Top 7 Misconceptions Bloggers Have About Social Media

When many bloggers hop on the social media wagon, they fall prey to numerous, widespread untruths on what works or what doesn’t. The result? Not only does their social media fail, but it actually turns readers off – sometimes for good.

The trick to good social media for blogging is not to bury readers in tweets or Facebook posts, but develop a reliable, targeted strategy that saves time and maximizes return. To get you started, here are the top seven social media and blogging myths and why they don’t work:

There is no such thing as instant success on social media unless you are blessed by the same paradoxical muse deities as Justin Bieber. Social networking is a prerequisite for all legitimate bloggers but it has to be seen as a long-term commitment, not a way to make an immediate splash. Like everything else worth doing this takes time, so be patient and keep plugging.

When some bloggers first establish a social media presence they have a tendency to hit the Jolt Cola and stay up nights working on placing a massive amount of content up on their pages. This effort is rarely rewarded as it’s preferable to start with a relatively minimalist page and then build content organically as you draw in more followers.

If you want to engage in epeen one-upmanship over your fellow bloggers then by all means go ahead and buy 25,000 bot followers for a hundred bucks. However, if your ego is not that fragile you might want to consider getting readers the old fashioned way: By earning them! Your goal is to build a quality audience which is actively interested and engaged in your blog, not just rack up numbers of ghost followers who never click on your blog links.

Er… yes there is. At last count there are more than one thousand social networks in the English language alone. If you tried to dedicate a minute’s time to update each one it would take you almost 17 hours a day. Every blogger needs a Facebook, Twitter and (maybe) a Google+ presence.
If you’re in a particular industry which has a specific social network such as CD Social for Funeral Directors (!?!) then you should be there too. Unless you’re big in Beijing and need to be on Sina Weibo, you can skip the others.

Bloggers have to institute absolutely meticulous fact and copy checking procedures on every single social network post. There are few things that will tarnish your reputation as a blogger than letting typos slip through or worse yet, factual errors.

No attention will be paid to your later correction or retraction, but you can bet your bottom dollar that your mistake will be flaunted across the net by your competitors and detractors to prove that you’re a moron.
You should. Mining your followers for their opinions, tips, and facts can be an invaluable way to build and expand your blog. You never know which one of your readers has an inside path to a top executive you’ve been trying to get a quote from since you were carving your blog with a stone chisel out of granite.

Encouraging a free flow of ideas, comments and opinions on your social media presences can help you understand your readership so you can more accurately craft your blog to fit them (instead of trying to fit your audience into what you want to write.)

And the biggest fib of all:
In the second decade of the millennium you need social media to support everything that is done on the web, from dating to buying pet meds. Blogging does not get an exemption from this mandatory process as social networking can be even more important for bloggers than most other online purveyors.

Establishing your blogging identity on social networks will allow your readers to find you accessible, and see you in an authoritative and favorable light… which will result in a higher rate of quality readership!
Social media can be a huge boon to any blogger, and over time, it can bring in boatloads of readers and send your blog rank to the stratosphere. To succeed, though, you’ve got to approach the task not just categorically, but with enthusiasm and regularity.

Hal Licino is a successful author, award-winning freelance writer, and frequent contributor to a blog hosted by Benchmark Email, an email marketing service for small businesses. He also writes a weekly column for Daily Blog Tips.


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5 Tips for Getting Free Media Exposure for Your Blog

This guest post is by Michael Haaren of Creators Syndicate/Dallas Morning News.

Many bloggers and other brandbuilders are moving en masse into Twitter, Google+, and other new media. While these should certainly be part of your overall media strategy, don’t neglect TV, radio and other legacy media. They still have plenty of reach and prestige, and are starving for cool stories to tell. Here are five tips for getting your name in lights.

Legacy media is grappling with tectonic changes. Before you pitch any idea to a TV producer, radio-show host, or newspaper or magazine journalist, take a few minutes to see what’s happening in their industry. Since your “target” is dog paddling in those trends, knowing them helps your pitch bob to the top instead of sinking to the bottom.

Sites to check include I Want Media and Media Bistro.

It’s trite but worth remembering—the journalist is a fish and you’re the angler. You’ve got to cast something we’ll bite at. And since we’re even more info-stupefied than everyone else, you only have a moment to catch our eye.

For example, I recently put out a query on Peter Shankman’s Help a Reporter Out, better known as HARO, which many journalists and producers use to find interviewees. (Queries are distributed three times daily and are free, so be sure to sign up while you’re there.)

Since I write about home-based gigs and careers—which now includes many bloggers and experts, like Darren working in a home office in Melbourne—I wanted to hear from people who have unusual home-based businesses.

As soon as the query went out, pitches began to flood in. I scanned them in spurts, in between posting to our Facebook page and screening a job lead for our website and trying to keep the dog from chewing his hot spot again. (Like many journalists, I work from a home office, too.)

Soon, I was “hooked” by a lead-in that described a baby fawn lying on a bed of broken glass, in Pennsylvania Amish Country. The glass, I learned, came from antique bottles, discarded long ago. Collectors would scoop up intact bottles but leave the broken ones behind, and wildlife like the fawn had to cope. The artist pitching me, Laura Bergman, turned these fragments into remarkable pieces of jewelry. The business was Bottled Up Designs, and we covered it in our column.

