Once your content is written and published, it’s not going to do you much good unless you have people reading and engaging with it. Your aim should be to get your content shared, liked, and commented upon.

Start by updating your social media profiles so that each includes a link to your blog. Include a call-to-action telling your followers what benefits they can expect from reading your blog. You may even want to add a link to a particular post, such as something you consider your “start here” content or your most popular post.

Spreading the Word

Getting people to engage with your blog posts starts with making sure they actually see them. Here are a few ways to make sure your posts get in front of the people who will want to read and interact with your content.

Email Updates. The people most likely to comment on your blog and engage with your content are email subscribers, so encourage people to provide their email address. One way to do this is through a lead magnet. This is a free giveaway that you offer only to subscribers and it doesn’t cost you anything but time to create.

In fact, if you have a great deal of old content lying around, you can repackage it as a lead magnet by tying it together with a certain theme. Go through the content and brush it up, making sure it’s still timely, and do another re-edit. Your lead magnet could be an eBook, a collection of templates, a resource guide, a discount, a free service, or free software or app.

Then add a link on your blog and social media profiles where people can sign up to get blog updates, along with your free gift (the lead magnet).

Send out an automated email to your subscribers whenever you post new content. You can write a quick email message with a link to the new post in the message. This will get them to your blog to see the new content. You can automate this through your autoresponder as a ‘blog broadcast’, where you only have to load up the messages and set up the schedule. The program will do the rest for you.

Share Socially. As well as your email list, share the news about your new blog post on all of your social media platforms. Write a short comment about the post, preferably that tells your readers what benefit they can expect to gain from checking it out.

A few tools that help you with sharing content are:

Jetpack – Jetpack is a WordPress plugin that has various other features but its social sharing alone makes it worth exploring. It allows you to share across all major social media platforms the instant a blog post is published.

Hootsuite and Buffer – Hootsuite and Buffer are both social media dashboard programs that have features for scheduling, automated posting, and checking the performance of your content.

Dlvr.it – Dlvr.it allows you to share on social media automatically through your RSS feed if you’re using WordPress.

Post Planner – Post Planner helps you post primarily to Facebook and Twitter, with more on the way (such as Instagram). Its main selling point is its ease-of-use and suggestions for content to share.

EveryPost – EveryPost is an app that allows you to post to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and other social media sites. It has other features as well.

IFTTT (If This, Then That) – Use IFTT to post across multiple social media platforms at once to save time.

Building Engagement on Your Blog

Once people see your posts, you want them to actually read and explore, spending a little time on your blog and thinking about what they’re learning. Use the following tips to plant the seeds of that engagement.

Be Consistent. For posting blog updates, it’s good to decide on a frequency that suits your audience. There’s a certain “sweet spot” for each audience and platform. You don’t want to post too often or you’ll appear spammy or your messages will get ignored. On the other hand, if you post infrequently, you’ll fall off your readers’ radar. Once or twice a week is an ideal frequency, but experiment with difference frequencies and see which get the best reaction.

Cross-Link. Wherever appropriate, relink to old posts on your blog. If you mention a topic you covered in an older post, provide a live link to it in your content to help readers find older content that’s relevant to what you’re discussing now.

Ask Questions. A good way to boost engagement is to ask a question at the end of your post. For example, ask what your readers’ favorite tool is or how they overcome a specific problem. Make it a question that’s easy to answer and you’ll get more responses. If you want them to answer the question on social media, send them there, or use a plugin so that their comments show up on your post AND in somewhere like Facebook.

How to Get Your Content Shared

Once people have read your content, you also want them to share it with the rest of their friends and followers. Make it as easy as possible for your audience to share your content. If you are still using the standard “share” buttons at the bottom of your page, consider improving them.

One great free app for making it easy to share is the ‘Share’ plugin from SumoMe, which allows people to share your content across all social channels. One difference with SumoMe is that the icons float as your reader scrolls so they’re visible anywhere on the page. They are also responsive on any device.

Include a call-to-action in your blog’s social shares. You can add something simple like “Please RT” at the end of your tweets to encourage more people to share them. It always helps to give a little nudge with a CTA.

One strategy for more shares involves using a free tool like ClickToTweet. This tool gives you a piece of code to enter at the end of a piece of text in your content, and when the reader clicks the link, they automatically tweet it as a quote. This is a good way to get your content shared, but use it sparingly. Use it only for your best or most inspirational quotes.

Wherever possible and appropriate, mention influencers in your social media campaigns. By mentioning and tagging an influencer who you’ve quoted in your blog, you are accessing their network, and the people in their network can also share or re-share your content.

You can also mention blog commenters on your social channels. This is a good way to interact with your most loyal readers and supporters, and it will encourage more support from them.