Why you should work across multiple social networking sites
There’s an absolute plethora of social networking websites out there now. They come in many different shapes and sizes, abilities, disabilities, problems, solutions, and cover pretty well every subject under the sun.
But which ones should I join up to?
That’s a reasonably easy question to answer. All of them! Well maybe not every single social networking site that rears its head on Mashable, but you should get yourself signed up on all the sites that are specific to your interests and / or blogging topics.
For example, I blog about photography, video, product reviews, cooking, social networking and a few other random things so I’m on social networking sites like Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, YouTube, Vimeo, Blip.TV, Flickr, Last.FM, Facebook, Myspace, Virb, Friend Feed, LinkedIn and errmm I’m probably forgetting some but those are the core sites that I post to, stream to, link to, republish to and whatever else to.
Going through the above list there’s quite a number of overlaps, eg. Digg vs. StumbleUpon, YouTube vs. Vimeo vs. BlipTV, and Facebook vs. Myspace vs. Virb.
So why all the overlaps?
Everybody is different and well different people are on different websites for different reasons, eg. I really like the way BlipTV handles the videos I post and that I just have a simple block of code for my channel and whenever I publish a new video to BlipTV it automatically hits the front page of my blog, however I know more people use YouTube and Vimeo so to still bring solid traffic in from those sites I also publish the video there.
Another example would be the Facebook vs. Myspace vs. Virb network, all of them have very different user demographics so to actually get the most value out of the potential traffic you get involved with all of them.
Of course being involved in so many different websites can be very time consuming keeping people updated with your blogging and what not, not to mention quite a big distraction. Which is where websites like Friend Feed popup which basically allows you to network the updates from all your endeavors onto a single page. You can also subscribe / friend other people so you can easily keep up with the goings on in their worlds.
Aside from Friend Feed you’ve also got plenty of different browser plugins for Firefox, and even better is the browser that’s built to handle pretty well all of these websites Flock. Flock allows you to enter all of your different usernames and passwords into some handy forms and from there whenever you and your friends update one of your social accounts you get the update in Flock.
And lastly, for those not wanting to further slow Firefox down with plugins, or who don’t like the look of Flock, most of these social networking websites have many different RSS feed options that you can subscribe to in your reader of choice.
Pretty well everyday a new social networking website pops up, and every second day another one disappears. Choose wisely, stick to the core ones that have been around for a while, but also don’t be afraid to jump onto one of the new ones if it feels like it might last.
Anyway, if you’re on one of the previously mentioned websites and we’re not friends, go and friend me now!
Catch you around the web somewhere.
The Best of The Week [TWBOTW]
In a week where my RSS subscriptions have been dominated by news and commentary from SXSW I figured this was going to be a difficult TBOTW to put together, in actual fact it’s been very easy as there is still some fantastic content being produced by the ’smaller’ name blogs while all the big guys are at SXSW.
So here’s this weeks The Best of The Week!
11 Must Have Firefox Extensions by Shoemoney - as a Firefox user I’m always looking out for good extensions that will speed up my workflow, there’s a couple of ‘must haves’ in this list.
and why not follow that up with another software one, and I know there’s a fair number of Mac users reading this blog last time I checked Google Analytics
5 Amazing Mac Apps for Getting Things Done by Zen Habits - The ideal for anyone interested in Getting Things Done (more on GTD, and more)– or just being productive and organized, for that matter — is to be able to quickly add things to your to-do lists without interrupting your work; to be able to see what you need to do right now, without worrying about everything else; to be able to organize stuff without too much work.
The Blog Entrepreneur brought us this interesting article on Why Most Bloggers Will Never Succeed at Blogging - You don’t have to spend very much time surfing the blogosphere to deduce that a number of blogs get started and are posted on for a week or two, maybe even a few months, but then go dormant. Another bit of evidence is the sheer number of domains that are available for auction via GoDaddy or the various forums.
Seopher had some interesting things to say in his article on How to get success by authoring multiple blogs that I found pretty interesting as someone who is getting into authoring multiple blogs (I’m With The Band, Medical News Stat!, A Business is Born, Fat Stacks of Cash).
and on the topic of search engine marketing (SEO) Stoney over at Search Engine Guide gave us some insight that I think a lot of people would find useful in his article titled Sometimes Fixing a Site Means Breaking It First
and still on the topic of SEO check out the article on Daily Blog Tips with the tip on how you can Check How Search Engines See Your Website which you should bookmark as a valuable resource any time you do any changes to your website’s SEO! was quietly suprised on how this website shows up.
Last but not least check out Chris G’s Free eBook on Personal Branding written by Ted Demopoulos, why go out and pay a bunch of bucks for quality information you can get for nix, and it is quality information.
Anyway, those are some of the best articles to hit my RSS Reader this week. Hopefully there’s something amongst this lot which will help you out in the future, be sure to Digg and / or Stumble it for future reference, maybe even Subscribe to my RSS feed so that you get this delivered to you each week.
Till next week, Matt
The Best of the Week [TBOTW]
In what I hope to make a regular segment here at Mathew Packer dot com, here’s the first installment in ‘The Best of the Week’.
The Best of the Week will basically be a number of articles from all the RSS feeds I subscribe to that I think you guys should check out. There might be a few articles that you’ve already read from RSS feeds you already subscribe to, but there might also be a few that you haven’t read.
I encourage you to check out these articles, and let me know what you think. And if you think that you’ve got some websites that you think I should check out, by all means leave me a comment with the url.
On to the list!
The 3 Ways to Write a Blog by www.chrisg.com - When you create a blog there are three ways you can approach your subject matter. Which approach you choose will have a big impact on how fast you grow awareness and audience, plus will be decisive in how easy you find the actual writing. Read More…
Three Great Resources That Wont Cost You a Dime by www.copyblogger.com - Everyone loves free stuff, right? Here are three quality things that will make your weekend better, and you won’t even have to open your wallet. Read More…
The Newbie Guide to Blogging by www.lifehack.org - We live in a blogging world. Whether you’re a business startup, an established business, a freelancer, an intern, a musician, or anyone else, blogging can help you. Read More…
The Myth of the Perfect Post by www.onblogging.com.au - It is generally accepted that one pillar post is better than a hundred annoying one-liners. I’m wondering if it is possible or even desirable to go beyond the pillar post and aim for absolute perfection. Read More…
The Ultimate Guide To Networking With Bloggers by www.problogger.net - Networking online and in person are like twins with different personalities. You’re ultimately trying to do the same thing, which is build a connection and form a relationship. At the same time your using different tools and executing different strategies. Read More…
and last but not least
10 Tips for Getting Started as a Freelancer by www.writetodone.com - Freelance writing is a wonderful profession — combine the thrill of writing with the freedom of working on your own schedule, and it’s almost a can’t-miss combo. I did it for many years (just stopped in the last couple months) and it was an ideal second job for me. Read More…
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