Using social networking tools to promote your blog
Most people when they start a blog simply set up their blog, write some posts and then wonder why no one is visiting or commenting. They forget that one of the most important ingredients for running a successful blog is marketing. Marketing, however, doesn’t mean spending money on advertising as there are many free methods you can use to promote your blog. This article will be examining how to effectively use social networking tools to promote your blog.
Blogging can be quite a solitary process and it is very easy to become egotistical especially if you have tasted some success in the early days of your blogging journey. In the blogging world though, people who engage with peers, create conversations and promote the work of others can easily gain credibility and traffic on their blogs. On the other hand, those who just focus on their own blogs and use social networking tools purely for self promotion will quickly lose respect. Therefore using social networking tools to promote your blog needs to be done with care as once you lose respect and credibility, it is very hard to regain them.
The two social networking tools I am going to focus on are Twitter and StumbleUpon. There are many other tools out there but these are the two I use most frequently and therefore feel somewhat qualified to talk about.
Twitter - either you love it or you hate it. However, many bloggers do not know how to use it effectively to not only promote their own blogs but to build up connections with other bloggers. Using Twitterfeed to broadcast your latest blog posts is a great way to let those who are following you that you have written a new post, however, if that is all you use Twitter for then you are going to quickly lose followers and credibility. No one wants to read your twitter feed if all it is, is an RSS feed. To use Twitter effectively, you must stop focusing solely on yourself and start connecting with others. Tweet about articles you have read and enjoy and ask questions of your followers and use their knowledge to write future posts. There is nothing a fellow blogger likes more than to see themselves referenced in someone else’s blog. Yes, all bloggers do contain a healthy dose of ego. Also use Twitter to follow bloggers that you admire and watch to see how they use it. See what they do that works and what doesn’t work. Learn from their mistakes and replicate their successes. Most bloggers who use Twitter will have their details on their blog and if not, it never hurts to ask them.No one is going to get upset at you because you want to hear more about them.
StumbleUpon is a social networking tool that really teaches you the value of giving. If you just use it to “stumble” or “like” only your own posts then you won’t get much traffic from it. However, if you use it to “stumble” or “like” other blogger’s posts then you will quickly gain the reputation as a Power Stumbler. Power Stumblers can generate an amazing amount of traffic for the blogs that they stumble. I can hear you all thinking, “well, what is in it for me?”. This where connections really count. Form a group of like-minded individuals and stumble each others posts. You give them the gift of great traffic and they in turn do the same for you. It is a true win-win situation. Of course, if you don’t like the post, don’t stumble it, you don’t want to get the reputation of stumbling any old crap. If you are new to the blogging world and don’t really know anyone, still get out there and stumble. If the blogger also uses StumbleUpon they can see exactly who has stumbled their post and will most likely go and check out your own blog and if they like what they see, they will stumble one of your posts. Well I know I do that so I am going to assume that other bloggers do as well.
Creating great content is useless if no one is going to read it. You need to get out there and promote yourself and your work. The best way to do that is by connecting with other bloggers especially those who blog in your own niche. Social networking is an easy way to get yourself known, but you need to take care with the image you are portraying. Just as in real life, bloggers feel favourably towards those who do things for them or take the time to get to know them. Get out there and start connecting with your fellow bloggers, the rewards are greater than just an increase in your traffic.
Do you use social networking to promote your blog? What tools do you use and what successes/failures have you had? What do you find works best for you and what has been a waste of time?
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Tags: advertising, blogging, promotion, social networking, stumbleupon, twitter
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