What worked, what didn't and what needs to be followed through with, regarding marketing a wordpress.com blog. Focused on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.

1. Marketing A Blog With
A Short Experiment with Reflection
By Alicia Mudd

2. Introduction
I decided to do my final project in the
form of a hands on, short term, social media
marketing plan. Following a plan that I built
for myself I was able to learn a few new
things.
It is my hope that what I found will
further educate you.

3. Implementation
O Set up Wordpress.com blog
O Market blog through Facebook, Twitter,
LinkedIn and Google+ through Wordpress
settings.
O Monitor statistics within Wordpress and
create a spreadsheet to track referrals.
O Compare post-by-post content, tags and
incoming links from other sites.

4. About WordPress
WordPress is a wonderful dynamic
tool for anyone starting out as a blogger. It
offers many features and plugins that allow
the user to interact with “followers”, fellow
bloggers and many social networking sites.
It is easy to use, implement and find
help as it pertains to the users blog,
interests and traffic generation.

5. Wordpress’ Social Sharing
Tools
Why To Use Them
Since Wordpress
offers tools for
bloggers that enable
them to link to various
social networking
accounts they can
subsequently share
their blog through
many platforms.
WordPress Social
Networking Platforms
O Facebook
O Twitter
O LinkedIn
O Google+
O Tumblr
O Path

6. Focus
I will only focus on Facebook, Twitter,
LinkedIn and Google+ for this slideshow.
These were the platforms that I marketed
my blog for during the trial period.

7. Meets
Why market on Facebook?
Facebook is currently signing up an astounding 1.19 billion users per
month!*That’s a lot of reasons why you cannot afford to bypass
Facebook for marketing. Because of Facebook’s “Groups” you can easily
find a group that is interested in what you blog about.
*- As reported by Craig Smith on Decemeber 1, 2013 via: DMR (Digital Marketing Ramblings)
Chart courtesy of Statista - The Statistics Portal

8. Things I Found that
Worked:
Points to work on:
I found these things via
I found these things to be
research* that will be helpful
most successful when dealing
in the future:
with Facebook.
O Set up a fan page
O Two days prior to posting,
O By having a fan page you
interact with your
can really give your blog a
audience. Ask what they
personality. It also offers a
want more information
great way for people to
about or give them a heads
find you.
up about what you’re going
O Set up a blog specific
to post.
group
O Make sure that you share
O Having a group can increase
the blog post when you
your reach if people search
Facebook for your topic.
publish it.
* - Tips offered by David Risley on Blog Marketing Academy

9. Meets
Twitter has an astounding 500 million
users currently, with more than 215 million
active users. Although Twitter functions
much differently than Facebook it pays to
have a good understanding of how the
Twitter community works and what you can
do to successfully market yourself there.
*- As reported by Craig Smith on Decemeber 1, 2013 via: DMR (Digital Marketing Ramblings)

10. Things I implemented:
I shared each blog post via
WordPress to my Twitter
timeline.
However, I was
unsuccessful in garnering
any followers for my blog,
but consistence will always
yield positive results in the
long run.
Points To Work On:
O Establish the brand.
O “Tweet” more about
blog related things
and show consistency
and reliability.*
O Use more hashtags.*
O Make sure each post
uses at least one
relevant hashtag.
O Be more proactive.*
O Find followers, don’t
depend on them to
find you.
* - Some tips acquired from ProBlogger - Top Twitter Marketing Blog Tips

11. Meets
LinkedIn has about 259 million users at
present.a It can be used as a powerful
marketing tool when you have the time and
knowledge how to do it.
According to Corey Eridon it’s 277% more
effective at generating leads than Twitter or
Facebook.b All it takes is a few tweaks in the
right direction and your blog can be
successfully promoted through the platform.
a - Information courtesy of DMR (Digital Marketing Ramblings)
b – Information courtesy of Corey Eridon, on HubSpot

12. My dealings with
LinkedIn
Points To Grow On*
Unfortunately, I was
O Guest blogging via
unable to build much of
a base within LinkedIn
LinkedIn answers
as it pertained to my
O Group Statistics
blog. Although I did
share each blog post on O Subgroups
my Google+ page. After O LinkedIn Events
some research I have
O LinkedIn Polls
found some wonderful
points to focus on going
forward.
* - Some points courtesy of Corey Eridon on HubSpot

13. Meets
Google+ has around 300 million active
users at the present time.* Google+ can you
a firm platform to really develop your
business relationships on. You can even use
hashtags on Google+ while you are using
them within Twitter and Facebook as well. (A
good way to integrate all these together
would be by using Hootsuite.)
* - Statistics courtesy of DMR

14. My Google+
Implementation
Although I did share all
of my blog posts
through Google+ I didn’t
get any traffic from
there. After some
deeper research I have
discovered points that I
should have
implemented from the
start.
Points to Grow On*
O Keep profile updated
O Add links to blog in
contributor
information
O Utilize more hashtags
and @’s to coincide
with Twitter or
Facebook posts
O Use Google+
communities
*Some tips courtesy of KISSmetrics and Constant Contact

15. Overall
Overall in the last two months I have taken my
blog from 0 – 144 views. Most of these were
visits were not referral visits though. The social
media platform that I receive the most referrals
from was Facebook, generating 36 hits. Going
forward, if I want to make my blog successful, it
is vitally important that I continue to post to my
blog using skills I have already acquired. It is
also imperative that I strike out into unfamiliar
territory and become and active user of Google+
and LinkedIn.

16. Works Cited
Curtiss, Kristen. "Why Use Google Plus? A Quick Guide and
Glossary to
Google." Constant Contact Blogs. Constant
Contact Blogs,
26 Nov. 2013. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.
Eridon, Corey. "Inbound Hub." 11 LinkedIn Marketing Gems You're
Missing Out On. HubSpot, 15 Feb. 2012. Web. 11 Dec.
2013.
Hines, Kristi. "The 2013 Google Marketing Guide." The 2013
Google Marketing Guide. KISSMetrics, 14 June 2013. Web. 11
Dec. 2013.
Levin, Lior. "Top Twitter Blog Marketing Tips." ProBlogger.
ProBlogger,
24 Apr. 2012. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.
Richter, Felix. "• Chart: Facebook's Remarkable User Growth |
Statista." Statista. Statista, 2 Apr. 2013. Web. 11 Dec.
2013.

17. Works Cited
Risley, David. "How To Use Facebook to Market Your Blog." Blog
Marketing
Academy. Blog Marketing Academy,
8 Jan. 2009.
Web. 11 Dec. 2013.
Smith, Craig. "How Many People Use 340 of the Top Social Media,
Apps & Services? (December 2013) | Page 2." Digital
Market Ramblings. Digital Marketing Ramblings (DMR),
1
Dec. 2013. Web. 09 Dec. 2013.
Tate, Laura. "Facebook Is Out, But Blogging and Google Are
In." Social
Media Today. Social Media Today, 11 Dec.
2013. Web. 11
Dec. 2013.

18. Links
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/marketing-your-blog-10-essential-tips-you-shouldknow/
http://www.blogmarketingacademy.com/how-to-use-facebook-to-market-your-blog/
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2012/04/24/top-twitter-blog-marketing-tips/
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31374/11-LinkedIn-Marketing-GemsYou-re-Missing-Out-On.aspx
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-market-your-business-throughlinkedin.html
http://blogs.constantcontact.com/product-blogs/social-media-marketing/googleplus/
http://blog.kissmetrics.com/2013-google-plus-guide/
http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/resource-how-many-people-use-the-topsocial-media/2/#.Uqiqr9JDvUI