Updated August 29th 2018
This post may contain affiliate links.
We all know we need to engage in social media marketing. We all talk about it, but how many of us are actually using social media to our full advantage on a daily basis? I’ll bet you’re not. Social media marketing is a tool that anyone can master, and I’ll show you how. Plus you’ll get my exclusive social media marketing scorecard

Now I gain over 320 Pinterest followers a month and have a 5.7 million monthly viewers on Pinterest. Implementing the system I outline below is how I achieved those crazy numbers and I’m sharing it with you.

It was a combination of social media marketing, diligence and dedication. Which are all tools you have at your disposal free of cost! I’ll show you how to best organize your time for maximum impact.

When you are new to the blogosphere, no one knows who you are and chances are that nobody really cares.

Hey, I’m right there with ya. Sorry to be harsh. I think there’s a huge misconception that as a new Pinterest or social media user, you can simply make your own pin, pin or tweet it and then wait for the views and follows to flow in. That DOES NOT HAPPEN.

If that’s your current strategy, you definitely need a new one that will focus on gaining and maintaining  followers. That’s the only way your efforts will become profitable. 

You Can Use Social Media Marketing as a Tool to Boost Your Website’s Presence Online

These techniques will gain you quality follows, no tricks, just hardcore ways to explode your social media marketing plan. I didn’t use any ‘get followers quick’ schemes nor did I friend 1000’s of random people in hopes of getting followed back. If you follow my advice, what I have for you is honest ways to influence more people 

which will lead to more followers and conversions.

You need to use a consistent social media marketing strategy to bring in those followers and you need to be active on all social media fronts.

Engage and Engage Again on a Social Media

This is an aggressive plan that will make you more active on all social media fronts, engage people and ultimately gain followers, subscribers and blog views.

When I’m pressed for time, Pinterest and Twitter are my main priorities since that’s where the majority of my traffic comes from. You might have a different experience though.

Daily:

Pinterest- 40 (15 yours / 25 repins)
Facebook- 10 comment threads
Twitter- 5 (3 yours / 2 retweets)
Instagram- 17 (2 yours / 15 promotional)
Google+- 5 (4 yours / 1 promotional)
Flipboard- 4 (3 yours / 1 promotional)
Minimum Daily Score for Success= 72

What I mean by ‘promotional’ is go support someone’s blog or post! Go interact in some way, even if it’s simply a share or a like.

With no followers, we aren’t pinging any radars so to speak. If you retweet someone’s post, you are essentially saying “HI!!”! Some active bloggers will reciprocate by sharing one of your pins and that means you just reached THEIR audience.

That’s the name of the game for all social media marketing. Being a friend to others adds valuable content from your site. We all want a little credibility and in social media marketing that currency is followers.

The Social Media Marketing Breakdown

Pinterest

Repins are the name of the game for Pinterest. The EASIEST WAY TO LOSE FOLLOWERS is by neglecting to check the links of the pins you repin. You can lose 10 followers because of a defective link. When I started on pinterest, I made that mistake several times before realizing that broken links were the culprit. If it happens to you, don’t get discouraged! Just be more diligent in the future.

You will want to add your site’s pins to your own boards and group boards. Space all your pins and repins out as best possible throughout the day. Don’t oversaturate someone’s board and risk them unfollowing you. Check out these 12 tips to mastering pinterest here. 

I’m not going to lie, I was completely incapable of keeping this up on my own, and I knew I needed help. Tailwind is the first product I invested in for my blog. When I started this blog, I knew I was going to do it as barebones as possible, but Tailwind stuck out and was well worth the small investment to automate my pinning schedule. After my free trial, I gained 10 followers in a week and I was hooked. Tailwind offers an exclusive free trial via The Rising Damsel.

**Secret Tip 1** The higher the repin number, the better chance it will be successful when you repin it. Always keep that in mind. Repin numbers are easiest to see on mobile devices. 

**Secret Tip 2** Schedule pins from people you trust. If you do that then you won’t have to spend as much time editing pins. When you follow me, you get access to everything I pin…. and you can directly copy / schedule it for yourself till you get the hang of your own pins.

Follow me on Pinterest, and send me a message to get invited to our pinterest group board Connect and Share!

Facebook Social Media Marketing

Want to talk about an amazing way to get the word out about your site? You can use Facebook groups as a social media marketing tool! You are going to want to be strategic on facebook.

1. Create a Page for your Site: The Rising Damsel Example
2. Create a Group for you Site: Connect and Share Blogging for Success
3. Join Facebook group boards. Join mine and other’s will be suggested.

Group boards give you access to amazing fellow supportive people who are also actively trying to succeed. There are promotional days, comment exchanges, helpful advice and follow 4 follow threads among many other opportunities to share.

