The idea is simple: whenever you update your blog, post a link on Facebook.

Many bloggers do it. I know a number of my friends on Facebook do it, as I’m seeing blog links popping up more and more frequently in my news feed.

Why use social media sites?

Some people will argue that social media is the new way to go, the new playing field.  It’s easy to see why, since more and more people are using websites like Facebook.  Why wouldn’t you want to use Facebook to promote your blog?  You have a network of X amount of friends, and when you post a link there, you know some amount of those X number of friends will see it.

Compared to the big scary Rest of the Internet, where you could easily get swallowed up in the crowd and remain unnoticed.  At least with Facebook you know you’ll get some readers.

So why not use Facebook?  I can only think of a few reasons people might hesitate. You might not want your family seeing or commenting on your blog.  You might be afraid of sounding vain or spammy.  As for the first – there are probably privacy settings around that, and for the latter: there are ways you can post to avoid “shameless plugging”.

How should you use Facebook?

Think about what hours of the day most of your friends are on Facebook, and post the link at that time.  The link will pop up in their news feeds and the chances are higher that they will see it and click on it.

Use an enticing headline and even a description or excerpt of your post.  Don’t just post a random URL, give people a reason to click it.

Tips

DON’T Spam Your Friends

When you first start posting your links on FB, it will help draw in initial viewers.  However, if you do it too frequently (every hour on the hour, every day…) your friends will probably get bored of constantly seeing your link pop up in their Feed.  You don’t want them to hit the dreaded “Ignore” button and knock you out of their Feed permanently.

So be considerate of your friends, and wait a little bit between posting a link.  If you do update your blog frequently, consider only posting links to blog posts that you feel are your best, your most interesting, your most controversial, those ones that really get it right.

Ask Your Friends to Share the Link, too

The good thing too is that if your friends like your post, they can also share it via Facebook to their friends and this can help you build more of a following.  So consider asking them to post it, especially when you’re first getting started.

More to Think About

On the other side of the coin, the one thing about Facebook though is that you don’t get link cred if someone else shares your article. Normally, when someone on the internet links to your blog, that link will count as a “vote” towards your site, and will go towards your Page Rank for Google.  On Facebook… this doesn’t happen.  Links shared on Facebook are NoFollow, meaning you get no vote no matter how many people link your article (on FB).

Also even when people share a link, there’s not really a permanency about it.  If another blogger links to your blog, it’s there on your home page and it stays there until they take it down.  No such thing on Facebook.  There are a few spots on a person’s profile where they could share a link, but there’s not really a place to share them.

In light of this, you might want to consider creating a page for your blog on Facebook, but don’t do this if your blog is new or doesn’t have that many followers.

The best way to promote your blog is to use all the resources you have available.  Yes, post a link on Facebook, but do all that other stuff too: find blogs in your niche, build relationships with those bloggers, get backlinks.  Post on forums and put a link in your signature.  Use Blog Carnivals.  Write Guest posts.