Social Media for Bloggers

Social Media for Bloggers
American University
October 2, 2010
Mandy Jenkins, TBD.com

Why you want to be good at this
You can get more traffic to your site
People will make return visits
Become known as an expert in your area
You’ll get more dates*
* May not work for everyone

Overall lessons
Participation is key to social media success

Overall lessons
You can’t just send out your links

Overall lessons
It isn’t easy & it won’t happen overnight

Overall lessons
Be personable – but it isn’t JUST about you

Overall lessons
Be personable – but it isn’t JUST about you
Have some damn sense

Today’s Topics

Seriously though…
It’s better to use one or two social media tools well & often than do a crappy job at a bunch of them

Twitter
It isn’t just for telling people what you ate for breakfast anymore.

Powered by followers
They follow
You follow

Powered by followers
They follow
You follow
Made better with re-tweets

Who you should follow
Other bloggers
People in your field of interest
Local journalists and news orgs
Popular people in your local Twittersphere
Those who reply to you
Those who re-tweet, share your links

Finding who to follow
By subject/location: Twellow.com, Wefollow.com
Muckrack.com (for finding journalists)
Look at others’ follows/followers
Spy on Twitter lists
Listorious.com

Making sense of it all
Make Twitter lists to organize who you follow

Basic etiquette
Don’t use Twitterfeed alone for links
ALWAYS shorten long links
Say what the link is
Re-tweet, don’t re-write
Answer your replies
Don’t tweet like a robot

Tweeters Block?
Ask for info/feedback from followers
Re-tweet tweets you like
Tweet links you like, what you’re reading
Jump in on other conversations
It’s OK to tweet it twice for a new crowd
Think news on-the-go

On Hashtags
Hashtags are keywords that tie tweets together by subject
They’re also largely unnecessary
See if there’s a hashtag out there already by searching search.twitter.com
Don’t overdo it

Questions?

Facebook
You might want to get rid of those panty shots

Facebook Options
Use your personal account
Start a Facebook Fan Page (recommended)
** Don’t set up multiple personal accounts

Split Your Account
One account: Both personal & “business”
Create lists of friends. Group them by the kind of permissions you’ll want them to have.

Split Your Account
Set viewing permissions overall or by post

Fan Pages R Cool
Separate from personal account
Customizable
You can get insights on your fans
Use it to manage events, photos, etc.
An extension of the blog

Set up a Fan Page
Set up your page as an organization/website.
Apps you might want to try out:
FMBL – make new textboxes
Selective Tweets
RSS

Other ways to use FB
Add a Like button, other features to your site
At http://developers.facebook.com/plugins
Share your posts on Facebook, encourage readers to do the same with sharing tools.
ShareThis is an easy button to add

Questions?

Location-Based Tools
It’s more than mayorships, people

Foursquare For Blogs
Tips matter more than check-ins
Share your expertise on a venue
Link back to your site when you can

Add Insider Tips
Food blogs: Where to sit, what to order, etc.
Neighborhoods: Hidden features, history of the place
Put something useful in here
Add a link to your post about this venue

On Your Blog
Embed your tips in a post for people to add to their to-do lists on Foursquare.

On Your Blog
Link to your Foursquare account and tips

On Your Blog
Map check-ins
Check out weeplaces.com
Or build your own at Google Maps with your feed at foursquare.com/feeds

Gowalla Trips
Create a list of places to visit that shows your expertise
Link to your trip from the blog
Shout out in a post to those who complete it

Questions?

Online Communities
Caution: This stuff ain’t easy

Overview
Digg: Shared links, voting up and down, comments and “diggs”

Overview
Reddit: Shared links, comments

Overview
StumbleUpon – shared links via”stumbling”

Overview
StumbleUpon – shared links via”stumbling”
Fark.com– Shared links and community –only for funny stuff

Be a Participant, not a Spammer
Don’t just share links to your own stuff
Vote on other entries
Comment on what interests you

But…But…No, Seriously
Add buttons to your site to encourage readers to share your links
Use toolbars and browser add-ons to make this easier

For dining bloggers
UrbanSpoon is a great site for dining bloggers
Embed their tag into your blog post and it’ll link your review
Custom blog pages & embed tools

Blogger’s Toolbox
Social media tools that do some of the work for you.

Bookmarking
Show your expertise with curated links based in your topic area
Subscribe to others you find interesting
Examples: Delicious, Publish2

Bookmarking
Bonus! Use a bookmarking site like to organize & embed your shared link roundups.

Photo Services
Upload your photos online with proper tagging to have them grouped by subject
Start or join a group for photos of your topic area or city
Pull in a tag for photos to certain posts
Examples: Picasa, Flickr, Photobucket

Photo Services
Pull photos by tag into your blog via slideshow widgets.
Do this with your photos, reader photos or public photos on your topic
Create a map of your photos

YouTube
Store your videos here – they take up lots of space on your server.
Share your videos with the world, you never know when it’ll go viral.
Find other videos to use in your posts via embed code.

TwtApp Tools
Create free polls, surveys, invites
Powered by Twitter, though not required
Easily shared, retweeted
Embeddable

Network On and Offline
Consider hosting meetups for readers.
Attend meetups in your city
Use Meetup.com or Facebook to help.
Comment on other blogs as your blog rep and interlink with them.

Questions?
Seriously. We’re almost done.

Social Media Search
You’ll never want to share again.

Search.Twitter.Com
Search by keywords, location, time
All public tweets
Also can be done in desktop, mobile apps

Ideas
Find photos: Searchtwitpic OR yfrog OR flickr OR tweetphoto OR plixi (plus a location or keyword)
Find a person at a location: Search for the name of the location and 4sq OR gowal.la
Find news: Search fire OR crash near:"Washington DC" within:15mi

Trending Topics
Your home page on Twitter.com will show you what’s trending right now.
See trends on a map at Trendsmap.com
Check out local trends w/context at trendsmap.com/local/us/washington
See other trends at TrendsBuzz

Mapped Tweets/Check-ins
Check out Bing’sTwitter and Foursquare maps to see searchable tweets and check-ins
For a new map, go to bing.com/maps/explore and select the map app you want
See mapped tips at fourwhere.com

Search Facebook
Search FB statuses
openfacebooksearch.com/
youropenbook.org/

Final questions?

This info and more available atzombiejournalism.com/resources/
Yes, I’m plugging my blog, deal.

Mandy Jenkins
Twitter: @mjenkinsand @TBD
Email: mjenkins@tbd.com
ZombieJournalism.com

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Social Media for Bloggers

by Mandy Jenkins on Oct 01, 2010

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Social Media for Bloggers — Presentation Transcript