Written on February 22nd, 2008 at 05:02 am by Darren Rowse
4 Social Media Marketing Tips for Bloggers
My good friend Aaron Brazell from Technosailor asked me if I’d record a short video for a presentation he was giving on the topic of Social Media. He asked me to speak about marketing with Social Media sites. I thought I’d publish the video here also.
To summarize – I share 4 simple tips on marketing your blog with social media sites.
- Be an Active Participant
- Have a Consistent Presence on Different Social Media Sites
- Add Value to the Wider Community
- Let Others Sell You
94 Responses to “4 Social Media Marketing Tips for Bloggers” - Add Yours
Cookiemouse
February 22nd, 2008 5:45 am
Do you prefer any particular site? I get a lot of traffic from Flickr, and also have the feeling that when I understand it better, that StumbleUpon will be right for my niche (healthy food) and I still don’t know about Facebook. Your point about a consistent brand across different platforms is a very good one. When I think of what I owe a little Amsterdam mouse!
Tom Beaton
February 22nd, 2008 5:57 am
I must say you have got some great points. Social media is a fascinating concept and something I am only just getting the hang off.
JoLynn Braley
February 22nd, 2008 7:23 am
Hi Darren, I like your point of being consistent in your profiles. I’ve thought of that with the avatar but I like the detail of keeping your message consistent.
Breaking Down Blog Posts
February 22nd, 2008 8:56 am
I especially like your point about adding value to the overall community. If one does this, the chances of others selling you are very high.
Warren of Zen Problog
February 22nd, 2008 8:57 am
Great tips. I owe a lot of my success to social media; especially StumbleUpon.
BloggingForBillions.com
February 22nd, 2008 9:17 am
Incredible post…but I would like to encourage you to not be so rough on your mugg because it is not ugly. Besides, ugly is a negative term. Use the word beautiful instead. It has more power in it and still will get a laugh. I know you are a humble person or you would not be as successful as you are.
Great video post!….I love what you said about promoting others on your site. That philosophy is one that is shared by many successful people throughout the ages and it will surely propell Problogger to greater heights.
Thanks big “D” and keep up the awesome job!
Rob West
Lin Burress
February 22nd, 2008 9:20 am
Excellent points regarding consistency and personal branding with gravatars and images Darren.
I agree wholeheartedly in your comments regarding allowing others to “talk you up”, as opposed to doing what may appear as bragging about ourselves on Twitter or any other social networking site.
It’s truly about building relationships with other bloggers, and getting to know one another on a more personal basis.
Shannon Lilly
February 22nd, 2008 9:20 am
Excellent tips Darren, Social marketing is a great way to get a site going and your tips are helpful!
Joanne
February 22nd, 2008 10:26 am
Thanks for that Darren. I enjoyed it.
Gerard
February 22nd, 2008 11:13 am
Good attitude on promoting other people, Darren. I find that one key problem in the ProBlogger space is that people go all out to promote themselves instead of building relationships and promoting other prople.
I’m sure it’s all about Karma when you scrape the complexity away. Good vid by the way, I wish I had the balls to to vlogging.
Black Zedd
February 22nd, 2008 1:06 pm
So short? We’ll wait for the video then:)
Yesterday I stumbled a blogger that writes everyday and then she decided to reduce the frequency and participate in other community more.
Time is of the essence. Participation is just as time-consuming as writing post. But as worthwhile of course..
Willwindow
February 22nd, 2008 1:41 pm
Great tips! I especially appreciated your points about being a valuable member of the social media sites and promoting others, instead of always promoting yourself. Those seem like great ways to build credibility.
Ai Ling ONG
February 22nd, 2008 4:51 pm
Hi Darren,
Thanks for that video.
Short and Sweet.
Straight to the point.
Personally, I have been overwhelmed by the different social networking sites.
Anyone particular ones to recommend for an Internet Marketing Newbie?
MRDPE
February 22nd, 2008 4:56 pm
Great tips for driving traffic to your site.
Matt @ Kurb
February 22nd, 2008 6:29 pm
I work on digital coaching for musicians and I totally agree with adding value and participating in the community in a way that you’re seen to be giving and not taking, leeching from your network trying to flog off your album or whatever . . . you’re just as annoying as the next band with a bot.
Lex G
February 22nd, 2008 7:26 pm
Good summary of what social media can do for you, good to emphasize that there’s more to it than meets the eye as well … shall I thumb it ? ;)
Steve
February 22nd, 2008 7:47 pm
It takes a lot to be effective on these sites. Good tips. Here’s hoping they work for the people that matter.
