Whether you are a brand-new blogger or you have an established audience, there are so many ways to increase your traffic. Social media is the best way, but which platforms should you use? That, of course, depends on your goal. But, below are the top social media platforms for driving traffic to your blog. Use this as a guide to find the ones that are right for you.

Pinterest

Pinterest is my absolute favorite platform when it comes to blog traffic. The platform has a lot of great qualities about it that give you the flexibility to be seen and shared. Here’s how I think about Pinterest:

Pros

• Pinterest does not have an algorithm that filters your content out the way Facebook or Twitter does. Every time you pin, you have a chance to be seen!
• Because of this, you probably have the biggest reach on Pinterest. Lots of people boast tens or hundreds of thousands of monthly viewers on their site, even from as little as 200-300 followers.
• Your pins extend beyond your profile whenever someone saves your pin to their own boards. It’s like a “share” on other platforms, but it’s more visible to others, and for much longer.

Cons

• Pinterest now boasts nearly 250 million users. Meaning you have to keep pinning to be seen. Most sites say pinning 20-30 times per day is ideal. Pro-tip This can include your pins and other people’s pins. It doesn’t have to just be yours.
• While the numbers are exciting, the website clicks are usually around 1% (i.e. if you have 10,000 monthly views, you can expect around 100 clicks to your website). However, this is similar to other platforms and sometimes better.

Tips

• Automate the process when possible. Use tools like Tailwind, Hootsuite or CoSchedule to schedule pins throughout the day.
• Use group boards (boards with multiple contributors) to push your pins out beyond your own boards.

Reddit

Reddit would be my next traffic-driver, which may surprise a lot of people. But that’s also why it’s so valuable, because it’s so underrated. I will not get into SEO too much in this post, but it’s very important to your blog’s success, and Reddit can help with this.

Pros

• When you post a link to your profile or a subreddit (more below on that) you create an immediate “backlink” to your website. These links tell Google that your website is being talked about on other websites and boost your “domain authority.” If you are not aware of these terms, you should definitely look them up.
• Subreddits are forum threads within Reddit that are specific to a topic or niche. For example, there are subreddits on digital marketing and social media (my niches). You can find tons of them on Reddit and when you post, you are talking to people interested in your topic.

Cons

• Unlike Pinterest or Instagram (below), it does take a while for people to see and engage with your content, especially if it isn’t a hot topic in your niche. You have to build the “karma” to be seen as a more serious Redditor. This comes from constantly commenting and posting on the platform.
• There is no function for others to share your content on Reddit, so it’s up to you to build your reach.

Tips

• Build your karma as quickly as you can so you can get more engagement.
• Pose questions based on the topic you’re talking about. People are more inclined to click your link to answer your question.
• Do not rest your social media strategy on Reddit. It’s a great boost when paired with another platform.

Instagram

Next on my list is Instagram. A lot of bloggers put this at the top of their list. It is a great channel, but not without its issues. Those issues for me put it third on my list. But it does have some benefits that make it worthwhile:

Pros

• You can build a list of followers on Instagram that will see your content more than the other platforms. It’s natural for Instagram users to scroll through their timeline of their followers, which is not the case for Pinterest or Reddit.
• It’s also easier to build a follower base on Instagram than Facebook or Twitter.

Cons

• You cannot add links to Instagram posts. This is a big one for me. If you update your blog every day (like I do), either you need to update the link in your bio every day or send people to the home page and put the most recent post there.
• Instagram just added the ability to share feed posts as Instagram stories, but that is currently the only way to share content.
• Unlike Pinterest or Reddit where your posts can be seen without a huge following it’s tougher to show up in feeds until you have a decent number of followers and engagement.

Tips

• Post often. The more you post on Instagram the better chances you have to be seen and followed. Two to three times per day is ideal.
• Use hashtags strategically. If you use 15-20 hashtags on each post you increase your chance to end up on the top or most recent hashtags list for your niche. But use specific hashtags so you have an even better chance of appearing (ex. Try “social media management” instead of “social media.”)

Twitter

Twitter is a very close 4th to me, and some weeks it might be #3. Twitter’s biggest drawback is in the community aspect. But it does have some benefits that none of the others have.

Pros

• It’s very easy to share content on Twitter. Retweeting is a norm on the site, so your engagement can be high on your links.
• Speaking of links, you can use both hashtags and links on Twitter and both can be clicked and searched. This is very useful for driving traffic.
• Outside of Facebook, Twitter still has the most monthly active users of any social media platform in the US.

Cons

• This is the first platform on the list to have a substantial algorithm filtering out posts. If you do not get significant engagement early on your posts, it’s tough to get seen.
• Personally, I do not see the same click-through rates (the amount of times people click on your link given how many people saw it) on Twitter as other channels.

Tips

• Automate posting as much as possible. I first tweet from the blog itself. Then, when I repost links to the article, I use Hootsuite to schedule them for later in the day.
• Use hashtags strategically. It’s best to use only 1-2 hashtags per tweet so make sure you get the most reach from them.

Facebook

Facebook is number five on this list for good and bad reasons. I personally have issues with the amount of restriction and limits placed on you as a blogger. But you can’t ignore a website that brings in 2.2 BILLION users per month.

Pros

• As mentioned, about 1/3 of the world is on this channel, it would be foolish not to at least consider using it.
• Facebook groups can be a great resource for promoting your blog and building relationships with other bloggers in your industry.

Cons

• The Facebook algorithm is the most sophisticated (read: limiting) of all algorithms on social media. You have to do a lot to build your presence.
• Because of that, it will take quite a while to build your following and get engagement.
• Unlike the other channels, it really takes a good amount of energy to build this to a level where you start seeing traffic to your blog.

Conclusion

My advice is that once you’ve selected your top profiles, focus on the one or two that you believe have the best chance of success. Trying to build traffic from too many channels will make succeeding difficult on any of them. Pick 1-2 channels and really focus on them so you can put the right amount of work to get the most out of them. Over time, you will drive enormous, consistent traffic to your blog, and help achieve your goals, no matter how big or small.

Happy posting!