How to use Facebook to Promote your Blog
(source: Facebook.com)
Yesterday, I wrote about privacy concerns in which Facebook will be opening up user profiles to search engines such as Google. Many people are choosing to limit their public profiles, and understandably so. However, if you are using Facebook as a marketing tool to promote your blog, I’ve compiled some tips on how to best take advantage of this highly visible and growing service:
Go with what (or who) you know. Chances are, you know many people that have Facebook accounts already. Whether they are close friends, acquaintances, old business contacts, or college buddies, all of them will now see your blog. Can’t find them all by name? Married (name change) since you last spoke to them? No problem. You can find friends just by logging in to any number of different email accounts you have (i.e. Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, etc). You can also add friends through AOL Instant Messenger, or by importing your desktop email contact file.
Make your blog more visible on your profile. Sure, you can start by adding your blog site to your profile. This only gets your friends in the door, and calls no attention to your individual posts. The true power of Facebook is the number of great 3rd party apps that go on the Facebook platform. A very good 3rd party app to get your individual blog posts right on to your profile is Blog Friends written by I-Together. You can even add in your friend’s blogs as well as friends of friends:
Facebook Groups. As a similar concept to MyBlogLog groups, you have the ability to create Facebook groups. One more piece of promotion in your marketing arsenal.
RSS Feeds. Not only can you put on a link to your blog and individual blog posts, but you also have RSS feeds right from your Facebook profile as well.
Yes, some are saying that Facebook really messed up by opening up to search. Search is what many regard as killing the Myspace community (many jumping ship into Facebook, as alluded to by Compete) with a natural progression:
search indexable -> SEO -> spammers and other vagrants
Still, it doesn’t have to be that way. If Facebook is smart, they will focus on keeping spam off. Wordpress can do it with Akismet, so why can’t Facebook?
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Excellent Post,Looking forward for more…
@rony: thanks! Glad you liked it.
I’m new to Facebook as of yesterday, so I appreciated your posts about the topic. Thanks.
@juditt: glad to hear! It’s an interesting way to promote one’s blog – hope the tips helped you.
I’m still a little new to Facebook so I don’t quite get it all yet. But in my case my blog is a personal blog under my own name so I dont see how I would get any benefit from Facebook openening up search because people would only find me by searching for me, and if they searched for me then chances are they read my blog already!
@caroline: thanks for commenting. The tips that I wrote on this post mainly apply to those that choose to use Facebook to as a marketing tool to promote their blog. It sounds like if you have a personal blog, you may wish to keep it private.
Facebook can be a useful tool for those wishing to increase exposure to their own blogs. Interesting post, but I’m quite happy with the traffic I get and people find me quite easily due to the nature of my blog.
I’m sure many will find this post of great use to them though.
@colin: if you’re happy with your current traffic, then by all means – stick with your plan. Thanks for commenting.
Interest post, I just wonder with if this is going to make facebook go the way of myspace and Squidoo and become nothing but a spamfest..
@mark: thanks. Facebook may very well flounder in spam, but I have to imagine that they are already thinking about this if they are going to open up to search. My final point in the post talks about Wordpress using Akismet for blogging – can’t Facebook just do something similar?
Good tips. I could some of these
Great post! I do a lot of this already; I just need more friends on facebook to help drive up my traffic from it!
good article, I reposted it on http://FacebookEconomy.com, along with a review.
Thanks for this. I’m trying to use myspace for the same thing… it’s hard to start networking – but you have to begin somewhere
I think this is only usefull for a few blogs, i think it despends on the topic.
Good post, although other than marketing to people you already know, most people who get a friend request from a total stranger will ignore it. (I sure would)
@aaron: thank you – best of luck to you.
@mark: thank you for the review!
@sami: yes, networking is not an overnight thing. It takes time and effort, and is certainly not a get rich quick scheme.
@nicolas: I know what you mean – the focus of the blog might not fly with the general Facebook community. Still, the Facebook crowd is very large, and growing in diversity ever since opening up to user registration only needing an email address. Surely, you will still find some groups (or, start your own) that may be interested in your topic.
@wordhugger: yes – I’m certainly not suggesting that you friend people that you don’t know at all.
Great post. I’ll implement that into my promotion efforts
Thanks for the mention of Blog Friends. It’s a really great way of not only getting new readers onto your blog, but also for bloggers to discover new content.
We’re really happy with how fast the app’s been growing and are looking forward to our big release of v1.0 soon. If you have any thoughts about the app, feel free to join the Blof Friends forum on facebook.
Jof Arnold – Blog Friends
@trabalho: thanks, glad to hear.
@jof: this is the kind of thing that I really like to see. When developers of products reach out to bloggers posting about them, it shows a level of keen interest that makes the project more human. Looking forward to seeing the v1.0 release of Blog Friends – keep up the good work!
Nice tips. Hope they help me!
Just what I was looking for. Thanks for this great post
What an excellent and timely topic for a blog. As much as I look at the social sites, I realize that there is a lot to figure out regarding leveraging, safety, and just making the experience valuable in as many ways as possible. Even their Search functions seem confusing, as do very basic things like making the most of groups, the right way to start a group and publicize it … I could go on and on. If you’re ever in need of a topic, just ask me! I have about a million questions and not the time to delving into finding the best solution.
Much as I enjoyed your article above, I wish you had gone into more detail.
Thank you for the time your blog is going to save me!
christine’s last blog post..EMPOWERED ATTRACTION IS GETTING A MAKEOVER
@Christine: thanks, glad you liked it. I posted this back in September, so perhaps it’s time to revisit ways to promote your blog via Facebook.
*gears turning*
Thanks, Brian, for the Facebook tips. I just added my blog there. I only have 10 or 11 friends there, but I hope to see some increased traffic nonetheless.
~ Paul
Hey – great article. I’ll be following you on Twitter. That was my main concern with Facebook – if I just import my entire blog onto facebook then no one will visit the website anymore. I was trying to figure out a way just to import a title and snippet with a link to the entry.
I’ll definitely look into those 3rd party apps on facebook. Thanks!
Lynda Jaos last blog post..The Best Thing Since Charge Cards: The Lazy Man’s Financial Advisor
Hi,
I am new in facebook. And I hope facebook can help me get more traffic to my blog.
Thanks to your posting. It is very helpful to me.
Hi Brian
Good post, but can you please give further details how RSS and facebook can be used together to promote my Blog.
I am not very facebook friendly, just the basics, and havent ever used RSS Feeds.
thanks.
By the way Brian, I like the way you give responses to all the queries asked. Very few people do that actually. Great
Great post! I use facebook, but didn’t really think too much about promoting my blog there. I guess it’s time I did. Thanks a lot!
Thanks for the tips Brian.
Thanks for the tips Brian.. I used some other applications on facebook to promote my blog post. Buts its hard to find people with common interest on facebook. Thanks again for the tips.
Hi,
Blog promotion is indeed most important topic in internet marketing.
Thanks nice review..what I generally use most to promote is my blog is article writing,social bookmarking and forums.
Getting more backlinks means you will get better ranking in google.
http://webmasterdailytips.com/2009/10/how-to-promote-your-blog/