As a rule, keep your pitches to a three- to five-line paragraph or two. Mention briefly why you’re pitching the journalist (“In reply to your HARO query on wombats…” or “Having read your Toy Industry Review article on Ken cheating on Barbie, I…”). Then add the “hook,” and your relevant credentials. Close briefly with your cell phone number. Journalists are usually time-pressed and work odd hours. If you’re not available, they’ll quickly move down the list.

It’s much easier to get a journalist to cover you if your pitch includes something we care about. For example, I often write about green issues; it’s one reason I’ve advocated telework for so long. Laura Bergman, whether by coincidence or by research, hit a nerve when she mentioned that fawn lying in glass.

Every blog comes with unique facets, aspects, or stories. Bloggers are individuals, and blogs, in the larger sense, are always narratives—absent mimicry and plagiary, both unique. The trick is to find the sexiest or most intriguing or flamboyant facets, polish them down to a few lines, and share them when the opportunity presents.

A pitch might be based on something in your own life—“How blogging wrecked my marriage” could easily be a morning-show segment—or key off a subject or individual you covered in your blog.

Even a blog on a theme that many might yawn at—tax law, for example—can hold compelling tales. How about a rogue tax agent, who leaves his family with embezzled funds, and winds up on a nude beach in Brazil, surrounded by aspiring samba stars? You get the picture.

When journalists send out queries on HARO or Bill and Steve Harrison’s Reporter Connection (be sure to sign up there, too) they trigger immediate replies, often voluminous. And the first pitches to arrive in the inbox frequently end up the winners.

Pitch often, too. If you can score on 10% of your pitches, you’ll beat many pros. You have to play the odds to “get ink.”

Finally, unless invited, don’t call to follow up on a pitch. Let the journalist call you.

Oh, and one last tip, which you may have heard elsewhere: don’t believe everything you read in the papers.

Michael Haaren is the co-founder of Rat Race Rebellion, a site devoted to screened, home-based jobs, and a syndicated columnist with the Dallas Morning News. His frequent media appearances include CNN, the Wall Street Journal, and many more.

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Top 7 Misconceptions Bloggers Have About Social Media

When many bloggers hop on the social media wagon, they fall prey to numerous, widespread untruths on what works or what doesn’t. The result? Not only does their social media fail, but it actually turns readers off – sometimes for good.

The trick to good social media for blogging is not to bury readers in tweets or Facebook posts, but develop a reliable, targeted strategy that saves time and maximizes return. To get you started, here are the top seven social media and blogging myths and why they don’t work:

There is no such thing as instant success on social media unless you are blessed by the same paradoxical muse deities as Justin Bieber. Social networking is a prerequisite for all legitimate bloggers but it has to be seen as a long-term commitment, not a way to make an immediate splash. Like everything else worth doing this takes time, so be patient and keep plugging.

When some bloggers first establish a social media presence they have a tendency to hit the Jolt Cola and stay up nights working on placing a massive amount of content up on their pages. This effort is rarely rewarded as it’s preferable to start with a relatively minimalist page and then build content organically as you draw in more followers.

If you want to engage in epeen one-upmanship over your fellow bloggers then by all means go ahead and buy 25,000 bot followers for a hundred bucks. However, if your ego is not that fragile you might want to consider getting readers the old fashioned way: By earning them! Your goal is to build a quality audience which is actively interested and engaged in your blog, not just rack up numbers of ghost followers who never click on your blog links.

Er… yes there is. At last count there are more than one thousand social networks in the English language alone. If you tried to dedicate a minute’s time to update each one it would take you almost 17 hours a day. Every blogger needs a Facebook, Twitter and (maybe) a Google+ presence.

If you’re in a particular industry which has a specific social network such as CD Social for Funeral Directors (!?!) then you should be there too. Unless you’re big in Beijing and need to be on Sina Weibo, you can skip the others.

Bloggers have to institute absolutely meticulous fact and copy checking procedures on every single social network post. There are few things that will tarnish your reputation as a blogger than letting typos slip through or worse yet, factual errors.

No attention will be paid to your later correction or retraction, but you can bet your bottom dollar that your mistake will be flaunted across the net by your competitors and detractors to prove that you’re a moron.

You should. Mining your followers for their opinions, tips, and facts can be an invaluable way to build and expand your blog. You never know which one of your readers has an inside path to a top executive you’ve been trying to get a quote from since you were carving your blog with a stone chisel out of granite.

Encouraging a free flow of ideas, comments and opinions on your social media presences can help you understand your readership so you can more accurately craft your blog to fit them (instead of trying to fit your audience into what you want to write.)

And the biggest fib of all:

In the second decade of the millennium you need social media to support everything that is done on the web, from dating to buying pet meds. Blogging does not get an exemption from this mandatory process as social networking can be even more important for bloggers than most other online purveyors.

Establishing your blogging identity on social networks will allow your readers to find you accessible, and see you in an authoritative and favorable light… which will result in a higher rate of quality readership!

Social media can be a huge boon to any blogger, and over time, it can bring in boatloads of readers and send your blog rank to the stratosphere. To succeed, though, you’ve got to approach the task not just categorically, but with enthusiasm and regularity.

Hal Licino is a successful author, award-winning freelance writer, and frequent contributor to a blog hosted by Benchmark Email, an email marketing service for small businesses. He also writes a weekly column for Daily Blog Tips.

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