It can be overwhelming – Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, and the list goes on. You’ve all heard of these social media services – but how many do you actually use? In most cases you use either Twitter or Facebook – or both. Once we go further down the list you might not even know what these other services are. When I started this blog in October of 2007 Twitter was a completely unknown service and Facebook was just a way to stay in contact with old friends.
Well a lot has changed in the last two years and this has had a big impact on Domaining. It is now more important than every for you to embrace every form of social media you can in order to reach as large an audience as possible. Okay – so I know what you are going to say now – “It’s too much! Information overload!” Don’t worry – I’ll show you how to embrace these services without going nuts.
Twitter
You should have a Twitter account. End of story. Twitter has become the social media kingpin and is an incredible way to communicate with a large amount of people. If you want to get started just start following some of your favorite Domaining bloggers. Not only will you learn from what they are tweeting but you can begin conversing with them and asking questions or sharing ideas.
Now here is where Twitter gets interesting. Make a Twitter account for every domain you develop. Okay – if you have a gazillion mini-sites this might not be fruitful, but pick five or ten domains that you have developed and make a Twitter account for each. Then, every time you post a new article on the domain or make a feature change – Tweet about it! This will only take an extra minute or two and is well worth the time. If you want an example take a look at the Twitter account for my Money Saving Blog – the account name is MoneySaverUS and I use it to update people when I write a new post and give quick money-saving tips when I can.
Facebook
Facebook started as a service for communicating with old friends but has become an incredible place for connecting with and making business contacts. There are plenty of Domainers on Facebook and this is a great way to connect with other Domainers. Facebook is also a great place to blast-out information about anything you are doing with a particular domain, a new blog post, or just some thoughts on the Domaining world.
Making a link to Facebook on your blog or the main site that you focus you energy on is a great way to stay connected with your readers.
MySpace
It seems that MySpace’s market has been eaten by Facebook! I used MySpace years ago but haven’t used it in the past two years – as long as you are using Facebook to connect with people you can pass on MySpace. What is interesting is that bands, clubs, and concert venues have stuck with MySpace so if you are in this niche it might not hurt to have a MySpace page.
Digg
Digg is a great way to get your blog posts out to a larger community. Digg is a bit of a momentum play – if someone else likes your article and Diggs it and a few people Digg it after that it can really get velocity. Digg is also a great way to understand what makes a popular blog post – just look at something that has been Digged hundreds of times – try to figure-out what that author did to make the article so popular. In many cases these really popular articles come from major blog but you can still learn a lot from these.
If you don’t have a blog you don’t have to worry about Digg. I would suggest reading Digg but you don’t have to Digg anything yourself. Of course if you’ve developed some of your domains into blog sites – this is a great place to put the content.
StumbleUpon
This is one of my all-time favorite services and one that I’ve been using for quite some time now. StumbleUpon is a great service and you can even add the StumbleUpon toolbar to your browser to stumble from anywhere! What is stumbling? SutmbleUpon creates personal recommendation for sites you would like based on your own ratings of the sites you visit. If you’ve ever used Pandora before then just think of StumbleUpon as the Pandora of websites. As you browse the web start ranking sites either a thumbs-up or a thumbs down. StumbleUpon will start to learn your tastes and suggest sites you might like.
As a blogger or Domainer (or both) this should be a go-to tool for you. You can Stumble your blog posts and your developed domains to help share them with the world. If you haven’t embraced StumbleUpon start today – you won’t be sorry!
Reddit
Reddit is Digg’s main competitor. It is a very similar service and should be used in the same way. So why would you use Reddit if you are already using Digg? As a user you wouldn’t – but as a blogger you should! Having your posts on Reddit as well as Digg is just a great place to get your content out to a larger community.
There are more social media services out there but these are the ones that I focus on and have really helped me grow my business and traffic to my blog and domain investments. I hope this post makes this a little less overwhelming for you and helps you put-together a focused promotion plan for your blog or domains.
Have any services you want to share? Had a great experience with one of these services? Can’t stand one of these services? Comment and let your voice be heard!
