Chapter 7 Social Networking: No Blogger Left Behind
This is a very critical chapter I think because it need to really show all what we have talked about in the other chapters and show how the dots are connected for the perfect outcome, promoting our business, getting high rankings, and getting lots of leads and business. We all know social networking, business networking, and word of mouth through the viral internet marketing engine can turn you and your business in to a very quick success. While that may not happen to most of us, where we are achieve over night success. The point of the matter is that your progress and success will come much faster from social networking and online promotion, and probably much cheaper than if you were not doing it at all. No women or man is an island, meaning we really are much more interdependent on others than we might acknowledge, and the online world doesn’t keep many things secret. We have all seen funny videos from YouTube.com and how they spread like wildfire. If people like what you are doing, they will tell others.
No Blogger Left Behind, Part 1: “How to win friends”
“How to win friends and influence people”, is a classic book by Dale Carnegie. It’s a classic because the principles are universal and will never change. I was blessed enough to read it at least 10 years ago. The best thing, I can tell you from the book is a simple but very important truth. Compliment people, in a sincere and specific manner, and you will always have a fan. Compliment them about a specific thing, about their appearance, their blue suede shoes, or their off platinum designer jewelry, anything they are wearing? Go out of your way, but be honest, no one likes a fake kiss ass.
So can’t find anything, just compliment them on their smile, they aren’t smiling you say. Well, say this and you are sure to get a smile “I bet you have a beautiful Smile, go ahead and show me”:-). There is also another saying that makes the point even better, and I think this one is from Anthony Robbins “People are always listening to the WIIFM, What’s In It For Me, tune in to their channel?” and you will get their attention. You see these strategies are sound and honest ways of making friends and building camaraderie. The problem is that often times really smart & cheesy sales people over use them and are not sincere, so they get a bad name. So time tested way to win friends and build community is to compliment them,but how does that apply to building community blogs or promoting your blog?
People do business with people they like (Anthony Robbins truism, from now on I will use just AR to refer to him. You see I will quote him quite often, as I have learned no more from any other man). My truth, people are also friends with people they like, they will build community with people they like, they live in neighborhoods they like, people will collaborate with people they like. So you have to be liked and be like the other people you have to build community with. Get it, are you MyType? My Type of people are inspirational, entrepreneurial, motivated, real, honest, hard working, some times lazy, but more importantly fun. You will undoubtedly get connected with people who are like you. And, if you are a fan of Tony Robbins, than I am a fan of you.
In the book, Marketing to the Social Media, Larry Weber explains that over 50% of the people join a social network to meet new friends and connect with others. I wonder why this is? Actually, I did not, I knew this to be a big problem, lots of people are blogging, but they are not sure if anyone is reading their blogs? It’s actually one of the biggest challenges facing most new bloggers, and probably reason #1, most people stop blogging. It takes time to build an audience or to see the rewards of your labor, that is why social networking and social media is such an important part of Internet Marketing. They help people connect with others. Also, if they don’t already have a lot of friends, it’s hard for them to find friends online.
So we want to not only help teach the concept of making friends, we want to help you make friends online, but without having to join just one network. We actually started working on the solution while I was writing this book in October of 2007, and today April 17th of 2008, we have about 4,770 people blogging on our system. You can check it out at Community.MyTypes.com.
Two chapters ago, we talked about adding comments to major news sites, such as WSJ, that was to build links and promoting your blogs. This is to build a community around your blogs. Here are three basic steps and action items for you to build community for your blog. The easiest and best thing for you to do is to ask your friends and professional associates to be contributors to your blogs, and Voila you have a blog community! Go ahead and ask them, if they don’t already have a blog, have them blog with you. Define a simple focus for each of you to focus on, and off you go.
1. Find blogs + blog websites similar to yours, to do this right you need to find people who are intersted in the same things as you are, find them by doing a keyword searches for your interests on Google.
2. Once you find their blog, read a few of their posts, Make sure you like what they write and you have something in common with them, than find out as much as you can about them.
3. Ask them to be a contributor to your blog? Yes this is a bold step, but you can do it. Here is an example of how: “Hi my name is John, and I read about your blog, and I like what you wrote about xx and Yy. I think you would be a valuable contributor to my blog. I have similar interests, and I specialize in writing about things in a different way, my focus is zz not xx and yy. All you have to do is contribute as often as you can, just write quick summaries of things of interests and you and I can exchange content and do cross promote? We both benefit by having more content on our blogs, and exchanging links with people of our Types”.
