Do you have days when you see a substantial increase in traffic from a specific social media platform and you have no idea why? You think it may be because you started a new strategy but you aren’t entirely sure. You are not sure because you switch strategies often based on some blog post you read somewhere and you never give any one plan more than a few days to work.
If this is you, how can you possibly know what works for you and what doesn’t?
Or are you like I was, spending a majority of the day flitting from one platform to another, sharing and contributing, reading and commenting, and basically going with the flow with no real direction or purpose.
You end up wasting a huge part of the day just socializing and getting no real work done. And worse, your traffic becomes intricately linked to the amount of interaction you do in sharing threads.
If this is you, you see a drastic decrease in traffic on days that you do not have as much time to spend on social media. How frustrating is that?
Today I am here to calm your worries and give you a solid checklist to make sure you are consistent and focused in your social media strategy.
Here is everything you need to do daily on each platform:
Click the image to download and print.
How To Use The Social Media Sharing Checklist
- Record your traffic and referral stats from the previous 30 days (6 months if you can) and your social media stats. This is a great opportunity to start a bullet journal to keep track of your information or if you prefer pre-formatted forms, check out my free printables here to start your own blog journal.
- Click the image above and print the checklist. Either print one for each day and put in a binder or use a pencil daily or laminate the checklist for daily use.
- On lines that have duplicating tasks, i.e. share 5, use the space beside the text to checkmark each time task is done till it adds up to the required number.
- You must complete 30 days of all the tasks on the list. In this cycle, do no more, do no less, of all required actions. (I’ve left one square blank so that you may add an additional platform you may use.)
- Record your traffic, referral and new followers in your journal started in step one. Make note of any spikes, reasons and any influences if you can.
- Analyse your data and determine which items on the checklist worked best for you.
- Customize the checklist based on your results in step 6.
- You need to do more of what works, and maybe less of what doesn’t. You may elect to do 30 more days of what did not work, just to make sure before you adjust down.
- Repeat and adjust every 2nd month or at least seasonally.
The biggest reason that most bloggers fail at their social media strategy is that they are not focused or consistent. Honestly, stop reading all the posts about what you should do and just make a plan for yourself and stick to it for 30 days. The above checklist will not only help you stay on track, it will also save you a ton of wasted, empty time on social media.
Good Luck and let me know how the checklist worked for you.
43 comments
Thank you! I love a simple list that says what I need to do.
I’m in the process of updating it. (Google and stumble now gone!) Check back soon.
I absolutely love this checklist and EXACTLY what I need! I’m going to try this. Thank you!
Let me know if I help you with your social hot mess! lol
Ok, I have a question. I was once banned from Pinterest and I had to move moutains to be reinstated. To this day, IDK what I did wrong. I heard one of the things that could ban you is posting the same pin to multiple boards. Is that rule null and void when pinning the same post to multiple group boards? I ask since one of the to-dos is pinning a new post to 5 group boards. Thank you!
Pinning the same pin to multiple boards is ok and should not have got you banned per se. it depends on the pin, the link it went to, as well as how many boards and what time spam but ultimately, it could have been a pinner who reported you and boom, you’re banned. I have been doing this for years and never had a problem pinning to multiple boards. Always follow group board rules as that could lead to the moderator tagging you as a spammer if you don’t.
Ok, I’ll have to try it out. I decided to pin one of my posts to my blog board then a group board. 5 minutes later though I deleted the one from my blog board b/c if you take a look at my pins as a whole vs boards, it showed the same pin twice. I wimped out having both of them side by side so I deleted it. But if it’s ok that the posts live next to each other, I’ll have to try it out again. Thank you for all of your wonderful tips!!!
Awesome, a practical step by step approach. Thanks
Elena, I would like to join your blogging group board and am following the instructions: “Follow me and comment on the cover pin, https://www.pinterest.com/pin/373306256597410821/” but I can’t see where I should comment. Could you advise please? Thanks
You should see the word comment. If you click on there, it will expand your screen and open up a field where you may comment.
Thanks for such good practical advice Elena. I have been following your Pinterest tips and have found them very clear and helpful.
That is great to hear! I hope you are seeing some traffic now too.
Great action steps, thank you very much!
Thanks for the great information! I look forward to trying your checklist! Blessings, Janet
Thanks for sharing this – very helpful and detailed – looks like a great social media strategy to follow!
This sounds great! I’m printing that! I would definitely like to not have most of my readership linked to social sharing threads.
Reblogged this on Partys2Playdates.com and commented:
Thank you so much for this post Elena! Such a helpful tool!
https://elenaopeters.com/2017/01/01/social-media-sharing-checklist/
Nice checklist and very helpful. I find Google + a bit of a non starter. I auto publish posts there and used to do more but I never saw it make a difference too much. I still auto publish but that’s it as who wouldn’t want to be mixed in with Google, right. StumbleUpon I’ve become a bit unsatisifed with since it changed its interface but it’s still a great option. Instagram is on my radar, Pinterest I’m beginning to love and well Facebook and Twitter are pretty standard. So, my question for you here is what’s your opinion on Reddit? Thanks again and this will be most helpful for myself and many others.
It is so difficult to get consistent traffic from Reddit as a direct result of adding your own links. You will be banned quickly. You have to spend a lot of time there before you share so to me, it is not worth my effort. Plus, I see a very high bounce rate from Reddit. Just my observations.
Cool. I’ve joined a good little community on Reddit so I guess it all depends on how you use it. Even if it didn’t bring traffic to my blog I’d still be active in it as I really enjoy the interaction there. I can see how it’s not for everyone though 🙂
Really practical and helpful. Always feel I’m swimming through treacle on twitter and this may solve the problem!
I’ll never reach that level of SM sharing Elena but there is definitely more I could be doing and this is a good prompt on how to get started. Thanks so much – pinned!
Just be consistent on the platforms you choose. That’s it! I think you do really well.
This is brilliant. Thank you. I’m going to give this a try.
I hope it works for you!
I love this! I’m trying to grow my blog and social media and this can really help! Thank you for sharing!
You are so welcome! I hope it brings you success and saves you time.
That’s a great idea! I will try it when I find some extra time. 🙂
Extra time…lol
Such great advice. You really are a master at social media sharing. Pinned.
I totally agree! Thanks so much, Elena!