Contrarian Blog Marketing Advice From One Remarkable Blogger
I like Michael Martine. He’s a competitor, but he’s earned my respect.
Recently, Michael posted a video on YouTube in which he tells his audience NOT to use social media to market their blogs. It seems like bad advice on the surface, but I’ll have to agree with him. The nuance that might go missed by some is that social media is a good tool for marketing, but that using it as a tool to harp on your blog is not a good idea. You’ll have to see Michael’s video to catch the full drift, but do pay attention to what he’s saying because it makes a lot of sense:
If I wasn’t having a bad hair day and wasn’t pressed for time this morning, I’d offer a video response. I would like to address one thing about what Michael says in the video, namely, that he got no benefit out of marketing on Facebook. Frankly, I’m not surprised. Facebook is not a good venue for Michael’s services and it likely wouldn’t be for ours either. LinkedIn, however, is a much better social media choice for Michael, and for us at Blog Content Provider.
Like Michael, I get annoyed with the silly vampire bites, what’s your favorite color questions, super duper walls, and other crap on Facebook. I think a part of that has to do with your choice of friends. But even if you choose good friends, you can still get poked by retards. It can be quite annoying.
LinkedIn is set up differently. There’s no poking, no gargoyles, no silly little high school dating questionnaires or virtual college frat parties. It’s a professional organization that caters to traditional professionals who just want to do business with other mature and professional people online. Much more conservative. That’s why I don’t like it.
Why Social Networks Are NOT One-Size-Fits-All Prom Dresses
Now, wait a minute, Allen. You just said LinkedIn would be a good place to network for BCP.
Yes, I did. And it would. If I had the time to actually get in there and rub elbows with people. But I don’t.
I could make the time. It would probably benefit me if I did it right. But I don’t have the inclination - right now. That could change in the future. But right now, LinkedIn is not the social network of choice for me. I am working on other things.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m totally dedicated to BCP. But I also have my own websites. I’ve been writing poetry for over 20 years and I have a poetry website with almost 100 pages and a blog with 150 blog posts. My poetry blog is on page 1 of Yahoo! and moving up in the other search engines. I have pages on my website that are on page 1 of Google, page 1 of Yahoo, and ranking well at MSN and Ask also. I have discovered that I can bookmark a blog post or web page at StumbleUpon and get massive traffic. I can bookmark the same blog post at Digg and get nothing. On the other hand, I can bookmark a BCP blog post at StumbleUpon and get only meager results, even less at Digg, but if I bookmark it at Propeller or a bookmarking site designed specifically for Internet marketers then I’ll get much more traffic.
The reason why I think that happens is because of the personalities of the different social media sites. People on StumbleUpon are a lot more free wheeling and artsy than people on Digg. There is a type of informational blog that will get a lot of votes on Digg if the information is valuable and those pages don’t do real well at StumbleUpon. When we apply this principle to the social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn, it becomes evident that you have to use the networking tool that is most appropriate for your audience.
Which Social Network Is Right For You?
Poets like to hang out at Facebook. When I browse the Facebook profiles, there are so many groups and applications that appeal to people who write poetry, fiction, and other types of literature. There aren’t so many on LinkedIn.
That doesn’t mean that LinkedIn is a bad place to network. It’s just a bad place to network for people promoting themselves as a poet. On the other hand, if you are trying to hire yourself out as a business writer then LinkedIn is the perfect place to network. Facebook may or may not be based on who your target market is.
Since I only have so many hours a day that I can devote to social networking activities, I’ve decided to spend my time on Facebook instead of LinkedIn. I’m not worried that my blogging business is going to suffer if I don’t network. On the contrary, BCPs blogging business is steadily growing. But if I don’t spend a little bit of time each day promoting my poetry then it won’t get promoted. That’s why I make the point to do a little bit of networking and content creation each day, usually in the evening.
The Right Way To Use Social Networks
Now that you understand where I’m coming from, what’s the best way to use a social networking site? I believe that Michael Martine has hit it on the head. Instead of promoting your blog or your website, which people don’t really care about, promote yourself. People join the social networks to make friends, not to find material that they can read. They have plenty of that. What they don’t have plenty of are friends who take a genuine interest in them and what they have going on in their lives.
When I was an active user at MySpace, I got frustrated at all the comment spam that came across my profile. I, like a lot of other users, would accept any and every friend request without considering whether or not that person would truly be of benefit, or whether I could benefit them. I was going about it all wrong. I ended up abandoning my MySpace profile because of it.
Social networks are not friend collection receptacles. They are places where you can find people interested in the same things that you are interested in. If you do it right, you’ll make friends and those friends will eventually turn into business partners, customers, or other people who can benefit your business (and your business theirs). Do it wrong and you’ll end up frustrated, on the outs, and wondering why no one likes you. I hope this improves your social karma.
