After completing a blog post, the next step most businesses take is posting it to their websites followed by Facebook and Twitter. After that, they’re not sure what else to do with it. With so many available platforms to promote and showcase content, there are boundless options to gain potential views and feedback, and boost your reputation.
 
LinkedIn Groups
 
LinkedIn may be an older social network but its purpose is outstanding if you’re a business trying to gain exposure and customer interest. With more than 347 million users, LinkedIn provides businesses and individuals a place to build professional identity, network and discover business deals and opportunities. LinkedIn Groups specifically allows professionals in the same industry or with similar interests to share content, find answers, make business contacts and establish themselves as industry experts. Once you set up an account, you can search for groups you may be interested in. You can even create a group of your own that’s focused on the topic or industry of your choosing. More than 40 percent of users check LinkedIn daily. It’s a great platform to expand beyond your usual list of connections.

Instagram
 
Instagram is more than just images? Yes indeed! With more than 300 million accounts, Instagram is quickly becoming one of the most popular social media platforms available. It has an incredibly active community, which makes it a great network to build traffic. Posting an engaging, relevant image that links back to your blog post is all you need to start building interest and a following. The platform’s users are almost evenly split between males and females. People between the ages of 16 to 24 make up 41 percent of Instagram users; worldwide, 20 percent of people ages 16 to 64 have an account. Instagram is clearly a winner when it comes to reaching your targeted audience and proving that your business continues to embrace new ideas from our digital world.
 
Pinterest
 
Like Instagram, Pinterest is a social network that showcases attractive images linking to their original sources. Shareable pictures that relate to your blog topic will help bring readers to your posts. And if you’re unsure about what types of Pinterest images would best suit your posts, there are a number of creative ideas to try, such as showing your products in use or designing infographics. One of the best features of Pinterest is the ability to create multiple boards that target your interests. So if your business writes about several different topics, it’s easy to organize your work through properly titled boards. Pinterest has more than 70 million users; 85 percent are female and 15 percent are male. Not only is this social network a creative way to reach new audiences, it’s also allows you to create backlinks to your website.  
 
StumbleUpon
 
Have you ever used or heard about StumbleUpon? This network might be the most addicting activity you’ll “stumble upon” if you create an account. StumbleUpon helps users discover unique and interesting things around the Web. It’s an engine that recommends every topic you can think of from art to humor to sports to technology. Each time you land on a page, you can choose to remain on it or click “stumble” to land on something new. StumbleUpon actually refers more traffic to publishers than Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn and Google+ combined. So each time people use the platform, they end up on webpages they may have never found without its help, including your posts! And if they enjoyed your blog, users have the option to follow you and add your work to their list of favorites. How could you not want to explore this ingenious option?
 
BizSugar
 
BizSugar is ideal for entrepreneurs and small businesses that are looking to share their expertise. It’s a great platform to reinforce your business’s reputation and bring visibility to your content. BizSugar also allows you to make networking connections with other businesses and stay informed. After your blog post is read, users are asked to vote on it – give it “a little sugar,” in other words. BizSugar then promotes the top 10 posts on its home page and features them in its newsletter, widget and Twitter feed.
 
Finding the right places to share your posts isn’t difficult, but you must be sure your content is relevant to your targeted community and follows each network’s guidelines. It won’t be long before you discover the thousands of potential readers that you would have never found by sticking to your website, Facebook and Twitter.

So are you ready to get your name out there and expand your blog post reach? Sage Island would love to help you brainstorm the best options. Our team of SEO and social media specialists can get your content to the right audience so you can build your company into a well-known, trusted resource.
 
Mike Duncan co-founded Sage Island in 1997, and since then has evolved the agency’s scope to include marketing strategy, creative design, technical development and a wide range of digital marketing services. With an integrated approach that leverages the power and measurability of the internet, the savvy Sage Island team develops strategies, builds brands, writes killer copy and delivers to clients all over the world. And they have an awesome time doing it. Sage’s collaborative working environment keeps creativity and innovation at the heart of the concept. With a 17-year history in Wilmington and beyond, Sage Island shows no signs of slowing down. To learn how Sage Island can grow your business, check us out at www.sageisland.com. To stay updated on the latest in digital marketing, follow Sage Island on Facebook at 
www.facebook.com/SageIsland, and on Twitter at twitter.com/SageIsland.