Social Networking

Today, we start a week-long series on Social Networking.

When you use the words “social networking,” people think Twitter or FaceBook or YouTube. The first thing you should be thinking is your own blog.

If you want people to visit your blog, you have to do more than just create a blog and post every once in a while. That’s like opening a store in your house without putting out a sign or any notices about it, then wondering why you have no business. The blog-o-sphere is not an If You Build It They Will Come world.

Pages and pages and entire blogs are written about blogging. But, today, let’s just look at the social networking aspect.

The focus of Straight From Hel is books, writing, and publishing. So, since you’re reading this, you’re most like a writer. Why would a writer start a blog? To get readers, to give advice on writing, to promote a book or books, to brand him or herself - just a few ideas.

To be effective at all of that and more, you have to have people coming to read what you have to say (and jumping over to your website, your FaceBook page, etc.). And to make that happen, you’re going to have to network with other bloggers.

If you’re new to blogging (therefore, no one knows about your blog), you’re going to have to search around and find blogs you think are interesting. Start reading them, every day, for a week or so, leave comments, and if you decide you like them enough to recommend them to others, add them to your sidebar blog roll.

Now, you may say, why would I do that? I want people to come to my blog, not zip off to someone else’s. If they found that other blog through your blog, then they did come to you first. And, if you put someone in your blog roll, that blogger is more likely to add you to their blog roll. Remember the word “networking” in Social Networking? It’s a give and take.

Tomorrow, Part 2 in Social Networking