On facebook you will be sharing your own content more than on any other platform. This is amazingly valuable because facebook users are VERY active. They are the most active I have come across. (Love you guys). This is usually based on mutual reciprocation. The more active you are, the better results you will see. Want access to all my favorite facebook groups? See 25+ Facebook Groups to Ignite Traffic.

You can start inviting people to your own group board as soon as you’d like, but do get your name out onto other group boards that have active followers.

Be part of 10 different threads and comment or ‘like’ according to the rules that the administrator sets forth. An example of a thread could be: ‘Share a pin that needs love and share 5 other pins you like from group members’. Or ‘Share your most recent blog post and comment on 3 other blogs’. As you can see, this give you an amazing opportunity to get your information out in front of a ton of eyeballs, all without having to pay for promotion.

Twitter

Tweet 3 different posts from your site, and retweet 2 other tweets from people you follow. Be sure and add hashtags and keywords to retweets if they don’t already contain them. This will show your followers that you are active, and that you reciprocate retweets and likes.

Instagram

Use a variety of keywords and hashtags and try to post twice daily. Make sure that you are liking other people’s pictures, because there’s a chance they could like yours and reciprocate following you too.

I try to ‘like’ at least 15 other pictures a day. Be genuine in your ‘likes’ because Instagram will suggest like users.

Starting a blog through Bluehost only costs me $3.95 per month which is less than my latte. Now I have multiple streams of income. None of this would have been possible without the first step to work with Bluehost. Use my helpful guide to get set up with WordPress and Bluehost Start Your Own Blog with Bluehost.  

Google+

Google+ has an amazing ‘community’ of group boards. People are quite active. Once you are logged in, on the left hand side you will see a button for “Communities”. Simply search your niche or a keyword. Join the community and post.

When you log back in you will be able to see how active each community is. Communities are like Pinterest Group Boards.

Share to 4 posts from your site and 1 promotional to community boards. Leave no stone unturned when it comes to getting traffic. 

Flipboard

Flipboard is quite popular on android devices. Essentially, you are pinning to your ‘magazine’ much like a pinterest ‘board’. People can then see you article and choose to ‘flip it’ to their board and  thus share it with their followers. Add 3 of your own articles and descriptions and interact with another board by flipping one of their article to your boards.

The Social Media Marketing Scorecard 

I am a visual person, and the only way I could enable myself overseeing all my account activities in one central location, was by creating The Ultimate Social Media Marketing Scorecard. I gained over 220 Pinterest followers in under a month, and you can too.

Track your efforts using the card, and you will see a huge difference. Let’s face it, posting over 20, 30, 50 or 100+ times to potentially 6 accounts is really time-consuming and overwhelming. Download the free Scorecard by subscribing to the blog plus you’ll get other tricks you won’t find anywhere else.

Help Your Social Media Marketing Success

If the social media marketing schedule sounds daunting…. it kind of is. That’s just the truth, you will master it, but don’t beat yourself up during the learning process. I can spend all day on Pinterest. I use 3 things to keep track of my social media accounts; The Ultimate Social Media Scorecard, Tailwind, and Buffer.

You can get The Ultimate Social Media Scorecard free by subscribing to my blog at the top of the screen.

Tailwind

Tailwind is offering a free trial via The Rising Damsel. You are credited with the ability to schedule 100 auto pins. *I recommend pinning 20 pins a day for 5 days. This will give you a good idea of what scheduled pinning can really do for your follower count. Continue normal use of Pinterest but add your additional free auto scheduled pins via Tailwind. Your influx of added followers will amaze you.

Another bonus of Tailwind is completely FREE ‘tribes’. Tribes are similar to Pinterest group boards. Tribes will give you immediate visibility to an endless number of people! I can help connect you with Tribes. Meanwhile, feel free to join my brand new Promote Your Blog-The Rising Damsel. I’m an avid user of Tailwind. I know my Pinterest success comes straight from it.

To give you an idea of Tailwind’s power… I have over 1,200 pins scheduled right now. That buys me many free hours in a day. I know that I can count on my account to be consistently pinned approximately 50 times a day, that provides enough valuable content to my followers to repin.

The Best Free Automated Scheduler for Twitter and Google+ and Instagram? Buffer.

Buffer is a free program that works synonymously with your browser. Instantly ‘buffer’ anything to be queued in google+, twitter, facebook, linkedin, or instagram. This program is  just plain amazing. I was very close to investing in Hootsuite when I found buffer. Their program is simple to use, reliable and extremely helpful in sharing content.

For more information on automating your social media check out my post: Watch Your Traffic Explode Through the Power of Hashtags

I hope that you found this post helpful. Print out The Ultimate Social Media Marketing Scorecard and start tracking your efforts, and challenge yourself to be more active. 

Social media marketing is your biggest ally and weapon in this blogging crusade. Treat it like your garden, nurse your followers and the shares will be reciprocated.