Comments on: Social Media – Should You Use it Or Focus Upon Building Your Own Properties?

By: Reginald

Reginald — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 21:53:33 +0000

Louis,

Your point is duly noted. However, I think great consideration should be placed on the appropriate forum to invest your time and efforts in promoting your blog.

By: Pragya Narang

Pragya Narang — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:27:50 +0000

RocSearch, the UK-based research & analytics firm has recently released a research study on ‘Leveraging Social Media for Brands’. The study showcases the social media eco-system, its drivers & imperatives while detailing cases of brand successes and failures attempting to harness the power of this medium. For a complementary copy of the study, visit http://www.rocsearch.com/social-media.asp.

By: David Peterson

David Peterson — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 04:39:51 +0000

Darren,
This is a great post as usual. There are so many factors to consider when looking to expand your blog’s exposure and readership by venturing into what is “hot” at the moment, and because not everyone has the same target audience or the same reasons for blogging, there are no “set in stone” rules or guidelines to follow when “testing the waters” in a new social media site, but also not to just abandon the platform(s) being used, and instead continue using that while adding on the new medium and have a balance so that both your time and efforts are optimized, and diversified(not having all your eggs in one basket) but not diversifying too much too quickly either (spreading yourself too thin) which is trial and error but worth it in the long run.
Thanks Darren,
David Peterson

By: Reginald

Reginald — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:30:58 +0000

Has anyone with personal experience on this issue ever felt overwhelmed by what it takes to build a reader network through social media.

How much time should one consider worthy of investing? How exactly does an individual manage the demands of social media networks and their own growing blogs.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:11:24 +0000

Bloggers participating in social media would be like actors showing up at all the red carpet events. It’s a place to participate in a larger group activity owned by somebody else and get their exposure to the masses so that people might be interested in watching the new movie they will be in.

No actor or author would think of releasing a movie or book without participating in events that are ran by other people.

By: Vickie Njoku Onyekuru

Vickie Njoku Onyekuru — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:23:56 +0000

Your marketing tool is wonderful, especially knowing you target audience, knowing what you want and how to get abou it is important to you all the way. How did you do this? Were you inspired or led to do it or how else?

Good work you have.

Vickie

By: Rebecca Laffar-Smith

Rebecca Laffar-Smith — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:46:39 +0000

Fantastic post, Darren! Was this inspired by your recent Plurk contest? ;-) I agree that it is important to run multiple sources as a marketing tool. Getting your brand out there, being known, and participating beyond your boundaries offers a way for others to see you. It’s a pull method vs. a push method.

By sharing your presence in multiple places people have a chance to know and like you. Those people will migrate to whatever you’re into just because of that ‘friendship’.

By: JEANNE

JEANNE — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 06:19:55 +0000

I can’t imagine NOT owning a domain – I’m not there yet, but it’s definitely the direction I’m headed. I’ve found that the more social networking sites I’ve joined, the more traffic I’ve received. I think balance is important, and I agree with Peggie – an important key to success is to just deliver :-)

By: amirulcyber

amirulcyber — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 01:08:37 +0000

Your article and info very useful.i will practice it.

By: Jim Legington

Jim Legington — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:11:00 +0000

That a great message in the Post Darren,

I’m saying that based on the fact that we own three or four
web properties with Two others parked at this time. Using
different Social Media currently such as Twitter and
InSocialMedia. BlogTalkRadio and Ning along with FaceBook
are like the rent properties you mentioned that we are growing into the Ultimately use in the Mix we are aimed at
developing those parked Domains.

Personally, I do agree that one needs to own some web properties yourself as you stated Darren. Thanks again, Thoughtful and attention grabbing for the Beloved Community to hear for sure.

By: The Masked Millionaire

The Masked Millionaire — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:06:03 +0000

Everything about a blog is long term.

1. Todays post will be read a year from today by someone

2. The comment that was left on a blog will ultimately be read by a person who will then want to check out the author of the comment. It might be today or a month from today but sooner or later the commentor’s blog will be looked at.

