Promoting your blog using social networking.

A social networking site is an online place where a user can create a profile and build a personal network that connects him or her to other users. In the past five years, such sites have rocketed from a niche activity into a phenomenon that engages tens of millions of internet users. More than half (55%) of all online American youths ages 12-17 use online social networking sites, according to a new national survey of teenagers conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The survey also finds that older teens, particularly girls, are more likely to use these sites. For girls, social networking sites are primarily places to reinforce pre-existing friendships; for boys, the networks also provide opportunities for flirting and making new friends.


Promoting your blog using social networking.Published by Bakkouz November 26th, 2007 in Internet
What is a social / bookmark network?It’s an online community where you can share your stories or bookmarks with others. Take digg for example. You submit your blog story to the network, allowing other members to vote and comment on it. More popular stories that receive a certain number of votes get promoted to the front page. Most social networks are different. Some even allow you to export a large number of bookmarks straight from your browser. Sometimes you come up with a great blog story. You know it will drive you a lot of traffic but you have a problem. not many people know about your great blog post. In order to get maximum attention you need to spread the word around. This is where the social / bookmark networks come in handy.
Why social networks?· Social networks get a lot of traffic due to their nature. Users often return to read the latest stories and share their own.· Readers are usually only one click away from your blog. A popular submission can bring you thousands of daily visitors.· Most social networks are free and take seconds to register and submit your first entry.· There is a remarkable number of other websites that use feeds from various social networks. A good story can spread across the networks like wild fire.· If your story will not get to the front page you can always submit another one. In most cases there is no limit on the amount of stories you can submit.· Most social networks are search engine friendly. Not only your story will be picked up by major search engines in no time, in most cases you will also get a reciprocal link. Some social networks have very good google page rank (PR)
Tips and tricks:· An interesting, catchy story is often a must. Your main target is to get promoted to the front page by getting enough votes. You need to convince other readers to vote for your story. Strange, shocking and controversial stories often do well.· You can always ask your friends to join and vote for you in order to get more votes. Don’t create fake accounts because you will simply get banned.· The more stories you submit the better. If you want a steady flow of traffic you will need a steady flow of submissions, However you need to keep in mind the quality of the stories you submit, low quality stories will most probably get you nowhere.. Also make sure to include a link to your website in your profile, people tend to often seek out the information on other users.. Try to interact with the community of the social network you are using, voting and commenting on other people’s stories will build up your rep within the community.
There are a lot of various social networks around you can use, most notably: del.icio.us, Digg, Fark, Reddit and StumbleUpon.
Just enjoy your experience. its certainly more interesting compared to other methods of blog promotion, such as link development, but remember that a sudden surge in traffic to your blog isn’t always a good thing, so make sure that your blog is prepared for it