Community and Social Networking Sites - Should You Care?
Add to : Del.Icio.Us / Reddit / Digg / Stumble Upon
For those of you not really familiar with MyBlogLog, check out Joshuas’ post over at Time For Blogging. Joshua wrote a really nice tutorial on how to get traffic from MyBlogLog.
Why should you care / or not?
I strongly believe that social (and even profesional) networking sites or community sites like mybloglog, blog catalog, linkedin, facebook and even myspace (though i hate myspace, i think it’s the worst site design ever, but they must be doing something good..) are excellent ways to get more exposure (and traffic) and find people to interact with, and maybe visit your site or blog. Gotta make damn sure you’re not spamming, by the way!
On the other hand i don’t think one should focus on promoting his or her site(s)/blog(s) this way only. There are tons of other ways to get traffic to a blog, but social networking sites like mybloglog makes it easy to meet new people and find out about new sites/blogs that may be of interest to you. Hey never know you may find business partners and make new friends using community/networking sites! I did! ;)
What’s your take on all this?
So what do you think of social networking sites/community sites? Should you join in and start “adding friends”, or you simply don’t care? Have you noticed a good increase in traffic after you joined and started using community sites? How many of the people you sent a message to, or visited their blog actually returned the favor and added you as well? And how many people started commenting and participating in the discussions on your blog?
Add to : Del.Icio.Us / Reddit / Digg / Stumble Upon
If you enjoyed this post you might want to consider subscribing to my RSS Feed, and you can also receive updates in your e-mail, so you'll always be up to date. Thanks! ;)
26 Responses to “Community and Social Networking Sites - Should You Care?”
Discussion Area - Share Your Thoughts
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Hey Kiltak (sorry to approve the comment a little, got caught in the smap filter, geeksare “sexy” i guess is what triggered that, fixed now)
Yeah Digg can definitely bring some nice traffic, but it’s also about how many will keep visiting and return to your site after, I find stumbleupon to be a pretty nice way to attract people :)
Yep, we definitely love search engine traffic! hehe
Jonathan - Thanks for the ping. Too many people think that all you need to do is add friends to be successful and build traffic. There is nothing farther from the truth. It is like advertising condoms in a celibacy forum . . . if your audience is not targeted, you’re wasting your time.
As for the whole SPAMMING thing . . . don’t get me going!
The only reason I think I’ve gotten people to visit my blog is through commenting on other blogs.
Another good place to find some good sites and to get noticed is SpicyPage.com ( http://www.spicypage.com/ )
Forums and stuff is always good. Some graphic design forums offer a critique section, just put your blog there asking for a design critique, so then the members will HAVE to go to your site :D.
Hey Josh! You’re welcome!
Man i had a laugh when i read your reply, advertising condoms in a celibacy forum! But you know what, it could work, Depends how you approach that.
Sean, absolutely, commenting on other blogs is a great way, if you post relevant comments, and participate in the discussions some people will visit your blog to find out more about who you are. And it’s even better when the blog you’re commenting on has “do follow” (like SmartWealthyRich.com) :)
Jonathan. What functions and tools would you want to add to BlogCatalog to make it more useful to you?
Tony
Hi Antony, thanx a lot for stopping by!
Well i joined blog catalog just recently and i’ve yet to put a widget on my sidebar, but so far i must say i really like blogcatalog. Well good thing you stopped by SWR, i’ll add the blogcatalog widget right today :) Of course i cannot say, as of now, what tools and features i would like on blogcatalog, but i will definitely give you a feedback after a couple days of using the widget and getting more involved.
Again, thanx for stopping by, and make yourself at home.
The two biggest things that I find essential for a blog are writing and networking. For me, commenting on other blogs is the best networking.
It’s what I enjoy the most, and I think it’s the most direct connection because it happens right here on the blog.
Mybloglog to me, is an extension to commenting. It’s something to do in addition to it, but not instead of it. I’ve stayed away from it so far because it would take too much time away from the core time I spend writing and commenting.
Good point you bring Shane. It depends a lot on the amount of time you have on your hands, if you can do it (on top of writing, commenting, reading and researching), community sites are awesome for networking (i’ve met a lot of key people, some who i would really do business with), but in my opinion shouldn’t take “all” the place.
On the other hand, community sites can drag way more traffic than comments to a blog. But of course by commenting you don’t have to manage the messages from people who just wants you to visit their site without visiting yours.
I’d say if you have time to network with others through community/networking sites, go ahead. But still have to focus on the content, since the content is the only reason that will make people wanna visit again. :)
Antony, i spend the last hour or so browsing blogcatalog, trying to find what i think could be improved and/or added. I can post some suggestions on here, or would you prefer i send you an e-mail?
