If you’re looking for more readers for your blog use the captive audience you already have. Facebook (FB) and LinkedIn (LI) already allow you to write in links under your profile so you should be listing your blog sites there at a minimum if you haven’t already.
Facebook allows a seemingly unlimited number of URL’s that you can type in the Information section under the Contact Information tab of the profile section. The “Websites:” text field is at the bottom of the section and you can type away. The sites show up under your profile so your facebook friends can click the links at will. Just click on the little pencil icon in the Information box under your profile picture and that will open up the editing section to enter your site addresses.
You’ll notice that I have three sites listed: MartyBLOGs, my LinkedIn profile and my amazon.com book sellers site.
On a basic LinkedIn account you can list three URLs max. The sequence of mouse clicks is Profile-Edit My Profile-Websites-Additional Information-Edit. You can categorize the type of site from the drop down menu of each URL text box. I only have two sites listed but I’ll probably add my amazon site as the third here and try to get more books moving (smile).
So those are the basics but there are even more effective ways to use each account and that’s the true emphasis of this post. Here’s the advanced class on drawing greater attention to your blog and potentially scaling up your reader numbers.
Use facebook’s “Notes” feature to your advantage. I noticed this recently when one of my facebook friends used it to distribute a meme. Well you can also use Notes to import your external blog. Every time you post something it will also feed into your Notes application so your facebook friends can read your blog entries. If they have never gone to your blog site before, now you can potentially hook them at a glance. Here’s the set up. Settings-Application Settings-click the Notes icon. In the column that displays to the right you’ll see a heading that reads “Notes Settings” and under that is the “Edit import settings >>” link. Clicking that link takes you to the “Import a Blog” tab and that’s where you enter your blog feed address. Voila! Now your FB friends know what a talented writer you are.
On LinkedIn the setup is a little different. I have a WordPress blog so that’s the example I’ll use. Under “Edit My Profile” there’s an “Applications” section. Click on “Add Applications” and pick the WordPress icon. From there complete all the details and voila once again, you’ve got a feed into your LinkedIn profile so all your professional connections can get a sense of your blog writing talents and possibly become regular readers and commenters. I’m not sure if LI offers this feature for other platforms so you may have to research it some or even send them a request to add yours if you don’t find it as an option.
If there’s any part of your virtual arsenal that’s worth loading up on this week it is these two features. Give at least an hour to each. It is well worth the tune up for your profiles so let’s get to it and expand your platform.
