Guest Post by Ileane Smith of Basic Blog Tips
Early on I learned the importance of being part of a blogging community. In addition to Blog Engage and the Website Babble forum, I’m also a member of sites like Triberr, Viral Content Buzz and Social Buzz Club (this is my affiliate link). That should tell you how I feel about increasing engagement and answer the question should you just pick one platform to build community. Given my involvement with these communities, I think it’s important to belong to a community that has a built in social sharing platform. Everyone is there for the same reason:to make friends, to read and share each other’s content.
Blog Engage put in touch with a ton of influential bloggers that I’m still friendly with today. I got to know bloggers like Hesham Zebida from Famous Bloggers, Kristi Hines from Kikolani, Gail Gardner from GrowMap, Brian Hawkins from Hot Blog Tips, Justin Germino from Dragon Blogger, Devesh Sharma from Blokube, Harsh Agrawal from Shout Me Loud and of course the owner Brian Belfitt just to name a few. It has made all the difference in Basic Blog Tips‘ growth.
Now back to our main question of should we pick just one platform? I think it makes sense to start with at least two or three platforms. Here’s why – you never know when one of them is going to be shut down. These companies are being bought and sold every day and if you put all of your eggs in one basket you might get left holding an empty bag.
Here’s what I like to do. Twitter is just about one of the easiest platform around. Because everything tends to be short and sweet over there and it’s good for monitoring the news and staying on top of trends. I use a mix of automation and realtime interaction on Twitter to free up some time. You always need to keep your goals in mind and develop a strategy so after your Twitter is all set up, I would try to tackle sites like Instagram or Pinterest.
Google+ and Facebook can be more time consuming; therefore if I had to pick, I would save those for later – after you’ve mastered at least 2 or 3 of the others. Either way, keep consistent and add value so that you will stand out in the noisy streams. Use images and videos. Take the time to talk whenever you can without sharing links all the time. Say something interesting!
I would also focus on offline networking. It’s very possible that your target demographic is right here on the internet but, because they’re not tech savvy, they don’t know how to find you. I’d start out by connecting with folks at Community Centers or sites like Meetup.com to find out what groups they have in your area. Also check out your local Chamber of Commerce and see what resources they can put you in touch with.
I hope that I’ve given your readers some food for thought, but please let me know if you need a hand!
Patricia, I want to thank you for the opportunity to chat with you and your readers in this interview.
Navneet says
Hi Ileane
I believe its time to say to concentrate on all major platforms because everything is fluid and keep changing . Yes thats true what you mentioned.
Yesterday we had Orkut , today we facebook/ google + / Twitter , tomorrow there might be few more .
Follow new platform before its too late .
Thanks
Brian D. Hawkins says
Hi Ileane, I wasn’t sure where we met. It seems you’ve always been part of my life. 😉
I agree, Twitter has to be one of them. The rest would depend on the niche and audience. I also agree that Facebook is a bit of a challenge and might be better to tackle later in the game, if at all. I also agree that joining communities is a must.