I can’t count the number of people I talk to daily that have a blog. They create great content, and share it through some social media channels. But, their twitter, facebook, and linkedin are not actuallyconnected to the blog.

What do I mean?

I mean that when you post a blog post – it should automatically send to twitter, facebook and linkedin for you. You should never have to actually post it on any other site.

Why?

Well in addition to saving you time from having to go to all the different sites…it also means that you’ll never forget to post it onto the other sites.

Okay, so how do you do it?

Facebook:

• Login to your facebook account
• Click into your main page
• Click on the “notes” tab
• On the right hand side, select to import your blog
• Paste the url to your blog (http://www.yourwebsite.com/blog) into the box
• Click import…and you’re done!

Twitter:

• Login to your blog
• Click on plugins
• Click install new plugins
• Type “wordtwit” into the search box
• The top result will be the one you want, click install
• Once it installs, click activate
• Then, on the left side, click settings and then click Wordtwit
• Sync your twitter account with wordtwit
• Now, every time you post, it will automatically send to wordtwit.

LinkedIn: LinkedIn can be connected two ways, you can either do it through twitter or through linkedin itself. I prefer it though twitter so I am going to walk through that.

• In your blog, you should already have installed WordTwit (as per twitter steps).
• Go into the settings of wordtwit through your blog
• Where its ays tweet message, copy and paste: [title] – [link] #in
• Now, login to your linkedin account
• Click on settings in the top right
• Click on Twitter Settings under your Profile Settings
• Authorize your twitter to be connected
• This will mean that every time you post a blog, it will send to twitter and then to your linkedin status update

Now that you have your blog connected everywhere, you will have an easier time getting people to come to your site!

There are a lot of items that I see pass through my twitter stream and I wish that there was more information. I love the start of the idea, but am disappointed when there is nothing more than 140 characters. on the other hand, I also see quite a few blog posts that would have been better as a simple question on twitter, and left off of the blog entirely. So how do you know if a tweet is blogworthy? Or if a blog posts idea should just be a tweet?

First, a tweet has a limit of characters (140, 120 if you want it easily re-tweetable) whereas a blog post can be as long as it needs to be (however, I suggest no more than 750 words per). This means that topics which require a lot of explanation before opening them up for discussion should be done as a blog post. Topics that can start conversation off of one simple (short) question work well as tweets. Second, a blog allows for people to follow the whole conversation easily whereas tweets and replies can get lost. The last thing you want to see happening is the train of a conversation to miss a track and then lose it’s purpose. Third, If you have a topic that will possibly get heated or need a lot of space for responses, this should be done as a blog post. Tweets are short burst, which can be dangerous for tough topics. Blogs give both the writer and the responder the space they need for a strong argument and clear thoughts.

Overall, the biggest difference and determining factor is whether or not you need room to run. Blogs give you as much as you need, while tweets restrict your text.

What other ways do you decide whether to tweet it or blog it?

Everyone around you seems to have a blog. They are all writing furiously about whatever they deem important. You’re wondering if you need one too but are unsure how to decide. Here are 5 steps to know you’re ready to have a blog:

1. Think about what you want to write about. Do you have a specific area of expertise? Do you want to write a generic blog? Who would the speaker be – employee, manager, ceo? What tone of voice would you want to write in? Determining all the pieces to the puzzle will let you know where you have holes and what questions need answering before you can start.
2. Research other bloggers in your topic. While there is nothing wrong with writing about a topic that is already being written about (because more than likely, you will have different thoughts) it is still good to know your competition. Read what they write, how they write and how they are received. This is also a great place to start commenting on blogs, so that when you do start writing, you have someone already paying attention.
3. Write for a month, every day, just in a word document. At the end of the month, count how many of your notes could be actual content that you would want to share with people. Are there at least 12? Then you can consider blogging. Blogging needs consistency, and knowing that if you write for a month that you can come up with at least 3 posts per week that are good content means that you will be able to maintain your writing.
4. Schedule your blog. Can you stick to a schedule? Can you force yourself to write, even when you don’t want to? Being able to add blogging into your schedule like you would a meeting or a phone call means that you have the desire and drive to stick with it. The biggest issue for most beginning bloggers is being willing to set aside time for it.
5. D0 you have a network built? I always suggest that the best bloggers are ones that already have a network of friends and followers built through twitter and facebook first. If you have a group of people who are already interested in what you say, it is more likely that they will read your blog and add comments, making it successful more quickly.

If you can follow all of these steps, you will have a good chance of being successful when you start a blog.

