Q & A with Bonnie Cribbs, a Social Media Wizard

For today's post my good friend, Bonnie Cribbs, will be guest posting on my behalf.  I'm so thrilled to introduce him to ya'll. I frequent his blog NUMEROUS times daily for incredible social media tips, and his advice has helped me so much.  I know you guys will really benefit from his knowledge.  On top of it all, he happens to be one of the sweetest people I know.

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How do I use Pinterest to drive more traffic to my blog?

Pinterest is a perfect social media platform for most bloggers because most blogs incorporate quality and appealing graphics, making Pinterest a powerful tool to drive traffic to your blog...plus it’s a ton of fun too!

The first step is to use high quality graphics on your blog and make the graphics easy to share on Pinterest by using a plugin or code.  People pin graphics that are visually appealing or that lead to information they are interested in, so make this easy for people by providing top notch graphics.  Think about it this way, would you pin your graphics if you saw them on Pinterest?

If it’s a how to, DIY or recipe be sure to include details in the graphic that will auto populate when your reader shares your graphic on Pinterest.  In the descriptions use language that will entice pinners to want to learn more and cause them to visit your site.

I also suggest that you have a Pinterest Board that provides links to all of your social media accounts like this one.

I created a training video several months ago that can be viewed here.  It goes into detail about how to use Pinterest for your business and blog.  Matter of fact, that particular post has about 25 tips for using Pinterest and driving traffic with Pinterest.

How do I develop a bigger following?

Isn’t that the million dollar question?  By providing value you keep your readers coming back.  “Value” will be defined by what your target audience is looking for and you need to know your target market like they are your best friends.

By engaging with your followers you build a tribe of loyal followers who will share your content and spread the word about your awesomeness.  It really comes down to the ripple effect and you start the ripple by connecting with a small crowd and from there more people find out about you. 

By getting in front of new audiences you introduce new people to you. In the blog world, guest posts are an ideal way of how to do this.  Networking online follows a lot of the same principles as networking offline.

By using Pinterest above there are always new people coming to your site.  I believe one of the biggest keys in developing a bigger following is by consistently being seen, helping people and showing up in new places for people to find you.

Here is a post that shares some ideas about networking your blog and some of the things you can do to build traffic and a loyal following.  Trust me, it takes time so do not give up and give your following time to develop.

Do numbers really matter?  How and why?

I’m a numbers guy, so to me numbers definitely matter.  If you’re trying to attract sponsors or brands, they’ll want to know your traffic numbers.   They’ll want to know who your target market is and how you are attracting them.

Be honest about your numbers!

It’s always interesting to me the numbers that bloggers decide to share.  You may have a HUGE facebook following, but unless you are promoting your sponsor on facebook, the huge facebook following is of no use to your sponsor.  It may give a blogger more people to promote your brand to but it does not necessarily translate into page views on your blog unless you are being very intentional to drive people to your blog.

Most savvy sponsors and brands will want to know the number of page visits that you have on a daily basis and your monthly average.  I’m always interested in the number of email subscribers you have to whether or not your email subscribers are going to your site to read your blog or if they are getting the full article in the email. 

Ideally, a blogger is growing their email list but that is only helping a sponsor out if you are sending your subscribers to your page.  Again, it comes down to page visits for most sponsors.  But for the blogger, you want to know your overall reach.

Wait, this question was about numbers and whether or not they are important.  They are to sponsors so if you are trying to attract them, yes. If you’re trying to generate leads or traffic to your site, then yes.  If you’re just blogging for the fun of it and don’t care if anyone is seeing your pages or not, then no, they are not important.

What’s the most effective way to promote a post?

IF you have captured the email addresses of your blog followers (and you should be doing this), email is the best way to promote your post.  Your existing readers are the ideal and best audience and are the easiest audience to engage with. 

There is a saying in marketing that says “the money is in the list.”  If you’re growing a blog and building an audience, you need to build your list.  By that, I’m saying you need to begin collecting email addresses of your followers.  You may change blogs, you may change companies you work for, blogger or wordpress may shut down.  You want to have easy access to your list.

The best way I’ve found to keep a post alive is through a wordpress plugin called “Tweet Old Post.”  It does exactly what it sounds like it would do, it automatically tweets old posts and keeps them alive.  Your post will continue to generate readers long after you have forgotten about it!

You have to think long term and several moves ahead.

Here is a very interesting infographic on one of my Pinterest boards that will tell you what you need to do on social media for each post.  Outside of your email list, promoting your post in as many places as possible will gain traffic. 
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I hope ya'll found this post as helpful as I did. I'll be featuring him again next week, so make sure to check back!  For more amazing posts, check out his blog by clicking HERE.