Why you need to nurture your social presence

Last month I talked a bit about complementing your blog with a Facebook page, and some of the basics of setting one up.

I'm reluctant to talk about 'promoting your blog via social media' because I think that is a somewhat limiting mindset. Social media isn't 'just another marketing channel' as we hear so often. 

It's better to think of your social presence as being a part of your 'brand', whether that brand is your blog, your business or you yourself. Social tools enable us to expand our networks of contacts, listen to and learn from others, communicate one-to-one with people and allow people to get to know what your brand stands for. And yes, build our profile and audience.

What people (and organisations) don't always understand is that this happens if, and only if, you have something to offer that people find interesting, useful or entertaining, so much so that they share it with others in their networks. By approaching social as a promotional tool, it's tempting to post nothing but promotional, one-way messages and hope that they will magically get passed around the internet. Short term promotions and offers have their place, but they are just that - short term and unlikely to build you a rich, sustainable social presence.

Vita Sackville-West knew a thing or two about gardening. This is part of
her garden at Sissingshurst Castle in Kent. Photo by kevt747.

The benefits of building an online social presence are mainly long term and slow to accumulate. It's like planting and nurturing a garden. Anyone can go buy a bunch of bedding plants in flower, plant them in any patch of ground and have a lovely display for as long as the flowers last. But a gardener would take into consideration the soil type, orientation of the land, drainage, climate, shape and size of plants, flowering period, positioning and a hundred other things. A gardener would know (or learn) about watering, weeding, pruning, pest control and so on.

Your aim is to build a sustainable social presence and become a trusted member of your social networks. Once you're in this position you will worry a lot less about short-term attention grabbing and attach less importance to stats such as likes, followers and visits. Trust me!

Getting out and about to promote your blog

Some crazy chicks at the Hello Blogger event in Brisbane, Australia
(Photo by TRX Photography)

OK so blogging is an online activity but that doesn't mean you can't promote it offline, in fact you really should! Here are a few ways of getting out and about to promote your blog in the 'real' world.

1) Attend events and meetups
Whether it's a conference to do with your area of interest, a local tweet-up or networking meeting, grab your business cards, samples of your work or whatever's appropriate and get along there. You're bound to meet other likeminded souls and with a bit of luck even some other bloggers. Going along to events is also a great way of meeting blogger or social networking friends in real life. Let people know you're going by using the Twitter hashtag ahead of the event, so they know to look out for you. You may even meet potential new guest bloggers or collaborators.

2) Hold blogger get-togethers
Rather like a tweet-up, you could host a meet-up for bloggers in your area. Not only a lovely excuse for a social, but also a co-promotion opportunity:  take photos or video footage, blog about it after the event and tell other attendees who are bound to do the same. Instant exposure to one another's blog audiences!

3) Offer to give talks
If you're happy speaking to groups, why not offer yourself up as a speaker - organisers of coffee mornings, business networking groups and even industry events might well want you to come and talk about your area of expertise, or about your blogging journey - people always like to learn from others what has worked and what hasn't!

4) Make friends with the press
Start local, but no reason not to aim higher! Local press, radio and TV are always looking for good quality news and features, and it's worth finding out the names of your local friendly journalists, giving them a call and (if you can) find out what they would welcome from you. You could even invite them to your next bloggers meetup!

Promoting your blog on Facebook

For many bloggers, just keeping a blog going takes up all of their time. But if you want to build your blog readership, you'll need to draw people's attention to it. There are loads of ways to do this, but for today I want to talk about Facebook.

With something like half the population (in the UK and US) on Facebook, it's obvious that people are hanging out there. And the first rule of marketing is 'go where your audience is.'

Jaime Derringer of Design Milk
has a vibrant Facebook Page

If you're already on Facebook, you're probably already mentioning your blog to your friends. But if you want to take it a step further, you could create a Page for your blog. A Facebook Page is not the same as a Profile (your personal page). A Page is for businesses and other types of entity other than individuals and interest groups. There are many advantages to having a Page for your blog: you can post, like and comment in the name of your Blog (rather than your own name), you can promote your Page with Facebook Ads (if you wish) and see detailed statistics about your page (once you get a minimum number of Likes).

A Facebook Page cannot befriend individuals, but it can Like other pages. This means that when people like your Page you can't start a dialogue with them. But the more interesting stuff you post on your Page, the more likely you are to get likes and comments, and your posts will start appearing in the news feeds of both your fans and their friends. Over time, your Facebook Page will become a community in its own right and a complement to your blog. Nurturing a Facebook Page does take time and energy, though. Don't jump into it unless you're confident you'll be able to keep it going.

For inspiration, take a look at these bloggers' Facebook Pages:  Lisa Lam's U-Handbag, Kristan Roland's Confessions of a Cookbook Queen, Anna Hrachovec's MochiMochi Land, Chris Zawada's Lovely Package.

I'm currently experimenting with a Facebook Page for this blog, which you may have already seen. At the moment I mostly re-post links to my blog posts, but I'm also trying to spend a little time each day posting other interesting stuff from inspirational bloggers, exploring useful resources to do with blogging and posting links to it, and reaching out to comment and like other Pages. There's been a small amount of interaction with people and I'm hoping for more as time goes on. I also 'kickstarted' the Page by placing a Facebook Ad for the first month. Facebook offers ad credit for new advertisers, and if you target your ads carefully you can get some good exposure. There's no need to spend very much at all, and it can get you beyond the awkward initial stage when you don't have many 'likes' or activity on the Page.

Are you using Facebook to promote your blog? Let me know in the comments if you have any great examples of Facebook Pages for blogs!