Blog Tipz

Few would have been able to predict the growth of social networking sites like Twitter. Ultimately, they helped bloggers by bridging the gap between the site, the writer/publisher behind the site, and the community, or the readers who enjoy the site. When these sites were much smaller and more rarely used, the main method of communicating with the writer of a blog was through email or by leaving a comment. Now, with the social networking factor built in, you need to market to these sites, in addition to promoting your own site.

Like increasing subscribers, you’ll want to use a natural approach to increasing the number of followers you have. For example, you won’t want to simply follow everyone and hope they follow back, as you’ll have a low “engagement rank.” In other words, relatively few people will actually read your tweets and connect to you.

While there have been hundreds of posts written about increasing subscribers, we’ll instead look at how you can use the followers you have today to grow your network into a force the “probloggers” of the web would be quite envious of.

Use Shorter, More Optimized URLs

The first step to increase your exposure on the web is to use shortened URLs that also say something about your brand. For example, Google uses goo.gl, which is a few characters shorter than their main URL, and also says something about the link. Bit.ly, the leading shortener indicates the URL is shortened, but lacks the ability to brand (at this time). It might be ideal if you can pick up a shorter URL of your domain or one that can be associated with your site. It’ll make the next steps in your social networking strategy easier.

Keep Your Message Consistent

Many bloggers have a separate Facebook or Twitter account for their personal use. For the most part, your readers shouldn’t be reading about the party you went to over the weekend. Updates like these should be kept off your “public” profiles. Additionally, your message should be as consistent as possible. If you have a stance on an issue, it shouldn’t be changed to suit the opinion of your readers – you have the opinion, and these readers look for it!

…But Be Personal

Although you can effectively manage a personal and “business” account for Twitter, it isn’t uncommon for bloggers to combine some of their personal thoughts on their business account. Doing this gives your account a more personal feel, and if your readers see this, there is a better chance they’ll feel connected to you. As a result, you’ll see a higher engagement ratio, with more retweets, comments, and responses of other formats.

Respond, Respond, and Respond Again

When your readers see the connection you are trying to achieve with your readers, there is a higher chance they’ll join in the conversation. If you are a member of Twitter or Facebook, and a reader is already interested in your blog (deciding whether they need to follow your tweets/status updates), and they see you are sharing links from other bloggers, there is also a greater chance they’ll follow you.

Another good point to keep in mind is that if there is any problems with your site (server downtime, error messages, etc.), there is a good chance your visitors will catch it faster than you. Having the ability to reach out to your readers via Twitter will ensure your downtimes are quite brief.

Develop a Niche

Many niches have already been carved out, but there are niches that still don’t have a clear leader. Having a good branding strategy will help others associate your brand with the niche. Connect all your social profiles together, and try to get the same name for each. I wouldn’t want to get a Facebook url of facebook.com/blog.tipz, as it breaks the uniformity between accounts. Make it simple for readers to find your profiles on these sites, not more difficult. It can be even more effective if you include a word related to your niche in your website name.

Persuade Your Readers to Share

Sharing is key on the social networking sites. If you are able to garner a hundred retweets of an article, there is a good chance you’ll see more than a thousand clicks through this link directly from Twitter and the other sites aggregating content from the site. With each new retweet (depending on the user), you’ll see more clicks through to your site. Persuade your readers to retweet by making the process simple, and even use a “please retweet” text with posts that you feel should do well on the site. Keep in mind that this should rarely be done, only when you feel you are adding value to your readers.

Follow the Trends

Keeping on top of news stories will help you become better informed, and your readers will realize this. There is a much greater chance that they’ll follow you if you can be one of the first to break developing stories than if you are writing discussing an even that happened last week. The Internet moves at a fast rate – a story that generated a huge response three hours ago may be overshadowed by another one just a short time later. If you’re aiming to generate more of a response on your own site, use a category and append a hashtag to your tweets for breaking stories.