If you’ve been thinking about making the leap into social media, here are the first four things you need to do for each of the social networking tools we recommend:

Twitter

• Create a custom twitter background that matches your website
• Determine the types of followers that you want to find
• Create a strong profile, biography and use a quality picture
• Monitor company name, key terms for the business, sales words for the company

Facebook

• Create a personal page and a fan page
• Add Facebook fan link in email signature, on the blog, and on linkedin. Give people an easy way to connect with you.
• Invite members from the Orange County networking groups to join as fans, this can be done through twitter
• Connect it to the blog so your posts automatically update on your fan page and your personal page

LinkedIn

• Create a personal profile
• Create a company profile
• Connect your blog posts to both the status and the profile
• Put together an online acceptable plan for all new employees – how they participate, what they say about their job etc so if people ask them questions about what they do, etc

Blogging

• Set up wordpress on your site (including the design)
• Determine categories/tags, and the topics you want covered on the site
• Organize a monthly posting calendar w/ 3-5 posts per week
• Promote it out to your social networks

One of my favorite shows on TV is House, and last night, the case to be solved involved an interesting blogger. The show overall was good, the case solving unique and what you would expect from House…what I want to discuss is the way that they portrayed the blog world.

If you missed the show, the blogger is a woman who shares every detail of her life with her readers, from her fights with her boyfriend to her food choices, and later on, her medical choices as well. As soon as something new happens, she must blog, and tell the whole world (or at least her readers) what has changed. She explains to her boyfriend that if she chooses what to share, and censors what she says, she isn’t being honest, and the readers expect honesty. In one scene, she finds she needs a new liver, and blogs about it. One of the doctors later informs us that they received a call from Singapore asking about how to donate for the blogger. Basically, the show paints her as a woman who isn’t herself without her trusty laptop and blog. So what is the big deal?

My frustration with the show was the fact that they chose to take blogging as only one thing. There was no discussion of blogging other than the type that this woman did – considered ‘life journal-ing’. First, yes, there are probably plenty of women who have blogs and use them just like the woman in the show. They share every detail, some very personal, and use it for publicity. Unfortunately, this paints a poor picture of the blogging world and makes it difficult to help people to understand the other sides of blogging. For me,  this type of blogger is nothing more than a bored woman who can’t deal with intimacy in her own life so she chooses to share it with the rest of the world instead. By the end of the show, I was not only irritated with the woman, but disappointed with the show itself in that it would allow such a poor version of ‘bloggers’ to be broadcast to millions of viewers. Blogging obviously can be just a journal of your thoughts, but that is a stereotype that I fight against every day. When we discuss blogging, most of our clients (and unfortunately friends too) think we mean the type of blogging portrayed in the show. They have a hard time separating the fact that while there are ‘life’ bloggers, that business bloggers are just as important, and can make a huge impact in their industry with the right strategies. In fact, were one of the top business bloggers to share that they needed a liver, they would probably get the same response this woman did. You make connections with your readers through your writing, but that doesn’t mean it has to be personal writing.

On a side note, I found it funny that the blog service she used was a fake – I figured wordpress, blogger or typepad might have jumped at the opportunity to be featured on a hit show…wonder if Fox even reached out to them…

Did you see the show? What do you think about the way it represented bloggers?

If you want to become a better blogger, you have to grow, change and adapt. You also have to know these four tips.

• Remember your overall goal: The blog should have a theme, whether it is all about your business or a combination of business and personal, your readers need to know what to expect. By creating a main goal for the site, it will be easier to develop content and stay on theme.
• Be honest but not overly personal: Even if you want to keep this as a business blog only, you still need to be honest with yourself. If you struggle with certain areas, do not claim to be perfect at them. On the same token, if you are going to include some of your personal side, make sure that you don’t reveal too much. It should never be more than you want strangers to know about you.
• Be consistent: Without consistent content, your readers will not stay interested. The best number of posts is 3-5 per week. Bloggers who can stay consistent with this number of posts will see success with subscriptions and participation. This consistency can be achieved through a good calendar process.
• Use good titles and keywords: Your title is important for your readers, but also important for the search engines. Make sure to use words that you know people will search for when looking for your content in both the title and the post.

What advice can you add to be a better blogger?

Wordpress is our blog software of choice – easy to use, simple to maintain and has great funtionality. To improve this functionality, we also use plugins (tools that do a specific task in your blog). The plugins we recommend are:

• Akismet – The amazingly powerful spam blocker! Protects us against all the garbage that the spammers send through and rarely makes a mistake.
• All in One SEO Pack – Out-of-the-box SEO for your Wordpress blog. Easy to update and allows you to create seo friendly titles and keywords for each post.
• BackType Connect – Show related conversations (from other blogs, Twitter, Digg, FriendFeed and more) inline with your own comments.
• CommentLuv – Plugin to show a link to the last post from the commenters blog when they leave a comment. Rewards your readers and encourage more comments.
• FD Feedburner Plugin – Redirects all feeds to a Feedburner feed. Enables easy tracking through Google.
• Google Analytics for WordPress – It automatically adds Google Analytics with extra search engines and automatic clickout and download tracking to your  blog.
• Google XML Sitemaps – Creates a new sitemap every time your blog is updated which is compatible with  Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO.
• Gurken Subscribe to Comments – Allows readers to subscribe to comments so they can follow a conversation.
• WordTwit – Posts updates to Twitter about entries automatically. Includes many configuarble options, statistics and more.

We use these because they have been successful for us, and are easy to use. Which plugins do use use and recommend?