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35 Tips for getting started with social media

Started by mfruchter · 8 months ago

If you are going to start using social media, you should at least have an understanding of what it’s about. Social media is not about the tools, the tools are only a facilitator.
Starting with the basics. Roll your sleeves up, get dirty and stake your claim:
1) Register ... Continue reading »

25 comments

  • Mark Dykeman

    8 months ago

    Impressive. Very impressive.

    About 4 - there are different schools of thought about defining your permalink structure. Some people are strongly opposed to incorporating date characters into the URL, as it firmly fixes your posts at a certain point in time, which may turn some people off if they encounter them at some point in the future. Adding the word "blog" is interesting and something I've never considered before: is that in anticipation of a more function-filled website of which the blog is a part?

    Great work!
    reply
  • mfruchter

    8 months ago

    Mark, thank you!

    You have a very valid point regarding the permalink structure. It's a tough call, but a majority of the blogs, including you an I, all use the date in the permalink. I think it's almost become a standard at this point. It does firmly affix your post to a certain point in time as you mentioned, but from a search engine perspective I wonder how much it weighs or is factored in the serps, and or algorithms. If the date does not throw them off in serps, it will once the they hit blog from the time stamp or comments :)

    I think adding the word blog is more beneficial for search engines. If the site is just a blog, a majority of the searches for it will contain blog in the keywords, i.e Broadcasting Brain Blog, Mark Dykeman+ Blog. Definitely having the keyword blog in the url helps, but how much is a good question. As we both know people will find our sites/blogs regardless of the fact. I think it cant hurt, and to some extent might spark anticipation to explore other areas on the site.
    reply
  • mfruchter

    8 months ago

    I have never experimented with a custom permalink structure. I'm curious to see how better these blogs do in the serps, compared to day and name/time permalinks. I know centernetworks.com uses this structure. I don't want change my blog permalink structure to find out. It probably would cause all sorts of 404 havoc. It would be a good experiment though.
    reply
  • Kim Woodbridge

    8 months ago

    After reading this article today I did some research on permalink structure but did not come up with a definitive answer. I do use yoast.com for a lot of my WordPress information and in one of his SEO articles he recommended only using the post name. But I am not clear as to why it would be better - I should probably ask him. There is a plugin you can use if you do decide to change your permalink structure - I installed it when I changed mine and didn't have a single problem. This is the plugin http://urbangiraffe.com/plugins/redirection/ and if you are interested in the yoast article it is http://yoast.com/articles/wordpress-seo/
    reply
  • Daniel J. Pritchett

    8 months ago

    Excellent work, Mike! This is a great resource for anyone working in social media, from neophytes to old hands.
    reply
  • maheshcr

    8 months ago

    Excellent, really thorough post...thanks a ton.

    I would mention one point in addition - Be clear about your goals from this venture and about your motivations. When starting out its easy to be very confused on why one is spending all this effort. Some possibilities here, blog for i)pleasure ii) knowledge sharing iii)personal branding iv) exploration. Of course this is not a black or white categorization and multiple overlaps is the norm.

    Regardless of what combination it is, the outcome has to be measured. If you started out wanting to do this for pleasure, ask yourself if you are having fun or just plodding through because its the latest fad. Basically, consider your ROI very seriously. Without it you might not even realize a course correction is needed and head out way out of track from your original goal.

    This has been implicitly covered in your points but thought it would be good to be a little explicit for someone starting out.

    Thanks again for sharing!
    reply
  • Sandeep Arora

    8 months ago

    Nice. Pretty thorough .

    We have created a Flash Animation on "What is Social Media" and "Social Media Casestudy: CommonCraft".
    I thought you might be interested.
    reply
  • Sandeep Arora

    8 months ago

    reply
  • mfruchter

    8 months ago

    Sandeep, thank you. I really like the flash presentations. I would like to share it on my blog. Is there a flash embed you can provide me?
    reply
  • Sandeep Arora

    8 months ago

    Hi Michael,
    Thanks very much for the above note. Here is the Flash embed for "Social Media" flash.

