Using Social Media Tools, or Platforms, to promote your Blog
Especially as it pertains to small business, there are two elements in social media; the “social “ and the “media” – the social part are the connections you make, the relationships you build, the community you are part of, your contribution and value you bring to that community. The media part of the equation are the platforms; today the big four are Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn and of course your blog. That’s what’s hot right now, but it’s just the current technology. Five years ago Facebook was for college students, YouTube was for cute kitten videos and Twitter wasn’t even imagined. Five years from now, who knows?
One thing is for certain; you don’t own anything in Social Media. Facebook? Twitter? LinkedIn? YouTube? You don’t own that space, in fact you don’t even rent it. You’ve got to create a home base for what you’re doing, something you have complete control over – your blog or website – this is where you put your primary focus.
Your Blog is yours, around that are outposts, or social media platforms where you maintain a presence, engage with people, create value for others by offering what you do, all the while remembering that you do not control the platforms; twitter can shut off your account for a terms of service violation, facebook can do the same and you really have little or no recourse – you engage people, meet people, in the out posts – but ultimately you must connect with them where you live, where your base is – either on your blog or through your email list, or both.
Use the outposts to build the brand, building the community, increasing reader engagement – the activities done in the outposts reinforce what you do on your home base, on your blog. the outposts, the social media platforms will shift and change, the flavors will change and if your thousand twitter followers migrate off to the next new thing, you have lost that relationship unless you have connected at your base, unless you have engaged them to the point where they are subscribed to your RSS feed or email list.
Since you are going to be putting in real effort to social media, make sure you reap real rewards for years to come by building a real connection on your terms on your turf.
For small business seeking to grow with social media marketing, the “Social” part of social media comes first.
Author : Mike Wolpert
Learn how to use social media to market your business : https://socialjumpstart.com/free-video-series
