Driving Traffic with Instastories + My Summer Picks

Are you driving traffic back to your blog from your social media accounts?

As I've said (and many others have said) before, your blog is your baby. It's the only thing you really have control over in the blogging world. It's where you get to write whatever you want to write, whenever you want to write it. You can re-design it a million times until you make it your own. When I tell people that my blog is hosted on Blogger a lot of them find that hard to believe because it doesn't look like a typical Blogger blog. But that's all determined by the amount of time and effort you want to dedicate to your site.

Now that social media is so prevalent, you want to make sure that your blog isn't taking a backseat. So what methods are you using to drive traffic from your social accounts back to your home base?

Driving Traffic Via Facebook

From the jump, Facebook has been my #1 traffic source when it comes to social. This is most likely due to the fact that it was the first social account that I started, and for a long time, had the biggest following. I have a little over 5,100 readers on my Facebook page (connect with me), and I always use it to link back to my blog posts while peppering in some funny viral stories as well. Furthermore, I'm in a blogger support group on Facebook that allows me to share my most recent posts with a group that wouldn't typically see my posts. This helps to increase page views and time on site.

I've also found that Google search and partnership posts have actually been very beneficial for my blog traffic as well, but not on the same level as Facebook. But lately, I have been getting some traffic to my site coming from a new source.

How to Drive Traffic Via Instagram

I've always heard people rave about the traffic they get from social sites like Bloglovin and Pinterest. I have never been one of those people. My Pinterest page is lovely and has a little over 2,700 readers (connect with me), but I'm not terribly good about scrolling through the Pinterest feed and pinning new photos. I'd like to spend more time doing so as I've always found inspiration on that site, but I've spent pretty much the entire 2017 (so far) building my Instagram.

I'm sure you've already heard all the Instagram tips and tricks: have an aesthetically pleasing feed; post regularly; post when your readers are online; interact and engage with niche accounts, etc. All of that is super true and can be great at building your Instagram account. But does any of it do anything in regards to driving traffic back to your blog? Not necessarily. But there is a new way to use Instagram, which seems to be the top dog social media site (currently), to benefit your blog.

Encourage blog visits via your Instastory

I never like to read a caption on an Instagram photo that only says something like, "this top is 40% off, shop it via my liketoknowit app...". I just feel like I want more out of your caption than just a sale link. So I like my captions to say something interesting, fun, insightful, informational, witty, etc., while also providing you with a way to shop something if that's the case or to visit the blog. But captions can only do so much because people don't always tend to read the entirety of the caption, and at the moment, you can't actually link URLs in your captions.

So like pretty much everyone else, I used the URL placeholder in my Instagram bio to share links. Usually I would only have my website link in that slot and would switch it out to a specific product link on occasion. But I recently started using the linktree site to include multiple links all in one spot. This was a good way to incorporate numerous links, but it was also a bit confusing. The hubs looked at my Instagram page one day and said, "What is linktree? I don't understand these links? Are these ads?" The point is -- he was confused. It just wasn't straightforward enough.

At the end of May, Instagram decided to rollout a new feature for Instagram Stories. If you were a verified account, you had the option to share links in your IG story. Then, that luxury was given to business accounts -- verified or not. It didn't matter how many followers you had, where you lived, or even how long you'd had an account. It seemed like it was a benefit to Instagram business accounts -- and what a benefit it proved to be in the first day, alone. 

Once I got the Instastory feature, I tested it immediately. I added a link back to my blog and one directly to a product. That same day, I noticed in Blogger that Instagram was my number one source of blog traffic for the day. I also saw that the product that I had linked in my Instastory was the second highest clicked product on my referral site. It also allows you to preview the link first to make sure it works correctly, which is quite helpful. Plus, you can also use it to easily link to your other social sites like Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter!

Only time will tell if this new feature is truly beneficial at driving traffic, but for now, I'm happy that it's here. It allows people who follow you on Instagram to more easily click through to your blog. You no longer have to follow a long chain of commands to watch your story >> click back to your Instagram profile >> click the link in your bio. Now driving traffic is as easy as swiping up.

Do you have this Instastory feature yet? If so, how has the swipe up function aided in driving traffic back to your blog and to your product links? In your mind, what are some pros and cons? And if you aren't already, be sure to connect with me on Instagram to catch some things that I don't post here.

My Instastory Summer Picks

Here are a few pieces that have caught my eye and that I plan to take with me into summer. Shop them below!