Getting Focused on Social Media
Social bookmarking, social media, social networking, microblogging, lifestreaming… everywhere you look the blogosphere is telling you that you have to get out there and soak it all up. But indeed this can be an overwhelming task and maybe even more so if you have limited time!
Really, who can keep up with all of this? And maybe even more so when there are so many social media websites attempting to capture and keep your attention and focus?
In my post, Discover Niche Social Networking, I talked about how to find social networking sites that tailor to niche blog. Today, we’ll expand on that idea by addressing how to keep your focus when you have found your niche social networking websites.
Limit Yourself
While being signed up with every social networking site out there is great, you don’t actually have to use them all. In fact, building a profile and not using a site for networking is quite fine. Registering just for the sake of keeping your brand is also a good idea.
The key though is that you don’t have to use them all. While browsing the blogosphere you may start to find that many bloggers target just a few social networking sites by giving you options to submit their blog post or network with them on a specific site. See what other bloggers in your niche are using by browsing their blogs and ensure that you spend time focusing on these sites. You’ll be able to network with your niche peers on these sites and chances are, they have found them to be effective within the niche.
With microblogging, there are too many to choose from: Twitter, Plurk, Pownce, Jaiku, just name the more popular choices. What do you have to say multiple times per day on these services that wouldn’t be a repeat of what you just said somewhere else? Targeting all of these sites for traffic and microblogging is an incredible waste of time. Chances are you’re going to just be networking with the same people at all these sites anyway.
Understand Tags
One of the biggest keys for success within social bookmarking is to ensure that you’re properly tagging posts. When a post is miss tagged it’ll often cause the blogger to not reach traffic levels they could have if it had been tagged right. If you’re the first one to submit a post to a site do you want your name associated with a wrong tag for that blogger? Chances are they might think you wouldn’t be a good target to network with.
The point here is that whatever you choose to do with social media you should fully understand. Not only because it’ll benefit you in the long run but others as well which makes you someone more fun and interesting to network with. The more people that choose to network with you the greater exposure that you’ll have.
Seek Friends
If you have half as many feeds in your readers as I do, you’ve got no shortage of a 100 or more bloggers you can spend time networking with. Spend time networking with the people who you can relate to based on what THEY have, not you. You’ll get yourself noticed more if you are focused on what will work for someone else. And while this can be a trial and error process, consider that the more attention you draw to yourself as someone being helpful the more others will want to reciprocate.
When it comes to sites like StumbleUpon that limits the amount of “friends” you can have, choose wisely. You’ll want people who submit content you actually enjoy and who will add you as a friend in return. While being a fan of a few of the popular bloggers is great you’ll want to spend more time consuming yourself with those who are also interested in you and haven’t exceeded the number of friends that they can have.
Explore the New
With a new slew of social media sites opening every day, make sure you take the time to check out all the latest. Give them some of your time for full evaluation of their site and how they increase in popularity. This applies to any social media site. Once you have decided where you stand with any site, jump in and go all the way or pull out and leave it be. You may come back, you may not but don’t waste time on something that isn’t captivating or working for you.
Use What Works
Big time bottom line… if you’re investing time in a site that isn’t doing anything for you or you just don’t enjoy, ditch it! Don’t waste your time with sites that simply won’t help you grow in any way.
Your Method
What are you doing to focus on productive time spent with social media sites? Have you taken the time to discover what works in your niche and who to network with?
| 2.5 |
July 5th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Hi Katy!
I find that devoting a day to soaking up all that each social media site has to offer is a good way to go. That way I don’t miss any benefits that site offers, or alternately, I may learn that it is really not for me.
I read about StumbleUpon first on your blog and now am a total fan of it. I review sites that I feel relate to my niche, as well as sites that help me learn more to service my niche. It is amazing how StumbleUpon really does learn your preferences over time.
So that is one of my faves, along with Twitter. Only recently, I am starting to gain followers amongst prospective Virtual Assistant clients, but only because I reached out to help them, based on a twitter that they made.
Ping.fm is wonderful for cross posting as is Friend Feed. I would say these are my top 4 favorites.
July 6th, 2008 at 6:33 am
I’m new in social media. I’m using spicypage.com and I agree it was time consuming as I’m only a part-time blogger.
July 6th, 2008 at 9:50 am
[...] Getting Focused on Social Media - I’m Blogging That [...]
July 7th, 2008 at 1:05 am
This subject is my big blogging downfall - I just don’t seem to have the time to find out what all these sites do, let alone actually use them. have you got any posts on better time management skills - I need all the help I can get!
July 7th, 2008 at 5:16 am
I also agree it is very time consuming and I have found little results. I mean traffic does go up but you have to constantly be using the social sites to have any real results.
July 7th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Get out of my head! :-) I’m just the type to hear of a site, sign up on the spot and think I’ll get back to it later, fill in my profile and so forth…but never do.
I was just thinking this weekend that I need to take a day (or month) and do nothing but go through ALL the sites I belong to and fully complete profiles.
Then take a day or so each, in between other things, and go through each individually and really see which ones I want to really participate in.
Like you said, even if I don’t participate a lot in some, at least my files will be FULLY completed :-)
Great post as always!
Quick question - to stumble a post, I just click the “I like it!” button, right?
July 7th, 2008 at 10:12 am
“Chances are you’re going to just be networking with the same people at all these sites anyway.”
Sorry for the double post, but I wanted to add that I personally noticed this big time with MyBlogLog and BlogCatalog within mere days of joining….it seems kinda silly to me.
July 7th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
@Taryn: I’m impressed that you can devote an entire day to social networking. I much prefer to have many tasks during my day but I need the change of pace to keep me going. Good on you for finding something that works and sticking with it.
With StumbleUpon, considering “stumbling” everything you see as useful and well written, not just within your niche. You may be limiting yourself by staying in your niche which won’t help you locate fans that blog on other topics or network with those who could use your services but are not interested in the posts related to the service. Just a thought.
@Halim: Limit yourself to what works but remember not to put all of your eggs into one basket. Better to have a small handful of sites that get the networking job done than just one that only does a third of what a combination could do. Good luck!
@monkey suit: Agreed, you do have to use social sites constantly. But once you build up authority on sites and create a devoted community around your blog, they’ll start doing the work for you and you’ll reap the rewards. Spend the time now so that your load is lighter the longer you’ve been blogging.
@Dennis: Ah! I used to have the same problem. Now instead I bookmark the site without signing up and go back to it later when I have to signup, complete a profile, and browse users. If I don’t have time for it all, I don’t do it.
Regarding Stumble, yes “I like it” next to the thumbs up is a Stumble for the page.
July 8th, 2008 at 6:07 am
Bookmark it LOL That’s a good one! I already have to set aside a week or so to delete all the bookmarks I’ve collected :-)
OK then, stumbled! Yesterday actually, just didn’t know if I did it right ;)