Hopefully by now you’re regularly writing and publishing new blog entries. If you still aren’t convinced that blogging can help your business, check out Blogging For Your Business and 6 Business Uses for a Blog. Once published, though, how do you get people to come read your latest masterpiece? There are at least 6 places you should be sharing your new post. These are Social Media and Social Bookmarking sites in which you should be working to grow your followers. Each of these should have small share icons under each blog entry so that all you have to do is click a button to start each process.
Your business should have a Page on Facebook and each new blog entry should be posted to your wall. When you do so, copy the URL of the blog and paste it into your Page status. Facebook will automatically scan the link. If you included an image in the blog (you did include an image, right?) Facebook will put a thumbnail version next to your teaser. If you use the Meta Description tag, Facebook will put that under your Title and Link.
Each new entry should be shared with your Twitter followers. You should be sharing the Title of your blog along with a shortened link. Your website should be configured to automatically shorten tweet links for you (and other visitors) to conserve the precious 140 character limit of tweets. If necessary, add #hashtag keywords to the end of your post, like, #SocialMedia. Don’t repeat words that are in the title and don’t go crazy as you’ll want to leave enough characters for others to retweet you.
DiGG
DiGG is a “social bookmarking” platform. More on what that means in another post, but the gist is that users are encouraged to share links to stories and pages that they like. Your followers will see the posts you save and hopefully visit the links. Like Facebook, DiGG will automatically scan for an image and your description so be sure to set those.
UPDATE: While I still encourage sharing posts to DiGG, it’s not likely to become a top tier social network for any business.
Google+
My personal favorite social network, Google+ is now focused on Communities and Collections, which means it’s easier to find a targeted audience in your niche, and share with them. Google+ allows users to post great looking updates with larger images (beginning to see why every post needs an image?) and posts can be +1’d or reshared.
Del.icio.us
Del.icio.us is another popular social bookmarking site. Simply submit your link and interested visitors will notice you.You can organize links into stacks and provide followers with an easy way to find multiple posts from you on the same topic.
UPDATE: While I still encourage sharing posts to Delicious, it’s not likely to become a top tier social network for any business.
The network for professionals, LinkedIn may not be the best place to promote every blog, but if you have anything to share that is professional or business-related, you should post a link to LinkedIn. Businesses that have a Company page on LinkedIn can now post a link in their business status, not just your personal status.
Every blogger should be utilizing Pinterest, though that does require that you’re including great images with each of your blog posts. You are creating unique and identifiable images, aren’t you? Bloggers can pin their images to very specific, topical boards that interested followers will see.
Instagram is increasingly becoming a boon for bloggers. While referral traffic will likely never rival that of your other social networks, the interesting thing about Instagram followers and readers is that they’re dedicated. In order to get someone from Instagram to your blog, you need to have a link in your Bio (preferably a trackable link that you can report on), so someone would see an image for a new blog post, tap your profile name, then tap the link in your Bio which likely goes to your Home or Blog page, and then tap on the blog post to read it. If they make it that far, they’re really interested in your content!
BONUS: Empire Avenue
Empire Avenue is the online social media stock exchange. Members and businesses buy and sell each other as real businesses on the stock market. What makes EA social is the presence of Shareholder Messages and Discussion Communities. Businesses can share their new blog posts with their shareholders or fellow community members and get feedback. More importantly, most EA members understand the value and power of social media and are very willing to share your articles on their own websites or with their followers on their own social networks.
These aren’t the only places online to share your new posts – just the minimum really. Feel free to leave a comment with your own favorite site for sharing new posts!
