How to Drive Traffic to Your Blog Using Facebook

by | Feb 13, 2018

Promoting your blog posts is one of the most cost-effective, efficient and smart strategies on how to drive traffic to your blog using Facebook.

First of all, Facebook audiences are huge! 68% of Americans use a Facebook account regularly, which equals nearly 220 million people. Facebook also remains the most-used mobile app. 81% of devices have it installed.

And, since the majority of internet traffic is now mobile and the majority of mobile time is spent in-app, Facebook represents one of the best chances you have at getting views, shares, likes and new followers for your business.

If you’re a business owner wondering how to drive traffic to your blog using Facebook, here are eight airtight strategies you can use to get maximum visibility and a higher rate of readers with each post.

Make It a Habit to Share Every Post You Write

Make sharing every single post you create for your blog a habit. People are more likely to keep up with your content on the social platforms they already use compared to obsessively checking your blog page.

Consider each Facebook share as important as the blog itself. Think of the Facebook post as your store window. You want it to be enticing enough that people really want to go inside and see what else there is. You also want it to be intriguing enough that people who are just window shopping still remember your display and maybe even mention it through word of mouth.

Keep in mind that Google SEO best practices suggest not sharing each and every piece of new content you create. However, this rule likely applies to larger publishers who put out dozens if not hundreds of new blog articles a day. If, on the other hand, you only publish 1-2 times a day or less, you shouldn’t run afoul of the overpromotion threshold.

That said, if you are making new blogs multiple times a day, consider limiting the number of times you share your content. Pick just the juiciest ones to show the world.

Boost Your Post With Paid Facebook Advertising

It’s a sad reality, but Facebook has been trending towards pay-to-play for years now. Organic reach for business page posts has plummeted over the past few years.

Even worse, Facebook recently announced changes that mean it’s even less likely that audiences will see your blog posts compared to content from their friends and family. Thanks, bots!

But the good news is that Facebook’s options for “boosting” your post with an ad budget are truly amazing. Not only do you have razor-fine control over how much you spend, but you can also target specific user traits and demographics.

With just a limited budget per day, you can earn spots on the news feeds of people who will be most likely to consider your content interesting.

If, for instance, you create a blog post about “Best Places to Eat in Downtown Austin,” you can manually target people living in Austin, Round Rock and other cities nearby. You can even select particular age ranges, allowing you to pitch some of the best bar/restaurant/music venue places just to the 35 and under crowd.

Consider boosting a few of your most popular blogs each month as you start out and then move toward consistently promoting a higher ratio to get your posts the attention they deserve.

Think Mobile First

As we mentioned in the intro, if people are seeing your content on Facebook, they’re most likely viewing it on mobile. Make sure your post is optimized for smaller mobile screens, including limiting the amount of text you use in paragraph form.

Also, make sure any image you use doesn’t have tiny details that require zooming in. For instance, don’t share your entire infographic in a thumbnail size; crop out part of it and share that instead.

Attach Great Images to Your Blogs

Facebook posts with images get three times more engagement, which is why most posts you see from brands now include some sort of image.

Images catch our attention, and they can also begin to tell the story behind your blog. With the right image, you can elicit emotion from your audiences before they even read a single word. Once they’ve been engaged in this way, your audience will be more likely to read the actual post.

Make images as relevant as possible to the content of your posts, though. Don’t just use an image because it’s eye-catching.

Also, limit the use of text within your image. A spare amount of text can be great, but too much can prevent your boosted posts from running. Check out Facebook’s own image guidelines for more details on what they do and don’t want.

A/B Test Different Variations of Blog Post Shares

One of your best tools for marketing is the ability to split test two different versions of the same blog post

For instance, say you wanted to promote a blog about how swimming pools add value to someone’s home. You can create one version that uses an image of a happy family. You can then create another version that uses a stock image of a pool full of money.

Now, show each version to roughly the same audience and see which one gets the more clicks!

Performing these experiments can help you get details just right for each blog post you promote. It can also reveal preferences for different demographics when it comes to post design.

Pay Attention to Facebook Insights Data, and It Will Show You How to Drive Traffic to Your Blog Using Facebook

At the end of the day, your own data is the best asset you have when trying to learn how to drive traffic to your blog using Facebook. Take notes on what works and what doesn’t, especially when it comes to what times you post and how frequently.

Also, A/B test post variations vigorously to find out how to get the biggest reaction from your audience.

Finally, make sure that the content you create is absolutely worth reading! Offer value, relevance and genuine quality to your readers. Otherwise, they may not want to click no matter how enticing the preview looks. You know the saying, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me eight or more times….”