    <object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="640" height="480" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="src" value="http://vizedu.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/what_is_social_media.swf" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="480" src="http://vizedu.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/what_is_social_media.swf"></embed></object>

    Let me know how it goes.
    Thanks
    reply
  • Dario Salvelli

    8 months ago

    Thanks for this post is an excellent summary.
    reply
  • Kol Tregaskes

    8 months ago

    Excellent article. I do prefer it (where possible) that bullet-point ae used to brng he point over concisely. Thank you, Michael.
    reply
  • mfruchter

    8 months ago

    Kol, thanks for the comment and stopping by.
    reply
  • Kol Tregaskes

    8 months ago

    No worries.
    reply
  • Aad 't Hart

    8 months ago

    Very nice and impressive list of suggestions.. especially the last to suggestions that it takes time and patience...

    well done!
    reply
  • Sean

    8 months ago

    Hi Mike. Nice blog. Widgets are becoming a staple in the smart social media.There is another way to increase traffic to site using Tell a friend widget.It’s completly free widget which allows content sharing without forcing visitors to leave your site.it can be downloaded at for free at http://tellafriend.socialtwist.com/index.jsp . Thought you’d have something to say about it too.
    reply
  • funkyboy

    8 months ago

    Very interesting, positive and motivating post.
    Thanks Michael for sharing.
    I liked it a lot!
    reply
  • Wordpress Hosting

    7 months ago

    Thanks for a great post.

    Can you recommend any creative ideas to entice people to write reviews of their hosting companies for my new site http://wordpress-hosting-reviews.com?

    For now, I'm trying to spread the word that for every blogger that takes two minutes to write a short review of their website hosting company before 30/11/08, I'll donate $2 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

    Any other suggestions would be very appreciated. Thanks in advance!
    reply
  • compassioninpolitics

    6 months ago

    I couldn't agree more. Although i think for most niches 20 to 25 blogs is more than sufficient.
    reply
  • noni benefits

    5 months ago

    Very useful post thanks for sharing, i want to ask you one thing in the tip 7 there how to install FriendFeed comments plugin.

    thanks
    reply
  • Webrecsol Optimizer

    5 months ago

    I checked out your article this,it is really like me and I can see your getting into social networking. I'd love to hear about all your .keep it up.....
    reply
  • sex furniture

    1 week ago

    Great tips! You've summed it all up! This is a must read for social media starters, and a good reference for seasoned ones as well. Every one of those tips are very significant, but my favorite would have to be # 34. Every social media enthusiasts should keep that tip to heart in order to avoid succumbing to failure.
    reply
  • Kim Woodbridge

    8 months ago

    Mike - Wow! You've covered it all. It actually seems exhausting to me :-)

    I agree with Mark that there are differing views on permalinks. I actually prefer to remove the date from mine and use only the post title.

    And I was really happy to see your mention of diigo. While I still prefer delicious, diigo does allow you to bookmark to all three sites like you mentioned. When I first started doing that it was more for bookmark insurance - if one site disappeared my bookmarks would still exist somewhere else. Only later did I think of the social aspect of it.

    I am, however, often hesitant to share my own stuff. You suggested sharing your own content in Google reader. Is that really an acceptable practice?

    On a side note, I am slowly trying to spend more time with friendfeed :-)
    reply
  • mfruchter

    8 months ago

    Kim,

    Thank you. I'm glad to see more people using Diigo. It's really such an under valued tool. It has so many social aspects and features, that people tend to get intimidated and never use it to it's full potential. I think you should absolutely share you own content, when it's your best quality stuff. I do mention often, not to share and promote your own content. This is because others will do it for you. Often when people are starting out they lack a big enough network for exposure. Under those circumstances share your best stuff, until you build up a network and platform for exposure. On a side note, I need to get you more active on FriendFeed :-)
    reply
  • mfruchter

    8 months ago

    Kim, I honestly did not give much of look at posterous. I think perhaps I will do a follow up post, and include some newer services. I was trying to keep the list focused on more Twitter like applications. Tumblr was the odd man out :)
    reply

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