So you’ve created your social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn). You’ve set up your easily remembered branded usernames and you have left your info unpublished until you’re finished entering all of your content. We recommend that you now set up your blog to automatically stream your posts from your blog to your social media accounts. On Facebook you can have it stream to both your personal profile and business pages; but at the very least it should stream through to your business page.
Why stream your blog through to Social Media ?
- It creates fresh, relevant and interesting content for existing customers following you
- It may engage new potential customers
- It creates brand awareness
- It drives traffic to your website
- For Facebook in particular, when inbound links are relevant it boosts the page rank.
There are quite a few applications you can use to stream your blog through to social media. The two applications we recommend are Networked blogs and RSS Graffiti.
Here’s how Networked Blogs works for Facebook (you can also follow suit with LinkedIn and Twitter):
- Login to your personal profile
- Start typing ‘Networked Blogs’ in the search box at the top of the page — you’ll see the application pop up
- Select the application and follow the prompts to create your account
- Select ‘Register A Blog’
- When you are prompted “Are you the author of ‘Name of Blog’” – respond YES and select NEXT
- When you are prompted to “Verify ownership of the blog” you will be provided with 2 choices (a) Ask Friends to Verify You (b) Use Widget to Verify Ownership — Select one of the options. If you have a WordPress website you can easily place a widget on your website yourself. That is the easiest method. If you don’t have content management access to your website, you’ll have to use the verification method. TIP: The message to verify does NOT go to the verifier’s inbox. Unless they are looking for it they may not see the request on their profile page in the notifications area.
- When you are done with set up, you will begin to see new posts flow through to your Facebook business page.
Blog articles display as an excerpt on your page. To read the full article visitors can click on ‘Full Article’ and it will take them directly to your blog — driving traffic to your website where people can check out your services and products while they are there.
Here’s how RSS Graffiti works for Facebook:
- Login to your personal profile
- Start typing ‘RSS Graffiti’ in the search box at the top of the page — you’ll see the application pop up (screenshot below)
- Select the application and follow the prompts to create your account
- Set up is much more simplified than with the networked blogs application.
As you build your following on social media, new followers will be able to read your blog posts. If the information engages them enough they will share it with their friends. If you don’t have a blog, you should think about adding one to your website. It’s a great way to provide fresh content and engage new potential customers.
This is one of many articles we’ve written about social media and how you can use it for your business.
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Original Ginger is a Digital Agency located in the heart of historic Fort Langley, a hip and artistic suburb of Vancouver BC.