Also, wanted to let you know about a newsreader out there that exists that bases it’s content on what the user actually WANTS to see. It’s called ‘Sprout’. Very intuitive, quickly learns what you like to read and what doesn’t interest you. There’s a free trial on now. You can find it here: http://www.yoursprout.ca.
Welcome to Paradise
February 23rd, 2008 2:20 am
These tips are quite good. Social Media is a new and fascinating concept and taking the web by storm too.
uner
February 23rd, 2008 3:09 am
thanks for the tips.. i never a good social-media-sites player, all i did was just open an account and leave it there.
Pua
February 23rd, 2008 4:40 am
Thanks for reminding us, Darren!
I am so well aware of the importance for the success of my blog but just can’t seem to find the time to ‘digg’, to ’stumble’ and do all these things.
I have actually no clue how you guys handle all those social media accounts with building communities, contacts & friends etc. and still write quality content on your blog and maintain websites as I do?!
I would at least need 1 or 2 people to help out but who wants to work for fame, which is not guaranteed to come???
Aloha, Pua
p.s.
BTW: Guest posters wanted for ‘Hawaii vacation’ articles w/link to your blog and short bio!!!
fynyx
February 23rd, 2008 6:11 am
Dear Darren,
This is my first reply here.
Thank you particularly for Tip 4, which being unexpected and contrarian, is a refreshing surprise.
I like it very much, because I have always been uncomfortable with hard-sell.
–
To -Pua- (February 23rd, 2008 4:40 am), who replied just before me, may I suggest:
One step at a time.
Long ago, I started with email.
Next I took halting baby steps surfing the Web.
Then just a while back, I tried out instant messaging (using what is called Windows Live now).
Recently I got onto Facebook.
And now I’m rediscovering the joy of blog comments.
All the best to everyone, with social media!
Michelle Greer
February 23rd, 2008 7:38 am
What’s weird is when you pursue social marketing for your job and then in your personal life too. I promote both a software company and a local tech community site, and I often have to decide which email address I want to use and link to. You can’t really maintain a “work” identity and a “play” identity. Since everything is documented and searchable, having more than one persona becomes impossible.
Orfej
February 23rd, 2008 8:24 am
Let Others Sell You sound as good social media marketing tip but how ?
Sir Blogalot
February 23rd, 2008 3:13 pm
Hey Darren,
Recently found you thanks to the Tall Skinny Kiwi. Been enjoying your stuff and learning much on my way from amateur blogger to professional web publisher. Thanks for your great quality stuff here. I bow to the master!
Emelec
February 23rd, 2008 8:16 pm
Thank you so much Darren
I read your article here in Guayaquil, Ecuador
in my country the most popular social website is hi5
myspace is slowly becoming popular
but we get a lot of traffic mainly from hi5
we will do as you say buddy
Sybian Portal
February 23rd, 2008 9:22 pm
Always pleasure to see if someone is promoting people without any condition.
pinoy money talk
February 24th, 2008 7:40 am
Thank you so much for the tips. I’m always learning a lot from this website. Keep it up :)
I have subscribed to your RSS feeds so that I’ll be always updated about the your latest tips here at problogger.net ^_^
radiohode
February 24th, 2008 12:45 pm
This is still very much game theory, isn’t it? There are only so many readers around. And so many minutes avaliable for reading blogs?
ITrush
February 24th, 2008 1:49 pm
#4 is very important. Thanks for sharing some tips on how to market our blog to social media sites.
nhick
http://www.itrush.com
thailand adviser
February 25th, 2008 1:24 am
Well, i’m being doing just some of social marketing, butthe presentation on your video is really great.
Motti
February 25th, 2008 6:18 am
Social media is the new to promote your site.
You take the traffic the you already have straight to your website.
Loved the tips especially number #4.
fynyx
February 25th, 2008 6:24 am
In reaction to -radiohode- (February 24th, 2008 12:45 pm):
Finite audiences: that is true of any media these days, isn’t it?
Yet enough attention gets through for some, who may then eventually prosper.
And it’s not always the giants who get all the traffic.
Otherwise by now, only a few monopolies would remain.
Hope is a powerful thing.
Of course, there are no guarantees in life.
Mike Engelmann
February 25th, 2008 10:02 am
Yes, it is very tempting to knock up an account, forget about creating your profile and drop a link there. I didn´t understand at first, but I think everyone should spend the time to really get involved in this type of promotion. Social media is advertising 2.0 and it can be the most honest and viral traffic to get out there.
