The 1 Essential Tool to Grow Your Blog

Using IFTTT to get followers without doing anything

Imagine you’ve just spent the past hour — okay maybe day — finishing up your blog post, finding the pictures, adding in the links. When you press publish, you’re ready to sign off and get a drink. But you check your stats, and no-one’s read your piece. For your next piece, you share on Facebook and get a few likes. The third time, you ask your friends to share on Facebook and you get a few more. But still your blog’s not getting off the ground. Should you try Twitter? Do you need to take a workshop? Is it really worth the effort? The simple message is take it easy, don’t give up, and try these steps below.

Simple cheer you up tool! Source: Imgur

There’s a FREE simple tool that could help you get started on social media. Imagine that when you publish on Wordpress, there will be an automatic post to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Medium!

IFTTT stands for “If This Then That”, a tool that helps you make automatic recipes.

This post will cover:

1. Why you should be using IFTTT
2. How to set up your IFTTT account and create your first automated postings
3. Tips on when to post on different social media platforms

Why should you be using IFTTT?

The first thing is to acknowledge that social media is a bit of a numbers game. The more platforms that you can share to, the more people can learn about your pieces. As a writer, I also like the idea that people share my content because of its inherent quality, but I’ve accepted that the internet is no different from a bookstore: it’s difficult to discover a a book on the shelf without the help of displays, labels, recommendations and good cover designs.

Will people mind that you’ve ‘automated’ the post, no! Great contents speak for themselves.

Your IFTTT account links up various accounts and acts according to ‘recipes’ you assign. For example, you can create:

• If I publish to Wordpress, then publish on Tumblr.
• If I publish on Wordpress, then post on my Facebook Page.

More suggestions below!

0. Register an IF This Then That (aka IFTTT) Account

First, just take a leap of faith and take 1 minute to register an IFTTT Account.

This post will show you how to:

1. Link up your main posting platform.
2. Choose strategic social media channels to share to.
3. Make an IFTTT recipe.

1. Connect your blog to IFTTT

IFTTT supported blogging platforms.

Pick your blogging tool from Medium, Wordpress, Tumblr, Blogger, or Weebly.

Link up whatever blogging platform you are already using. Don’t create a new one just for IFTTT. I blog with Wordpress, so I linked that account first.

2. Choose 5 strategic channels to add to.

IFTTT social media networks, and much more!

Next, choose at least 5 other platforms to link up to. These will be the platforms that IFTTT will automatically share to once you publish on your blog.

I would recommend the following:

Blogging

• Medium because people come to read extended articles and also learn industry how-to’s. Medium is also well linked to Twitter, so people who like your stuff can easily share your piece by highlighting a quoted line.
• Facebook because everyone uses it and your friends probably want to know what you’ve been up to once in a while!
• Facebook page because to begin creating content for your followers who can share stuff more easily on Facebook.
• Linkedin because people in your industry are looking for your content (if you are writing professional pieces). Publishign to LinkedIn also helps build your online CV / portfolio.
• Twitter because you have nothing to lose. Twitter is where professionals go to discover industry information, so even if you do not actively engage on Twitter right away, posting tweets now will build up your account so that it has credibility by the time you want to do more engagement.
• Buffer is a free social media (up to 2–3 channels) scheduling app that allows you to control exactly when you want to post throughout the week (you can choose by exact minute and each day).
• Pocket is where many people save and share longer articles they are interested in. If you have technical writing, people will want to discover it there.
• Instapaper is similar to Pocket and also an offline reader.
• Pinterest because people save notes and ideas there. It’s an easy way to create a themed portfolio. You can also specify which hashtags to post into a specific Pintrest board. For example, if you are writing only inspirational stories, you can name your board “Inspirational Stories” and IFTTT will post automatically into the board.
• Tumblr and Blogger may also be good blogging platforms to cross-share to. Tumblr is better for fandoms rather than long articles.

IFTTT has a simple and intuitive interface to begin creating your recipes.

3. Follow IFTTT instructions to create your ‘recipe’.

IFTTT recipes from other users that you can quickly borrow

You can also search for recipe inspiration. Many other people have probably thought of the same thing you want, so you can use their recipes.

My IFTTT recipe recommendations to get started are:

• Wordpress [or your blogging platform of choice] → Twitter
• Wordpress → LinkedIn (only if industry / professionally related)
• Wordpress → Facebook page
• Wordpress → Facebook (personal profile)
• Wordpress → Buffer (especially if you are reposting to Twitter)
• Wordpress → Pintrest because it’s good to build up a board

Because I keep a travel blog, I use IFTTT for visual content sharing. For example, I will link up my Instagram to Flickr, Facebook, Tumblr, and Pintrest.

4. Done setting up? Test.

Testing my Pintrest board for my Instagram posts for my travel blog The Cup and the Road

First, test a post. It’s important to see how your posts will show up and make sure that the format is to your liking. For example, I check to make sure my images are pulled correctly. I’ve learned to only do horizontal images for posts because I want them to show up on all my social media platforms.

Note that IFTTT may take a few minutes to share your post, so maybe check back in an hour.

Still, do not be too worried if a format is not EXACTLY how you like it. If you are starting a new channel, no-one knows about you yet. This is the perfect chance for you to experiment and see what works.

5. Refine your recipes.

Reusing a pusheen image I love! Make your posts visual!

Once you’ve gotten used to posting, play around with settings on IFTTT so that your content feels natural.

For example, on my Flickr account, I realised I only wanted one photo to be uploaded to my Twitter and Facebook pages, not all my images when I do a backup. I modified my instructions so that IFTTT only shared the #twitter and #facebook hashtags.

Over to you! What are your favourite recipes on IFTTT and how have you grown your followers?

Also, if you found this post useful, please share! Thanks!