USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO DRIVE TRAFFIC TO YOUR HUBS

I've been on Hubpages for a few years now, and one thing I initially struggled with was getting traffic to my hubs. In my first year, it seemed the only people who read my hubs were close friends who read about my posts on Facebook. But a person can't make any money on a dozen hits a day; we need traffic in the hundreds, if not thousands per day. I knew social media was the key to traffic, but what social media outlet to use?

What I found was I needed to use several social media outlets to drive significant traffic to my hubs. Facebook alone won't cut it. Nor will Google plus. I use them all. While this may seem very time consuming, it is not as bad as one might think, perhaps only an hour or so a day. Some may say that that is one hour that could be spent writing, but at the same time, more writing doesn't do any good if nobody is reading your hubs.

One of the tools I use to manage all of my social media is Hootsuite. If you are not familiar with this service, it is a social media management tool with tons of features. You can post to multiple accounts, schedule future posts, monitor the number of hits your posts receive, and more. A basic account is free, but you can upgrade for $10 per month.

I post to most of my social media accounts from Hootsuite. There are a few that don't integrate with Hootsuite, but for those that do, this is a huge time saver. I have the upgraded account, which allows me to use their bulk uploader tool. This tool allows you to upload an excel spreadsheet containing a list of tweets with the days and times you want them posted.

What follows is a list of the social media outlets that I use, as well as how I use them. Certainly there are other forms of social media available, but these are the ones that I have found to work well.

Facebook Don't limit yourself to a single Facebook page. In addition to my personal page, I have two fanpages to promote my writing (each appeal to a different audience). On your fanpages, try to get as many like as possible... the more likes, the greater your audience. I also try to post on other fanpages that allow fans to post. Just be careful when posting on other people's pages, as some may consider it spam and file a complaint.

Join Facebook groups that are specific to the topics you like to write about. For example, one of my favorite topics to write about is Linux/Open Source computing. To promote these hubs, I am a member of the following Facebook groups: Linux, Linux Mint, Lubuntu Official, Ubuntu, and KDE. I simply post at each of these groups each time I have a new hub available on computing, and stop by occasionally to check for (and respond to) any comments.

LinkedIn and Google+ Posting to your personal page on both of these networks does get some traffic, but the real goldmine is in the discussion groups on both of these networks. Called Communities on Google+ and Groups on LinkedIn, the discussion groups are a potential goldmine of traffic. As an added plus, the LinkedIn groups integrate with Hootsuite, so I can post to every one of my groups at once. Just be sure that if you go this route, you try to generate some real conversation, and aren't just blasting the groups with endless links.

If you're interested in more information on using LinkedIn and Google+, I recently wrote a hub titled Promote your Hubs with Linked and Google+.

Pinterest Pinterest membership is growing, so you should take advantage. Promoting your hubs on Pinterest is very easy since Hubpages includes the “Pin it” button on every hub. Just make sure that you have a good quality picture to pin.

Twitter You can get lots if traffic from twitter, but only if you do it right. First off, it is important to use hashtags so that people who are doing a search on your subject can find your tweets. Going back to my computer example, I commonly use the hashtags #Linux, #Ubuntu, #KDE, and #Kubuntu.

I send most of my promotional tweets through Hootsuite, using the bulk uploader to schedule fifty tweets at a time. I space my tweets 45 minutes to an hour apart. I also try to get on twitter daily to join in the discussions, which will give you more credibility.

I hop you've enjoyed this hub. Please feel free to leave comments below.