DAY 18: ACTIVATE A SOCIAL NETWORK
While there’s no exact science to building a readership, social networks — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest — can play a big role. Figuring out how to connect with your audience on social networks is an important step, and if you blog on WordPress.com, you have a tool called Publicize that lets you automatically share new posts across your social networks.
No blog is an island. Clicking Publish is just one step of blogging. Getting your work out there and attracting readers — other than your mother and best friend — is just as important. If you’re dying to publish today, you’ve also got two posting options.
Today’s assignment: Explore one or more social networks, and start an account so you can being exploring the possibilities. If you’re already active on a social network, set up Publicize and link the account to your blog, and/or create a strategy for how you’ll use it.
Why?
Because networks like Facebook and Twitter are full of new readers, just waiting to find you.
Because social networks can act as an extension of your blog, giving readers another place to connect and you a place to share other thoughts and links.
You have lots of options – Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, for starters. If you’re a photographer, try Instagram. A food or style blogger? Pinterest waits for you. Hoping to building a business? LinkedIn. A generalist, or not quite sure where your audience is? Twitter and Facebook.
You’ll also want to think about how to use the platform. Simply sharing your posts isn’t enough — that’s no different from following your blog. You’ll want to engage with other members, share other content (like links you love), and use it as a place to extend conversations that start on your blog.
Not sure where to start? Click on any of the links above for our run-down on the platform, how it can work with your blog, and how to get started.
Once you have an account, connecting to your WordPress.com is easy — head over to Settings → Sharing in your dashboard. At the top of the page, you’ll see the options below. Connect whichever one(s) you’r like using — you guessed it! — the Connect button:
If you have a Facebook Profile or Page, a Google+ Profile or Page, or a Twitter account, consider connecting one (or all three, if you’re up for it) to your blog. You can click on the links below for specific steps:
As an example, let’s connect to Facebook, which can grow to be a rich network of your blog’s supporters. When you connect to Facebook in Settings → Sharing, a message will appear, asking you to authorize the connection. Then, Facebook will ask you to allow WordPress.com to post publicly on your behalf. You’ll also be prompted to allow WordPress.com to manage your Facebook pages, if you have some.
So, what happens now? Before you publish a new post, you’ll have the option to share it on Facebook — just confirm the box is checked next to your Facebook account in the Publicize box at the top right of your Edit Post screen. If you uncheck the box, the post won’t be shared. You can also customize the message (or tweet) that appears with your post (the default is your post title).
Want more details? Check out a recent crash course on Publicize and connecting to Facebook, Google+, and Twitter.
You can also highlight social networks in your sidebar — there are widgets for Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and you can use text and image widgets to create your own custom links and graphics.
If you’d like to write a post today, you have two options:
. A post inviting readers to connect with you on your social networks, and describing how you’ll use the social network to deepen and extend what you do on your blog.
. A post reflecting on yesterday’s task — what was it like to read the different takes on the same prompt? Did if lead you to reconsider you own interpretation?
To chat with other Zero to Hero participants, visit today’s forum thread.
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