It seems everyone is interested in finding the best form of social networking for bloggers, according to the recent post, “Is Network Blogging Tips the right name for this blog?”
It’s a bit of a loaded question, because straight up, the kind of social networking that will work best for your blog, is….
The social networking you’ll actually use. Bonus points if you enjoy using it.
Case in point – I just deleted my MySpace account. MySpace works well for blog promotion if one, you list your blog links on your profile page, and two, if you actually speak to folks on there. I always listed my blogs at MySpace, and when I sort of hung out, I got hits. About half a year ago, I got super busy, I quit hanging out, and guess what; no more hits on my blogs. I never loved MySpace so I let it go.
Twitter, for me, in the past, has a very good way to get page views; when I use it. Lately, even though I do enjoy Twitter, I’ve been too busy for tweets, and I don’t like to just go leave links, it feels fake. Plenty of people use Twitter feeds and just slam people with link tweets, but I don’t feel that’s as affective as being a full fledged member who tweets with others and makes new pals.I almost never click on blogs that are twitter fed into the system, but if I have a friend on there who says, please check out this cool post, I usually will.
Before you can find out which sort of social networking works best for you, (later we will look at some various sorts of social networking you can try) you should start by making sure you do the following:
Get involved – be part of the the network family before you start tossing links at everyone.
Enjoy it, or act like you do in a believable way. I prefer genuine behavior though.
Get to know the culture of the networking system. For example, to me, Digg comes across as more hot topic driven while Stumble Upon allows more quirk and uniqueness. Because I’m not a hot topic sort of girl, but do enjoy the strange, I fit in better at Stumble Upon, and so do my blogs. Some forums for bloggers are all money talk (not for me) while others dig into design and posting ideas (way more my style). If you can find a social networking area where you fit in, there’s a better chance your blogs will as well.
Be there for the social aspects first, and the page views secondly. Expect to be involved in a social manner. Be pleasantly surprised when it results in page views to your blog.
Don’t do too much. No one can be at the front of every social media site or networking tactic and keep it going. You’ll wear yourself out and never have time to actually blog. I can’t name an exact number that’s good for you, but I tend to stick to five or less social networks at a time, or I get overwhelmed. Many can handle more, but not me. For example, I can Skype like mad, read and comment at a handful of other blogs, do some Stumbles, and deal partially with Technorati and Linked In, with the occasional tweet tossed in. Frankly I’m pushing it.
Your turn:
What sorts of social networking are you involved in right now? Are you enjoying it, or thinking of trying new things?
Do not use any social networking at the moment apart from LinkedIn to request customer testimonials and network professionally in my geographic area.
As most people know, I’m absolutely addicted to Twitter. I have all of the blogs here at FWJ set to my Twitter feed with positive results. But you’re right, it’s all about the community. I love it having little mini conversations with others.
It’s part of my job as Community Manager at BlogTalkRadio to communicate with others via social networking so I’m active (on behalf of BTR) on MySpace, FaceBook, Twitter and others.
I enjoy Twitter, Facebook, and Stumbleupon, I’ve dabbled a little with Linked In. I tried some others but those are the ones I’ve stuck with.
I would love to find a good blog forum that digs into design and posting ideas, if anyone has recommendations I’d love to check them out:)
@Deb are you addicted to Twitter? Oh wait, I knew that
I think if you actually participate, then feeding your blogs on Twitter is cool.
@Andy & Linette, Soon I’ll do a round up of various social networking, and maybe Deb can add some of the ones she knows of too. Then Andy if you want to check some out you can, and Linette I’ll post some forums as well.
@ Jennifer – sounds good. I have a full time job and am running my freelance business on the side so time is limited and want to make sure I focus my efforts on networks that provide the most value.
Looking forward to it!
Adding this to my bookmarks. Thank You
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