We all have email, yet our inboxes are often overloaded. RSS is great, but some are letting RSS take a back seat as they are to busy on social networks.
Where is everyone? They seem to be on Twitter and Facebook.
Twitter and Facebook are two of the fastest growing sites on the internet which makes them two of the biggest networks that your blog should be promoting its content.
The easiest way to do that is to set up your blog with its own Twitter profile and Facebook page.
One of the biggest reasons is for branding. Most people know that protecting the brand is very important. You own the domain, you have the legal rights to the name, so why don’t you have the Twitter profile and Facebook page too? The last thing you want is to try to register your brand only to find out someone has already taken it.
Another big reason is that it’s also a subscription channel. Many users are getting their updates right in Twitter or in their Facebook stream. Why wait for them to check their email or feed reader, when you can get content in front of them right away?
So how do you get it setup?
First you have to register on Twitter to obtain that username and you’ll need to set up a Facebook business page too. Both are free and easy to get started.
Once those are setup, you can easily feed your blog RSS feed into Twitter via FeedBurner, TwitterFeed or Dlvr.it.
Setting up your feed in Facebook is just as easy and I’d recommend using the RSS Graffiti application.
Once everything is set up, then you need to promote your new accounts. To do so, add Twitter & Facebook icons to your blog, corporate website, email campaigns, email signature, or whatever promotion channels you’ve got available.
As the Twitter and Facebook channels grow, there will need to be monitoring and interaction as those are ‘social’ networks after all. However there probably won’t be a lot of work right away as there won’t be many followers.
Getting Twitter and Facebook setup for your company, and claiming your username, is what’s really important here. Managing, maintaining and interacting can come over time.
Facebook and Twitter are two channels that every company should be in. If you’re not already in interacting with customers then you should at least have accounts to protect the brand and promote your content.
Facebook and Twitter accounts are quick to set up, easy to use, and can potentially reach millions of people. Why wouldn’t you join?
My blog would have a lot less traffic without my Twitter and Facebook accounts.
I use NetworkedBlogs on Facebook to auto publish my posts to my status and to the status of my various FB business pages.
Lee, the one problem I have with auto-posting from my blog to my Twitter and Facebook feeds is that I end up clubbing my best brand advocates with the same stuff multiple times. Also, I believe it depends upon the quality of the blog content, and whether it is suitable for a social network.
For example, I have yet to see an attorney’s Facebook page where they are publishing social content. I’m sure they are out there, but the majority are doing a “set it and forget it” rss feed from their “written for them” law blog that is really intended to boost their seo. This is perhaps a worst-case scenario, but I see many versions of this on Twitter and Facebook.
Interestingly, the Wall Street Journal published an article that suggest about one-third of attorneys are using Facebook and Twitter. I think they are far over-estimating, because they do not draw a distinction between automated feeds and actual involvement. Here is the WSJ article.
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2011/12/12/law-firms-and-social-media-a-match-not-yet-made-in-heaven/
Lee,
I really enjoyed your post. I am co-founder of a video marketing company in Phoenix, Arizona and have been looking for ways to streamline my social media efforts. I have begun to use HootSuite.com which allows you to manage all of your social media outlets at the same time. Although it is a tremendous tool, and $6 a month, I still have to be careful on the frequency of my posts so that they do not seem inauthentic. I will also check out the RRS Grafitti app, thank you for the heads up!