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One you need to remember is that you DON’T need a large following on social media to get good traffic. I get around 1000 pageviews per day and I don’t have 1000 followers over all of my social media profiles put together. 95% of my pageviews come from search.
If you find leveraging social media platforms fun, go for it. I don’t. I just like to write.
Is one social media platform better at driving traffic to websites than another?
No.
Well.
Pinterest can be really lucrative for getting traffic, but it takes a lot of time to implement the strategy as well as writing the actual content.
For this reason, I would wait until you have at least thirty posts before going all in on a Pinterest strategy.
The best social media platform depends on which one you like to spend your time on. We’re meant to be enjoying this. If you like lurking on Twitter, lurk. Not everything has to be side hustle.
What factors affect how well a social media platform will suit your blog’s niche?
When you start writing content, it’s important to consider the demographics that are more likely to be reading your content. If your audience is primarily ladies over 80, it might b a good idea to tone down the curse words.
You could take this information and assume that need to find out where your audience hangs out online, and that’s largely true BUT you can also get results by either starting communities on other social media platforms or really digging around to find your people.
For example, if your niche is quilting, and you start making videos on Tik Tok, you could well be the only quilter there, and really dominate the market.
Social media changes all the time ,which is why great content is always going to be a better long term strategy than any social media leveraging you do.
The biggest factor that affects how your website does on social media is you. If you love finding people with similar interests and chatting to them, helping them, and sharing stories, that’ll be far more useful in the longterm than a few half-arsed Facebook ads.
What factors will affect how well a social media platform will impact your SEO?
It’s practically impossible to tell. A big following on social media can build up that EAT that Google loves so much (expertise – authoritativeness – trustworthiness), but since social media links are nofollow and we can’t guarantee Google will look at them, it’s hard to tell.
I’m not saying that a large social media following is worthless from an SEO perspective, just that I wouldn’t waste time building up a big following for the soul purpose of improving SEO because it might not.
Again, build a big following if you want, but don’t think that’ll fast-track your success. And if the idea of promoting yourself on social media makes your blood run cold, don’t do it.
What factors suit how well a social media platform will suit you?
Some niches do better on different social media platforms, and it’s up to you to find out which fits your niche best. Generally, niches that are anything to do with decor do well on Instagram and Pinterest – that’s where my crowd hangs out. See also health and fitness.
Anything news-related will be best on Twitter, and if your niche is DIY I’d cut to the chase and start making Youtube videos to supplement your articles.
How to decide which social media platforms you’re going to use to drive traffic to your blog
I decided on none, but I make Pinterest pins because once that Pinterest algorithm starts checking content rather than putting more active users to the top, I want to be ready to go.
Do you need to leverage social media to have a successful blog?
NO.
And don’t let anyone tell you different. Building a large following on social media is a skill in itself, and not one that easy to learn.
If you have no interest in becoming reliant on algorithms (Google’s doesn’t count), then forget about social media.
Final thoughts on which social media platform is the most effective
It totally depends on you and your niche. But like I’ve said countless times, being a little active in your niche’s community can be a great place to learn new things and come up with ideas for articles. You might even be asked to drop a link every now and again.