Heya Jonathan,
I just wanted to let you know I tagged you for the MyBlogLog wagon. It will be a great way to increase your community members on MyBlogLog.
If you’re interested in hopping on, here is a link to my post:
http://www.bloggingforbills.com/2007/04/join-mybloglog-wagon.html
Thanks and take care!
(excellent post by the way :)
Ryan
Hey Ryan! Thanx for inviting me, i appreciate it a lot. I’ll maybe participate, but right now i’m a little busy with writing posts and tweaking stuff and working on different projects. I haven’t jumped in the technorati fave thing really either. I’m kinda wondering if there’s is any other real benefits to “finding a way around the system” than to increase our numbers. I’m in fact writing a post about that right now, should be published in a couple days (wanna make sure it is well-written so no one bashes me) :)
Keep in touch, and thanx a bunch for the link on your blog, it’s really appreciated, like i said, i’ll maybe participate, but i’ll have to weigh the pros and cons before i do.
I recently joined BlogCatalog after you mentioned it on here(was unfamiliar with it). I got an email from them within an hour or so saying I was turned down because I didn’t place a widget on my site…..I hadn’t had a chance to yet.
I pretty much hate MySpace. SPAM galore!
As for MyBlogLog, I keep changing my mind on it. I think these sites are great in theory, but there are so many people just spamming you, it gets old quick. I really have mixed feelings about them. I’ve found several blogs I like through MyBlogLog, such as SmartWealthyRich, but I don’t think I’ve picked up very many readers from there. It has brought quite a bit of traffic to my site, but not in the form of “regular readers” that I’m aware of.
Hi Anthony, umm, that’s weird, i remember when i joined blogcatalog i put a button on my blog (see the “badge” section) and it was fine, didn’t have to get the widget (though i added their widget today). You can probably send them an e-mail to see what’s wrong (been chatting with some of the guyz from blogcatalog, and they’re real cool!), i’m sure they’ll have it fixed and approve your blog (think you just need to put a button or something on your blog) i suggested a couple of things to them.
I totally agree with you man, myspace is… well.. what it is. I read somewhere it was first designed to help bands promote their songs/shows/albums… but guess it turned out all the kids wanted their place on the web.
Mybloglog is fine i think, i’m getting quite a lot of traffic from there.
Like Shane said, commenting on other blogs is a great way to interact with other bloggers also.
:)
Hi Anthony,
Great blog. I’m not sure why we declined it. I have approved it.
Thanks Jonathan for you invaluable feedback.
Tony
You’re more than welcome Antony! :)
Yeah, I just noticed the email. I appreciate it……..And I look forward to exploring Blog Catalog!
Like you said, social networking sites are great, but people shouldn’t only focus on them.. Back a year ago, digg is really what got my blog on the map, but now I prefer to get my readers from other sources.
I noticed that my most loyal readers often come from other blogs where I comment frequently. When they visit, they often leave comment of their own, which is really what most people should wish for their site. Don’t forget that google will index comments when it spiders your pages. The more content you have, the more traffic you’ll get from search engines (and we all know that the people who really click on ads are the ones that come from search engines!)
If it wasn’t for mybloglog we wouldn’t have met buddy, goes without saying I value your friendship, its a good way to build up a network and meet great folks. And as Shane puts it, commenting on other blogs is a great way of networking. Sometimes google can be kind enough to give a couple of hits too….lol.
Cheers mate and take care.
Totally agree with you Robin, we met through mybloglog, so it is definitely useful! :)
Talking ’bout google, makes me wonder when the next “page rank update” will be.
Yep, for sure, social networking sites are a great way to meet new friends as well as to get lotsa traffic.
To be honest, I only comment on worthy blogs, and yours is definitely one of them.
I guess, commenting and all may be a bit time consuming, but it is a great way to build relationship.
However, more importantly, to invite long term readers, the content of the site have to be quality in the first place. That have to be the main priority.
Cheers,
Jag
Hey Jag, thanx a bunch for the encouraging words! Focus has to be on the content, but on the other, the best writer inthe world is not “the best” if no one knows about his book. Same with blogs. I’d say that spending some time networking, participating in the discussions and getting involved in communities should be part of a “daily schedule” or something. And of course we can learn a lot by reading others’ blogs :)
“myspace is… well.. what it is.”
Haha. Very diplomatic Jon!
haha, yeah, well never know when the big boys from myspace are checking out your blog heh? lol
Networking has always been fundamental in gaining exposure, awareness and recognition. Online networking is no different, and should be embraced as such.
Thanks for the interesting article.
Hi Martin, you’re right, offline networking is exactly the same (like mlm for example)
Happy you liked the post :)
Take care
[…] wrote a post yesterday about community sites and social networks. So this post is sort of like a quick follow up on that, and to let you guyz/galz know the folks […]