3. The “Long Tail” is long because it starts to make its presence known in history.

4. One person’s blog “Problogger” is a good example, will spawn other blogs.

I am wary of “short term” solutions to long term challenges. Does short term really ever work out? Does it really ever have the benefit that you originally envisioned?

You get what you pay for. In this case…Your return is normally in sync with how hard you work.

The Masked Millionaire

By: Adam

Adam — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:15:19 +0000

I’m not sure if there really is a choice between using Twitter, blogging, or using social networks. Anyone looking to build a community or audience really needs to play to each platforms strengths. Write a blog post. Use twitter to notify your community and extend the comments. Use Facebook to help your community connect and expand their relationship outside of your blog. This is just one possible strategy, but the opportunity cost of not participating through any of these platforms is missing the opportunity to interact and create value for your audience, which a community builder cannot afford.

By: Kari

Kari — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:09:22 +0000

Darren, I read your post and immediately thought of a similar question in the search marketing world: seo vs. paid search. Some go all in on SEO, and some on just paid. What many fail to realize is that there’s value in doing both, and they can be mutually beneficial to each other when applied in tandem.

Your point about balance is spot on – you use one to grow the other. It’s the circle of life for your blog!

By: Peggie Arvidson

Peggie Arvidson — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:48:47 +0000

Liked the conclusions as well as the questions raised. I found this blog because of a post on twitter. Had I sporadically been to visit before joining twitter, I don’t think so. There is so much out there to learn and to read, so being able to “know” someone and hear what they’re up to helps translate to marketability. Does everyone on Twitter have the same interests I do? doubtful. But it’s an easy way to create some dialogue and as long as you’re offering useful content that speaks to your core clients — you’ll grow. (that, of course is true whether you rent or own – just deliver!)

Best,
Peggie

By: Elizabeth M

Elizabeth M — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:41:35 +0000

Great Post! I got wraped up in Twitter for a while and then discovered FriendFeed, which works great for me.
Your 3 steps for finding readers for your blog are straight on:
1. Define Your Target Reader
2. Identify Where and How they Gather
3. Join their Established Gathering Points

MySpace didn’t work for me, but Eons (site for boomers) did! Thanks for all of your great posts, I learn a lot from you.

By: Michael Carnell

Michael Carnell — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:20:45 +0000

I was just exploring this same topic on my blog yesterday. I think that sometimes we neglect the long term benefit of things like our blogs for the short term satisfaction of media like Twitter and instant messaging. There is a time and a place for both, but we need to be careful not to neglect the full conversation on the web just as in real life.

By: Syed Balkhi

Syed Balkhi — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:16:07 +0000

My philosophy with social media is mass marketing. I will target a much larger audience, and some will become my readers. There are some flaws in it, but it is seem to be working. Darren what is your say in it?

Second, I have to agree with you on the part that no blog can interact with a large audience such as facebook, twitter and other social networks. We have to join them in order to increase our readership. Now many people think these social bookmarks are a waste of time, but in my experience, I have learned something from each social network, so as long as I learn something then it is not a waste for me because I am in the industry to learn.

By: Lipton

Lipton — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:48:05 +0000

Great post, I’ve been following the advice of your ‘Grow your blog’ post and have not only gotten new readers, but expanded my network :)

Working on the right rented property can really boost your ultimate goals, especially I think if they involve starting other businesses around the blog

By: Egbert

Egbert — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:44:13 +0000

I think deciding to use only one of both possibilities is a mistake. Building up your own community is essential (at least for big websites) but only people would join it if they are regular readers of your site anyway.

On the other hand, people you`r connected with on third party networks are not always regular readers. Social network sites are a good way to connect with new people and increase your readership.

Focusing on one of both is like deciding whether you want focus on existing readers or new ones.

By: Karen Zara

Karen Zara — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:34:24 +0000

I never thought about these topics in terms of what I buy and what I “rent,” but now I have to admit I like your approach.

Abandoning what we’ve already built in favour of the newest trends is something that many bloggers can’t resist to, especially when their blogs aren’t doing so well and they lack motivation to go on. In fact, what many bloggers hope is that sites like Twitter and Plurk will help them feel motivated again, since they believe they’ll build the strong web presence that their blogs failed to achieve.