How to increase your Facebook referrals

In April, Facebook came 20th in my list of referring sites. Just a month later, it had shot up to 5th and my views from Facebook had increased by 1165%. Yep. One thousand, one hundred and sixty five percent in 30 days. So what changed? Well, I started using it properly for one thing.

For years, I believed that Facebook had no role to play in my blog. I stopped using my personal Facebook around 2012, and statistics seem to show that this is true for many people in my generation. Milennials have deserted Facebook in favour of Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram but I didn't stop to think about all the other age groups. My mum is regularly on Facebook. So are my teenage siblings. In fact, the number of active users is growing, so it's fairly clear that, even though I've long abandoned Facebook as a social media site, there are ample opportunities for blog use. 

These are the steps I've taken to use Facebook as a referring source.

SET UP A BLOG PROFILE

This is something I've done that won't be for everyone. As I said at the beginning, I stopped using my personal profile years ago and didn't particularly want some people in my life to know about the blog. Instead, I set up a distinct profile just for blogging. My friends are mostly fellow bloggers (It's polite to ask bloggers whether they'd mind a friend request as some don't like to get them from people they don't know in real life) so I'm happy to share blog-related news to them. I also have some family members on there who like me to share my links as they forget to check otherwise. This is also handy if you want to keep your full name under wraps as you can participate in groups with your blog name, rather than your real one. Speaking of...

JOIN FACEBOOK GROUPS

I mentioned this in a recent post but I'll elaborate here. There are many, many Facebook groups for bloggers out there, some more useful than others. As a rule, look for those that allow you space to promote your posts while also allowing discussion and support to take place. Some groups may have upwards of 5000 members but it solely consists of bloggers pasting in their link and closing the tab. If a group features nothing but links, nobody is actually going to be engaged. On the other hand, groups with fewer members but an active, engaged community are going to be much more beneficial. If you're based in, or originally from, the UK, I recommend UK Bloggers. I'm a member of many groups but this is by far the most useful. 

PARTICIPATE IN GROUPS

I can promise you that pasting your link in a group without actively participating is not going to get you noticed. If you get involved, joining in conversations and helping people where you can, people will start to recognise you. Whatever you do, make sure you stick to the rules. There's often a specific thread or time where you are allowed to share your posts. People who spam their links in a no-link-sharing group are just annoying and will probably result in you being removed. Play by the rules, be polite and be helpful.

SHARE YOUR LINK TO YOUR PAGE

Of course, the bonus of having your own page is that you can share your link whenever you like. Facebook's algorithms are awful. They want you to pay for promoted posts, so they've made it as difficult as possible for your posts to be seen. Nevertheless, it's worth sharing to your page as it gets seen by a handful of people and sometimes one will take off in a way you didn't expect.

TAG BRANDS

If you've featured a brand in your post, tag them in the post or photo. By doing this, I've found that brands, especially smaller ones, will often share the post onto their own page and it will be seen by a whole new audience. 

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I'm still refining how to use Facebook for my blog and at the moment, I'm focusing on using my page and profile in more social ways. I'm excited to see how much it will grow from here! Oh, and if you were wondering, here's my Facebook page! 


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