Mike
ListenToLeon
February 25th, 2008 12:01 pm
Thanks for the tips. The last one makes perfect sense, because ever since I signed up for the RSS feed here a few weeks ago, I’ve been referring anyone who has asked me questions about blogging to this site. The most credible referrals are the unsolicited ones.
Joe | Dominate and Prosper
February 25th, 2008 1:06 pm
I posted a video of myself on Facebook battling sharks with my bare hands and got 5 million comments. Yes. 5 frickin’ million.
Proinvestorsblog
February 25th, 2008 7:40 pm
Great tips, I love stumble upon and am trying your tips to build my social media network
Mandy
February 25th, 2008 9:10 pm
I’ve just started using Stumble Upon on a regular basis and am still getting to grips with the different functions that it offers. I’ve never been active on a social media site before so I am interested to see what happens!
Thanks for these tips they’ll definitely help me along the way!
Ikaro
February 27th, 2008 8:12 am
“Let Others Sell You!” sounds really great but it’s a quite difficult…
giusepphine
February 28th, 2008 6:56 pm
It is no doubt that with this global access to information and contents that transcends geographical and political boundaries made possible through the Internet and the World Wide Web, online marketing advertising becomes the most effective way in delivering marketing messages and attracting costumers.
:-)
Tammy
February 29th, 2008 9:46 am
I’m still trying to warm up to social networking. One side of brain says “go for it because it’s a great way to promote yourself and it’s the next big web wave,” but the other side says, “if one more person I don’t know asks me to be his friend, I’m going to vomit!” I’m not sure if I “get it” yet or ever will.
One thing I’d be interested in hearing you talk about are the different social networking sites and how one might work better for different purposes than another. For example, I’m already on ning, though I don’t do much there right now. But, everyone I know is on myspace, so now I’m thinking of joining that. LinkedIn seems good for more professional contacts, and facebook, I’m still not sure about. Also as far as branding, is it better to have your name in the url of your spot on these networks or does that matter?
Nitin Kothari
February 29th, 2008 7:03 pm
Thanx Darren for very useful information. I like all the points you said. This will really help to market our blog.
James
March 2nd, 2008 4:46 am
I enjoyed your webcast.Im just getting into blogging,but I think Im gonna like it.
Miss Gisele from myBeautyMatch.com
March 2nd, 2008 3:22 pm
Darren,
Those are excellent tips to keep in mind in order to grow our business.
Gisele
sdf
March 2nd, 2008 3:38 pm
great ideas Darren, I wil give them a try!
http://www.hideNsneek.com
Search Marketing Courses
March 2nd, 2008 8:51 pm
I think you have summarized in a few short minutes 80% – 90% of what it takes to succeed on social media sites. The other 10% – 20% is building up a quality group of friends on these sites.
These are people who share your same interests, appreciate the same type of content and ideas, etc. These are the people who will notice your recommendations and promote you.
And don’t forget, being a friend goes two ways. Note their recommendations and promote them when they have something worth recommending and promoting.
ITrush
March 3rd, 2008 1:31 am
This is great, thanks for sharing some tips on how to effectively use social sites. Stumbled!
nhick
http://www.itrush.com
Book Business
March 4th, 2008 3:39 am
Great tips. In spite of my long-term internet use, I’ve avoided social networking to some extent, seeing it as just “one more thing” to add to my long to-do list.
I might venture out slowly, with these ideas in mind.
Alison
Netmark
March 4th, 2008 12:17 pm
These four simple tips are so simple but extremely useful. I started to notice the difference when I use Stumbleupon, digg etc. But so far, I did not get a lot from delicious.
Scott
March 4th, 2008 6:51 pm
Thanks for the concise comments. I tend to be longwinded. Do you recommend singing onto comments and social networking with a real name (Scott) or with the blog site name?
Humor tees
March 5th, 2008 1:12 am
Let others sell yourself. I love this one. It really wraps up what a social community is all about. Same concept as an affiliate program except they do it for free and the opinions on not money motivated so they are real and honest. thanks for the tips.
Dimitri Nosarev
March 5th, 2008 12:36 pm
Thank you Darren, you are an inspiration! I was gun shy with blog videos, because I thought that I have to have awesome background. But after I watched several of your videos I noticed that your background is very simple, even white wall at times. Again thank you.
Dimitri Nosarev
March 5th, 2008 12:37 pm
By the way, great tips too, thanks.
SEO Miami
March 5th, 2008 1:10 pm
Thanks for the video. It is going to help me going forward.
