Dawud Miracle shares his successful blog plan in “How Do You Use Social Media To Grow Your Business?”, his story and lessons learned in using the new social networking, bookmarking, and site submission services to promote his blog.
I’ve learned a ton about using social media in the past year since watching blogs – and even more in the past six months since I’ve been blogging. And so now it’s time to push the envelope even wider.
Now I want to bring together the parts of social media – social bookmarking (e.g. del.icio.us, ma.ganolia), social networking (e.g. Linkedin, MyBlogLog, Facebook), social recommendation (e.g. Digg, StumbleUpon, Netscape) and social content (YouTube, Flickr) – together into a program that will help service-based business owners grow their businesses sustainably and with authenticity.
I’m using social networks more and more – learning everything I can about how they work and how they can aid business growth. I’ve read 15 books on blogging.
Dawud admits that most of those blogging books were useless in helping him improve and advance his blog marketing techniques, though he does give credit to my book, Blogging Tips, which he discussed in a recent post.
He lists his resources from other business books and bloggers that have helped him understand this new world of online social media, a lesson we can all learn as we cope with the changing marketplace of the online industry.
Have you used social media to build your blog, yet?
Site Search Tags: social media, social networks, social bookmarking, blogging tips, dawud miracle, blog building, blog networking, blogging books, social media tips 
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Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, member of the 9Rules Network, and author of Blogging Tips, What Bloggers Won't Tell You About Blogging.
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8 Comments
I’ve been bloggin 9 months. I’ve been up about soc. med. and down as well. I feel pretty firm in my resolve that it isn’t for me. It smacks trendy, and not only trendy but passing trendy. I’m actually kind of surprised that you made a post about it. It has so little to do with really sharing content. I think it’s rooted more in advertising, chain opps., and egos. Just my two respectful cents.
Hey there. I love your page for wordpress help by the way. I use it at work and for personal. The question is what constitutes traffic. I’ve been making tons of blogs for MTV at work for some time now and they just naturally recieve traffic from the shows. But how to get random people to your site. I have a blog since I’m under federal house arrest and want to document the whole ride. I do it mainly for myself and friends but would love more people to join in to read it. How do I do that?
Damien: If you didn’t agree with the “social” aspect of blogging, you wouldn’t leave comments on blogs, which is an interactive, relationship building technique for establishing a relationship with the blogger and their readers, who are then likely to click through your link to your blog, thus using the social interaction to attract attention and get potentially new readers. That is the core of social media. Social media is more than just the idiot links to get people to “submit your blog post”. What Dawud is doing is really making those social connections with others, as I’ve seen you do on your blog.
As for writing about it, yes, it is a trend, but it is also the future. Without the connections of other bloggers, and the help and support they provide to us and our blogs, and understanding how the social aspect of linking works, no matter how it is used, you are living in the dark ages and old thinking of the web. (not you personally, the “universal you” – you, Damien, are beating your own unique drum 😀 )
Michael: Ah, the search for the random visitor to turn into a reader. I recommend you read my article, Hook, Line and Sinker: Luring Blog Traffic to Stay, and understand that the best traffic is the traffic that comes looking for you, not you looking for it. And when they arrive on your blog, since that is what they were looking for, they think “Ah, this is the place. This is the information I need.” They have to know immediately that you are the source for meeting their needs. If you can do that, and they come willing, then you will build new readers.
So how to get them there? Do something that makes other bloggers blog about you, which sends new traffic to your blog. Do something outrageous that isn’t in keeping with your blog’s purpose, and you will get a spike in traffic for a few days, but then the numbers will drop back into the comfort zone. Do something that is in keeping with your blog’s purpose, meet people’s expectations and a little more, and you will increase those numbers.
There is no way to fake this or force this to happen. All attempts give only a temporary rise but not the long term effect you want. Do this naturally, and it will naturally build, stronger and more durable over time.
Hopefully, that helps you understand a little more about how this works.
Lorelle: I think that was well put. When you said “idiot links” asking people to submit (in more ways than one LOL) you showed my point better than my comment.
I think what you said is 100% correct and I do have a large portion of my blog dedicated to recognizing commenters, giving links back, as they say “link love” etc. I a talkinging specifically about guys in pajamas thinking they’ll become millionaires bh getting entry level bloggers to join their “catalog.” I despise this type of social malarkey. Thanks for your respectful rebuttal, I think we agree, I just say things more bluntly . . . which is a poor rhetorical device in some circles!
Just take a peek here. (feel free to delete this comment 🙂
bodyabcs (dot) com/bwp/2007/07/and-the-winner-of-the-first-wordpress-oscars-is/
Oooh, I didn’t know about mybolglog. Thanks!
I haven’t explored all of the social communities out there for one reason: time. Instead, I have worked on building better content, rewarding my visitors with linkable comments, and I have used my personal network to help raise a bunch of boats.
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