Aside Facebook allow you to create a profile and connect with your friends from school, it has several features that can connect your blog readers and help you find new ones. So the question is how to use Facebook to promote your blog ? Create a Facebook Group: Your blog readers have a common interest - your blog’s subject. Just as they have subscribed to your RSS feed or newsletter… They will join your Facebook group. Read More > Promote Your Blog Using Facebook
U usually kill 3 birds with one stone. Post my blog posts on Twitter, which automatically updates Facebook, and My Space as well.
That's a good idea. I really like Twitter, but I don't really do anything with my Facebook page (not enough time). To do that, are you just putting your Twitter RSS feed on the Facebook page?
For my blog, I prefer Technorati and Mybloglog. Apart from traffic, they also give quality dofollow backlinks.
I would give a vote to twitter better. I often update it in my twitter account once i post new post at my blog.
@hmansfield, sounds a great idea.. But the bottom line isn't about its automation but the results. I mean does your method do well in bringing new traffic to your blogs ?
True, but automation + results means easy money! I don't know about you but the more automated things are that opens up my time to produce quality content.
Well I do more on Twitter than just post blog entries. I frequently give away iTunes downloads and run contests for giveaways (I'm actually starting a new one tomorrow to coincide with a new album launch). I don't have the time to spend on My Space or Facebook, but some social networking is needed so I chose Twitter to commit a certain amount of time to. My Space I use as a commodity to increase the value of the blog, so most of any My Space Friends I have are DJ's and Music producers, Promoters..that kind of thing...which gives the blog even more credibility to readers or passers by. Yes it does work. Traffic is up since I started "Twittering", maybe 15%, and Twitter is now one of my top referrers. Not only that, but since I mainly follow Dance Music producers, DJ's and fans, I have gotten some great content ideas from people on Twitter. There are a lot of web "gurus" on there promoting their wares, (John Chow is on there all the time) .I stay way from them and stay on target with what I am trying to do so everyone knows I am there for one reason..to talk about, or provide information about the Dance Music scene worldwide. You have to do more than post blog entries for it to work for you, you have to interact with the community, and your followers, and tie your website in with the social network of your choice. For instance, the only way to be eligible for any giveaways I run, is to follow me on Twitter (not subscribe or register with an email), and I also have Twitter, My Space and Facebook icons on my site and after my posts, instead of Dig and Stumble buttons like most people have. Sure bookmarking icons mean a link if someone uses them, but social networking means readers..and returning readers at that. Links don't spend money, readers do. If people are savvy about bookmarking, they don't need those buttons to remind them, they will do it naturally but they won't know to find you on social networking sites unless you tell them...and that space for that, instead of wasting valuable space in my sidebar that I can use to make money. That is of course just my preference, and the way I do it, won't necessarily work for everyone...you really do have to tailor it in a way that will work for you and your niche. What works for music, may not work for "design" and certainly not for "make money online" and other web pitches.
Seems that hmansfield explained everything above.. I'm not really a good fan of Twitter but to Digg. Digg makes contacting your friends easier than Twitter. I mean you can shout your entries to all your friends at the same time which is more automated than Twitter to tweet something to everyone manually. What if you have 10k followers. No way that all of them will know about your entries!
You are right and that is one of the things about twitter that is limited, but there are many tools that you can use to automate that as well. You can set up you "Tweets" to post again at different times to catch your overseas followers when they are onlne. Certain times of day are obviously better to post up than others, and you can bookmark your tweets in your profile so that others can see them when they look at you. You can also create custom backgrounds that will entice people to click your blog link, and customize your profile background as well... I recently had my background explain the details of a giveaway. It's not perfect by any means, but the amount of socialization tools that are coming out by the day to help stay in contact with followers is making the networking part of it better. It has 1/5 the functionality of other sites, but it's not supposed to be Facebook or Myspace, but it helps me automate those updates, so I can do 3 things at once. But as I said, everyone will not get the benefits equally from any of them, you have to chose the platform that works best for you and your niche, and the one that you feel more comfortable with.
hmansfield, that was a pretty sweet breakdown of twitter, and you gave off quite a few good ideas. How many hours/day do you spend twittering?
Not many. I check my @replies, keyword alerts (to find new people in my niche to follow) throughout the day (via email), and DM's, and respond back to any of them. Other than that I'll post up what i have to say, my daily blog post, and a few alerts of regional events such as DJ appearances. Once a week I go on and give away 10 free iTunes Downloads of what ever the hot new track is that week, and that's about it. According to Tweet Wasters, I have spent 124 Beats Per Minute has 262 total tweets and assuming they spent an average of 30 seconds per tweet they've spent 7,860 Seconds or 131 Minutes or 2.18 Hours or 0.09 Days using Twitter! Since I started hitting it a little harder last month. Could be better, right now I have just over 1000 followers. I do have to spend more time to get into that 5k range, but I really just try to single out those in my niche, or are interested in the niche, instead of just following, or having "any old body" follow that have no interest in what I have to Tweet. It's not about how many people follow me, it's about how many people follow me that will buy a concert ticket, some electronic equipment, or download some music. You can follow 2k people and get 1k of them to follow you back in about a week, but are they your target audience, or people just building followers like some kind of popularity badge ? I don't do a lot of small talk there, unless it is about dance music (or the profile picture is cute), but I will give away a download in a heartbeat (.99 cents..big deal). I actually spend $10 a week on Twitter, the other stuff I give away is from record companies, promoters and artists management.
Seems like hmansfield's followers are stuck to his Twitter page because of those iTunes Downloads and giveaways. It's like an incentive traffic which is 50% useful and 50% useless. No offense but do you think this way you're marketing you website in social websites the good way ?
My whole purpose is to separate the people who are generally interested in my niche, from those just looking for a bunch of followers. No one is going to stick around to win something that they have no interest in..I know i wouldn't follow someone for country music downloads As far as giveaways and contest go, I have always run them so it's not anything new for me, the only difference is I am tying them in to my Twitter account...and I like doing it. I don't see any difference in doing that than offering a free ebook to subscribe by email, but it's not a technical blog, it's entertainment, so a free ebook is not going to do anyone any good. Another reason I do it is because, even though it's a small niche in the U.S., many people who like Dance Music (when they go to the clubs and such) have no idea who the artists are, or the names of songs..so how will they buy them if they want to ? Hey I'll take 50% useful as another way of cheap promotion any day. It works fine for me. I would much rather do that, than to be constantly posting on twitter, "Check out my new blog post", or "buy my product", or "Hey, just came across this great new ebook on Making money online, check it out @spamlink.com" or some other ridiculously obvious self promotions like so many bloggers do on Twitter. I'm just having a little fun with my little community..what's wrong with that ?