Keith Johnson
March 6th, 2008 7:10 am
Thanks Darren for a really insightful and helpful video. It is nice to hear from top bloggers such as yourself, your particular perspective on things. Social media indeed is a key, and you have shed some great light here on that aspect of the net. Many Thanks, Keith Johnson, Author “365 Great Affirmations”
Penny1
March 6th, 2008 3:53 pm
It’s so nice for me to have found this blog of yours, it’s so interesting.
Phonecto
March 7th, 2008 6:05 am
There are too much ass kissers around here, but i have to admit, the video is good!
Brad Brown
March 7th, 2008 6:27 am
Has anyone had success in driving traffic to your blog from Twitter? I’ve noticed other bloggers submitting their postings to Twitter, but I’m wondering if there’s much value in that. It would seem that if you’re peers on Twitter are your friends, they’re already keeping up with your site to begin with.
fynyx
March 8th, 2008 1:17 am
1) It’s strange to summarily label almost every other commenter here as ‘ass kissers’, when I believe that for many, the praise comes sincerely with no ulterior motive.
And then promptly add to the praise.
This doesn’t show superiority of taste.
More like shooting oneself with boomerang friendly fire.
2) A Chinese saying goes, ‘Those who flee 36 steps (from a losing battle), laugh at those fled 72 (and further).’
Both similarly reacted, for fear of their lives.
Or in this case, in compliment.
Karl Gechlik | AskTheAdmin.com
March 8th, 2008 7:22 am
Ahh but by kissing ass don’t you mean let others sell you?? Ahhh!
Pablo Palatnik
March 8th, 2008 8:03 am
These are all good points Darren makes. These are also points that have constantly been advised by all web marketers who blog, have sites, etc.
Keep in mind, the hardest part is not actually doing it, its having the time to do so. If you can dedicate 1-2 hours a day, you can start building a good rep.
Héctor
March 8th, 2008 1:18 pm
I believe the key will be in “Add Value to the Wider Community”, it’s where one will differentiate from the mass. There are so many websites outside that people is getting tired of useless ones that make them waste time and end up being loyal to those that really provide information. Great tips – thanks
Héctor
Barb
March 8th, 2008 1:30 pm
I find it helpful to get to know one social media site at a time, rather than signing up for a bunch of them and then just letting them sit there (which is what I did when I was starting out).
Right now, I’m working with Flickr and it is driving some traffic to my site.
The video posts are great, Darren! Keep ‘em coming!
catherine hewitt
March 8th, 2008 2:56 pm
I attended an 8 hour seminar today by Chad Baumer who talked about “viral” networking. I’m new to all this and I’m so facinated. He said so many of the same things you did but he emphasized the importance of being “real” and “genuine”. Thanks for the tips, I will incorporate them.
Zander Erasmus | Student Advice Blog
March 8th, 2008 5:13 pm
hey there Darren,
i’ve lately enjoyed your video posts more and more, i mostly just browsed the articles and wasn’t around that often to catch them
i’ve also been getting into social bookmarking and social media websites… at first it was really difficult, but now it seems to get easier and easier as you become more established in these mini-communities
it might be nice to mention that, especially on social bookmarking sites, the title that you post is even more important. Most people on these sites (unless you’ve built up a huge influence) will just skim past your article if you don’t title it in an interesting or eye catching way, and not just by making it all caps which i think is against the TOS of most of these sites
when I Really started to pay attention to the title of my articles, that was when i become succesful
thanks for listening, hopefully this helps some of you *thumbs up*
Anthony
March 9th, 2008 3:25 am
This is really good info that can be use specially the idea that you promote others.
Jessica Bond
March 9th, 2008 10:32 am
Excellent marketing tips! Sending a consistent profile/message across the various sites reinforces and builds image awareness.
I appreciate your final tip on promoting others as a way of promoting yourself. Helping others definitely pays dividends.
Sincerely,
Jessica Bond
Medical Careerist
Mike Engelmann
March 10th, 2008 9:55 am
Same with viral videos..
The approach is totally different from direct selling.
Make people laugh or just buzz them, then they will be do the advertising for you.
Mike
Jonathan Mead
March 10th, 2008 2:53 pm
Great video, I think the best tip was letting other people sell you. People are often wary of those promoting themselves and more apt to listen to someone else’s recommendation. It indicates that they are doing so because of a positive experience. =)
Amaefule Christian
March 10th, 2008 7:37 pm
Thanks so much for that great video secrets from you which am sure would drive traffic .
Vitaliy
March 11th, 2008 8:15 am
Thanks Darren! Very helpful video.
