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Grow Your Blog Following with Instagram

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instagram-screenshot

Instagram can be an amazing tool for bloggers. It’s an easy way to create images for your blog, and you can edit your pictures to make them slightly more professional-looking. Bonus – they’re the perfect size for re-posting on any social media platform!

Instagram can also help you gain more visitors to your blog. It’s a little trickier than other social media outlets becauseInstagram will not allow you to link directly to your website. However, with the right strategy, you can gain a following on Instagram, then convert those to followers of your blog!

Your Instagram Strategy

When it comes to Instagram, it’s important to remember that your brand as a blogger is you. You are trying to sell your personality, tastes, and aesthetic vision to your audience. On almost every other social media account, part of your branding is your words. Unfortunately, your sense of humor and voice won’t shine through as much through images.

So what type of picture should you post on Instagram? Well, why do your friends share their pictures? Why do you follow those friends? The answer is that people like to connect with other people. They like to know what’s going on in your life. Even bloggers should share some of that. Pictures of you, your family, your friends, and your pet are appropriate. If you are a niche blogger, definitely share your finished products. Beauty bloggers should share daily makeup choices, fashion bloggers their outfits, chefs their kitchen, etc.

Some Tips for Happy Instagram Marketing

  • Watermark or put your blog URL on all of your images so that people know where to find more of them.
  • Utilize hashtags. On other social media platforms, too many hashtags is a huge faux pas that gets annoying quick. On Instagram, you can use up to 30 hashtags. It would not be outlandish to use 10 on one image.
  • Connect your Instagram account to your other social media accounts. Through your Instagram settings, you can link up your accounts and post all Instagram pictures to Facebook, Tumblr, Foursquare, and Twitter. Facebook has apps that can show your Instagram feed on your business page. And don’t forget to add your Instagram account on your blog!
  • Use a picture of your face as your profile picture, not your logo. Instagram users are more likely to follow and interact with a real person than a brand they do not recognize.
  • Instagram is a social network, so be social! Always respond to comments. Browse relevant hashtags and “like” and comment on other user’s pictures.
  • You don’t always have to share pictures you’ve taken on Instagram (though don’t steal others’ pictures!). You can also share memes you’ve created or graphics you’ve made through a picture-editing program. Create a graphic image for each new blog post you’ve written and share it.
  • Beware of becoming annoying: Instagram is all about sharing snapshots of your life. Don’t post too much too often, and don’t post mundane pictures. Share pictures that represent your style, your mood, your brand, and more.

Do you have an Instagram account for your blog? We’d love to see it! You can follow us here.

Why Bloggers Need Google+

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It’s no secret that Google+ lags behind Facebook in popularity. As a blogger, you know that you will have more success gaining followers on Facebook than Google+. However, many don’t know that Google+ can drastically help your SEO. It makes sense – Google runs Google+, so it gives more SEO weight to that social network than any other. So if you haven’t yet, you need to start a Google+ account.

How Can Google+ Help My SEO?

+1 – Blog posts that are +1ed on Google+ are given more SEO weight. Those posts will come up higher in the search results than those that are not. This is true without personalization of search results, but is even truer with the personalization.

Personalization – When Google users are logged into their account, the search results for their queries are personalized. Instead of getting content that Google believes is most relevant for everyone, the user receives content that Google believes is most relevant specifically for them. +1s can impact this. For example, if a fan +1s one of your blog posts, the rest of your content is deemed more relevant to them by Google. Your blog is more likely to come up higher on their personalized search results. But it doesn’t stop there – it’s also more likely to come up higher on the search results of any of that fan’s friends.

Custom URLs – Google+ is offering customized URLs to some businesses. One of the times you log into your account, Google will give you the option. Change your URL to your blog name and you should see an increase in organic traffic. Google has not officially stated that custom URLs will give your account more SEO weight, but it’s likely that will be the case in the future. Regardless, having your name in your URL should still give you a push.

Authorship – Google Authorship has been in place for a few years. Connecting your Google+ account to any articles, guest posts, and blog posts you write will improve search results: your picture, a link to your Google+ account, the number of Google+ circles you are a part of, and a link to more search results written by you will show up along with your article. This makes your post more appealing to Google users, but also makes you a more credible expert to Google. The more your articles are +1ed, the more SEO weight you will have as an author.

Social Media Optimization – There’s a strong correlation between having lots of social media followers and better SEO. This is mainly because your fans will do a lot of great legwork for you: they will share your posts on their social media accounts or other places. These backlinks definitely help your SEO. Google+ is another social media outlet that you can add to your repertoire.

What are you waiting for? Start improving your SEO with a Google+ account ASAP!

After you start your Google+ account, link to it in your FreeGuestPost profile and author biography. Connecting your FreeGuestPost account and your Google Authorship account will help to make you a more credible source for Google, improving the SEO of any website that publishes your articles. Including it will make it easier for publishers to find out more about you as an author. More publishers will request your work if they know that you are a real person, a qualified writer, and you have SEO weight with Google Authorship.

Sources:

Enge, Eric. “Google+ & SEO: How Google+ Impacts Search Results.”http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2307518/Google-SEO-How-Google-Impacts-Search-Results. (18 Nov. 2013).

Bogar, Colin. “Google Plus rolls out custom URLs: a win for boosting organic search results?”http://www.inman.com/next/google-plus-rolls-out-custom-urls-an-opportunity-to-increase-organic-search-results/. (18 Nov. 2013).

Stadd, Allison. “The Relationship Between SEO And Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC].”http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/seo-social-media-infographic_b46544. (18 Nov. 2013).