4. Be real, be confident, and you will build community. Just ask people and they will feel flattered and you will have a friend. Remember it just takes two to make a community. My first social networking site was Tribe.net, Friendster, MySpace, FaceBook, LinkedIn.com and YouTube.com are some of the most popular. I am a member of all of them, except one, guess which one?
No Blogger Left Behind, Part 2: Got friends?
We can talk all day about how to make friends, but getting a blogging buddy or a blog contributor is no easy task. So what do you need to do but most of you won’t do it, because you hesitate to be vulnerable? I want to tell you a secret of making friends, give people a compliment, no one hates a compliment. As soon as they acknowledge you have a friend. This is one of the best things about the site Digg.com, more on that in the next segment part 3. You are right, It’s hard work, and it’s hard because we the people don’t like rejection.
Another secret to making friends, just ask them, who do you know that isn’t looking to make friends. I think I mastered this art as a young business person, right after college as I joined as many networking events as possible. I think I learned this art from Harvey McKay, the great author from my home state of Minnesota. He actually wrote a book on business networking, you have to read. I will reference it in the back of my book, but back to our focus.
Just keep ssking people, go ahead ask as many as you want. And, you won’t be surprised when they say yes, because you know most will. You might actually be helping them too. Life is sweeter with more friends, so is a blog community, it’s more fruitful with all benefiting and contributing.
Be social, is the theme of Web 2.0. Social networks and social networking is all the new rage of the trends in internet marketing. There are two great articles written by Jacqueline our previous blogging coach, on Social Media Networks, they are in the next few pages. The first article is title, “Don’t blog in a Vaccum”, self explanatory isn’t it:-). The second is “Web 2.0 and You: Social Media Explained” and discusses and explains social networks and how you can benefit from using them. So it is all about building a community around your blogs, so go ahead and make a friend or two, definitely read the article below, and don’t be lonely fruit on the branch:-).
Don’t Blog In A Vacuum
Blogging is essentially a social, conversational medium, so it only goes to follow that you can’t successfully blog in a vacuum. You have to read and respond to other bloggers, link to outside websites, and be aware of what others in niche are talking about by participating in the popular social media networks.
Basically, you have to read at least as much as you write. First of all, reading and absorbing the work of talented writers is one of the most important things you can do when it comes to developing your own writing voice. It only goes to follow that, if you want to get the most out of your blog, you have to read other blogs as well. Besides, being aware of the current popular topics in in the blogosphere is valuable, and you’ll never know where you’ll pick up a great tip or two.
You don’t even necessarily have to read tons of blogs about blogging (although as your Blogging Coach, I would say that you should definitely keep an eye on a few meta-blogs); useful, well-written advice and positive examples can be found on blogs in any niche. It’s also important to check out blogs that discuss similar topics to yours, so you can pick up on market trends and see if anyone has written, linked to, or created anything interesting.
One of the key differences between blogging and more traditional forms of media, marketing, and public relations is that it’s a two way street. Yes, your readers can and will respond to your posts in the comments, but other bloggers can write responses on their blogs too. Reacting and sharing opinions are a key part of participating in the blogosphere, so it’s not only useful, it’s imperative that you read at least a few other blogs.
Don’t think that you have the time to read? Try subscribing to your favorites and scanning them in a reader (I personally prefer Google Reader, but there are tons of options out there), or tagging posts that intrigue you with a “to read” tag in del.icio.us and coming back them when you have time to spare.
What other blogs do you read? Do you read them for news, education, inspiration, or entertainment (or a mix of all the above?)
Web 2.0 and You: Social Media Explained
Chances are you’ve heard the terms “web 2.0″, user-generated content, and social media networks being thrown around before, and you probably have a decent idea of what they mean (if not, check out my dictionary of blog related terms). However, you may not be sure how to use the social media networks for your business - to blogcast your brand, because the blog is the center of it all.
Think of your brand/business as a solar system - your blog is the sun, and the rest of the social media sites and applications as planets orbiting around it. You may have profiles on the other networks, videos on YouTube and photos on Flickr, and use social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us and digg, but it all revolves around your blog (be sure to put links to your blog in all your profiles, but you already knew that, right?).
There are two main forms of social media that can be quite useful for bloggers - networking sites (Facebook, Myspace, Linked In) and bookmarking sites (Stumble Upon, Reddit, and my personal favorite, del.icio.us).