Vits of vins
March 11th, 2008 7:13 pm
What a great videos, Bloggers would definitely love this one…
bensto
March 12th, 2008 12:54 am
good tips but it will need fulltime blogger coz social media network is very consumting time and effort.so must have presistence.thanks anyway for any tips.
Paul Clarke
March 12th, 2008 2:50 am
Very new to this whole thing so coming across really helpful suggestions is great! Thanks!
Reginald
March 12th, 2008 5:17 am
Your four fundamental principles are duly noted.
I really enjoyed the fact that your video did not start automatically.
I find that attention to detail very important and a lot less annoying than having the video start automatically.
Blog Marketing Journal
March 12th, 2008 5:55 am
It seems video is the way to actively teach people online these days. This is a great video for all newbie bloggers!
Miranda
March 12th, 2008 6:24 am
Great post! I’m still trying to navigate social media. But one thing I’ve noticed is that if you give a little love to others, they’ll return the favor. It’s karma for social networking, whether you visit others’ blogs and leave helpful and relevant comments, or check out what they’re Digging…
Blogsessive
March 12th, 2008 7:22 am
As long as you don’t overuse the power of the social bookmarking networks (to only promote your writing) and as long as you provide good and at least personal, if not original content, these sites are a very powerful tool for self and community promotion.
Personal Development Blog For Money
March 12th, 2008 8:58 am
I have been visiting your site for quite sometime now and didn’t bother to leave any comment. I just got some guts to leave a comment here for the first time since my recent post is about Social networks which is relevant to this post.
An excellent tips for people who think that social networks are crap. However i find it very time consuming. How many networks do you think we should be actively participating with?
Mio Destino
March 13th, 2008 3:36 am
I agree with the last writer – it can be totally time consuming and demoralizing if there is little effect for your effort.
Great blog though!
Julie
Nastya Manno
March 14th, 2008 4:48 am
Thank you very much for this video! It was very helpful to me in my work
Business Man
March 14th, 2008 7:17 am
This is some really great information and a nice video. I have really been missing out on a lot of traffic tips. Keep up the great work with this blog Darren.
eBay Business
March 14th, 2008 7:19 am
I have always been uderestimating traffic through social media marketing. Thanks for the great advice. I really love the great information through your videos.
Lilik
March 15th, 2008 2:03 pm
Incredible post, I owe a lot of my success to social media
online work
March 17th, 2008 3:13 am
Social media networks are a great resource to increase the presence of your site and traffic, but it is also a very high time consuming activity. Usually the traffic received is of bad quality or non targeted.
On the other hand, social bookmarking is a very fast way to get new sites and new pages indexed by the search engines, and it has good potential to be an effective method of SEO when it comes to building incoming links to a website.
Javier
http://www.takeoffzone.com
Franca Richard
March 17th, 2008 3:14 am
Really useful tips, thanks for sharing, really helpful for us new bloggers.
Jim Peake
March 17th, 2008 8:17 am
Points are very simple as you suggest. I must admit i sometime get caught up in digging too many of my sites and not enough of others. And using the one photo of the pretty mug is also good advice. For advanced users they can create applications on Facebook and Fan Clubs. iPhone is opening thier platform too. I’m working on a project that marries social media and mobile networks. We created something called Party Line. You can see it on Facebook, or try this link. It allows you to make one call and ring 5 cell phones at the same time.
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=24334230464
Brad Hart
March 17th, 2008 8:55 am
This is a really great post. Taking your advice I blogged it on Digg.
Mike Conklin
March 18th, 2008 3:59 am
For a person that doesn’t have a lot of social prowess, the concept of social media networking is a bit intimidating. I do however see how important it is as the new trend in marketing. What kind of advice would you have for someone that isn’t used to the concept, how to break the ice so to speak and become a part of the community?
Franca Richard
March 18th, 2008 8:39 pm
Fantastic video clip, I like this seires.
Matt
July 23rd, 2008 4:07 am
Like what you say about consistency, particularly – especially in regards to the everlasting desire to be creative :)
Consistency is always a good thing for a budding brand to aspire to, probably especially a “personal” or “personality” brand. Thanks for the tips.
Evans
October 29th, 2008 10:06 am
Very cool video – I loved it!
And I like your blog by the way:)
seo consultant
December 18th, 2008 4:37 pm
Nice tips. I want to know that shall I yse one account for submitting all sites in social media sites ? If I submit website of different theme using one account, does this has any effect?
Krabi
February 6th, 2009 12:06 am
Thanks for the video. It is going to help me going forward
Thank you again.
seth
February 17th, 2009 11:05 am
Nice, I like the idea of letting other sell you… Of course this requires you to be sell able but that’s what’s important anyways.
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