is unfortunate that a single individual can have that much control. A workaround is to create your own FB group that you can manage and control. But like with everything else, it takes time to get growth and awareness out. Another workaround is to actually interact with the community in those groups. While you can’t post directly to the group, you can post comments. If you are genuinely helping people out, then you should have no problem promoting your content to those looking for it by reaching out to their comments directly.
7) Reddit
And finally, the face of the internet. Reddit is an interesting place. I started utilizing reddit around November of 2020. A good 15–25% of my views to my content come from Reddit. Normally this would be good, and I’m happy about it, but there are some REALLY mean people on Reddit. I would say that if you are going to utilize the platform to grow your reach (and you should!), just be careful with all the negativity on there. A lot of it is really unfiltered and people can make you feel like crap. If you can ignore the noise, the benefits of being on the platform are really great. I interact with the nice folks on there, and find many new ideas for future content that helps answer people’s questions. Make sure you are using Reddit as part of your growth strategy.
And that just about does it for this post. What are your thoughts? Are you already using these platforms? Thinking about it? Which platforms are you using to grow your audience that I might have missed? I’d love to hear from you. Make sure you reach out to me on social media! Let’s continue the conversation!!