The networking sites are kind of self-explanatory; they are not that far removed from your actual network of friends, associates, and colleagues, except that they are virtual and you can see everyone else’s networks too. Besides the fact that it is simply convenient to have everyone’s profile info at your fingertips, these sites can also be useful when it comes to reconnecting with old colleagues and acquaintances, and for learning more about new friends. While you don’t need to maintain a presence on every social networking site on the web (you wouldn’t have time to do anything else!), it’s helpful to be involved in one or two that are popular in your business’s niche, e.g. fashion types with Iqons and anything music or entertainment related with Myspace.
Bookmarking sites are useful for bloggers in the both the promotional sense (having your content listed on the sites brings in readers) and in the personal sense - you can bookmark and tag your favorite sites and articles and access those bookmarks from anywhere, and if you work from multiple computers your bookmarks will be synched. I personally like to bookmark and tag any articles that would be good blog fodder, so bookmarking sites can help beat blogger’s block as well. Social bookmarking sites are also excellent tools because they enable you to check out what others in your niche are reading and what they thought of it. Popular forums can function in a similar fashion (be sure to put a link to your blog in your signature line!)
Last but not least, there is Technorati, the blog index that has become so much more. Technorati lets you see who has linked to your blog and how recently, what other sites they have linked to, who they have favorited, and so on. There’s also an authority ranking (how many sites have linked to a particular blog). It’s a good way to keep track of which bloggers are saying what, and how other bloggers are reacting to it.
The key idea to remember is that the social networks are a community - you have to participate, learn the mores, and in some cases, follow the rules (for example, many forums have certain codes of conduct and behavior, so check out the regulations before you jump in and post). Even if you’re a natural rebel, you have to learn the rules before you can break them. Like any other community, virtual or not, you have to learn to listen as well as speak.
No Blogger Left Behind, Part 3: The digg Effect
Hey baby, you Digg my Business? Well, that’s a bit more casual for a business blog to be news at Digg.com, and it’s appropriate in most other types of category. But, it sure makes a great tag line though, does it not? Great tag lines and great headlines make for good marketing and smart news stories. You need to get your blog posts on Digg every time you post, that is if you want to promote your blog. Why, because of the Digg effect. But be cautious as not every blog is news worthy, so save it for your best ones.
Have you heard of the Digg.com or heard of “The Digg Effect” yet? Well, if you have not heard of it or not been there yet, you should go there as soon as you finish reading this blog. Digg is not a house hold name yet, but in the tech community and among it’s rivals it stands out at at a huge success with a loyal following. It’s a ratings engine for news, videos, blogs, you name it people Digg it! Microsoft recently did a deal with Digg.com to provide advertising on the Digg network. This was the largest advertisement distribution deal by the Search Engine Marketing arm of MS, that is before the Facebook deal. We do update our content before publishing.
We actually had Digg features within our News section of blogs, so we think highly of end user rating systems and blog/news aggregators. So does Bill Gates, as recently mentioned in his futurist conversation with Donny on “The Big Idea show on CNBC” . So How does Digg work, and why is it good for your Internet Marketing? Digg.com is a great place to find active members to social network with, and make friends. They are usually very active, and an active blogging community is worth it’s weight in gold. The Digg effect is that people are getting plethora of traffic from Digg, at times enough to crash there servers.
Is Digg good for your SEO and search marketing and search rankings? It’s a great place for you to develop community around your blogs, posts, and it’s definitely a great way for you to promote your blog headlines and Digg pages do get indexes quite heavily, so yes! It is limited in what it does, it’s not your all in one social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook, but it’s better than those at making new friends.
The best part about digg is that it’s really simple, and you will get traffic, and let’s hope you get the Digg effect, as most people Digg are active.
Do marketing and motivation go hand in hand? Yes, and am I the only one that thinks that?
Jill, my wife, just bought me two books, and I bought my self an amazing marketing book that you should read too. It’s by the marketing Guru Seth Godwin, and called “The Big Moo”. The reason the book is amazing is that it is written by insights of 33 amazing people, and broken up in short articles. And, it has a lot of inspirational advice that helped me get over some emotional road blocks to writing this book. All that in a marketing book, wow how cool is that, and to get it from a marketing book, that is truly amazing.
Next, Finally I will provide the summary of the book, which will touch the subject of Hope, Faith, Desire and Inspiration, all in the recipe for Success!
