The one question that every small business owner or internet marketer seem to ask is “how to leverage social networking without going insane??”  Seriously, there are so many to choose from and so little time to actively participate in all of them.  The solution is this is using a free auto-posting service called ping.fm.  This handy site allows you to submit status updates, shorter blogs and longer blogs to dozens of the top social networking websites.  This post is going to cover the primary advantages to syndicating longer blog posts using ping.fm.

Url Shortening. You can now auto-generate a ping.fm url in place of a long website.  This benefit eliminates the need to visit an additional url-shortening site like bit.ly or budurl.  One trick that many marketers exploit is putting a link to the main blog within the first few sentences.

Doing this increases the chance of that link being viewed and clicked on when appearing in an RSS feed blog summary.

Increasing Blog Title Listings. Instead of solely relying on your primary blog to get ranked, Ping.fm adds at least twenty other possible listings for your blog title.  This is important since no one knows for certain which site Google will rank highest.  It could be one, two, or even five of your blog posts.  I’d rather submit to all of the ping.fm sites than play a guessing game to tweak each individual site.   Functionally, the submission sites will act as feeders to funnel visitors to my primary blog. 

Improving Blog SEO. This requires an extra minute of specialization but it’s worth it.  Create anchor text with some basic html coding like what is shown in my blog post’s Youtube video.

Choose a 1-3 word phrase that contains the most relevant keywords related to your topic and what you wish to optimize for future Google searches.  For instance, my hyperlinked anchor text was “DubLi blog”, so readers are most likely to find my blog when searching “DubLi blog”.

This affect is underscored by the fact that ping.fm’s sites not only contain high Google pageranks but most of them are ‘dofollow’.  This last point is vital since Google only considers dofollows backlinks in their ranking calculations.

Saving Time.  I hinted at this advantage above in describing its more specific benefits.  It’s undeniable the power that ping.fm affords to increase social networking productivity in the shortest time possible.  

Marketers and business owners view time as money.  And up until now too many critics abandon social networking and social media due to its time consumption or intangible return.  However Ping.fm solves many of these drawbacks thus allowing more time for other marketing efforts.

Ironically, the most time consuming part of the entire service is initially establishing accounts with all the social sites.  This could take thirty minutes or more however each individual post typically takes about three minutes tops!

Leave your comments below if you have questions or think of additional benefits of Ping.fm.

Related posts:

Social Bookmarking with Onlywire.

How to Use .Gov Blogs for Backlinks.

Why Long Tail Keywords Improve SEO.

All Facebook fan pages have the ability to syndicate posted content to Facebook news feeds and third part sites such as Twitter and Blogger.  Once you add these sites your page updates are automatically seen as blog sidebars or tweets.  This saves time and increases online exposure.

Facebook feeds:

Your fan page updates (status, videos, notes, etc) have the potential to be read by all your fans.  This is where viral marketing really plays out since your fans can then repost it as their status update, thereby spreading your work to all their friends.  Posting quality content or thoughtful questions and spur this reposting.

Blogger:

Linking your fan page to your Blogger blog is simple.  Click on the third heading below your page’s profile picture, entitled “Add fan page to your site”.  Next click on the “Blogger” icon and sign-in to access your blog.  If this is new to you create a free blog at www.blogger.com .  Placing your fan page widget on your blog (see below) will attract your blog subscribers to learn more about your fan page with just one click.

Blogger Widget of Fan Page

Twitter:

Fan pages now allow you to synch with your Twitter account.  Updating your page send out a tweet to all your Twitter followers since a link leading back to your fan page or blog (see below).  This in turns will convert your Twitter followers to your page’s fans.

Tweet of Fan Page Update

Many DubLi associaltes ask me whether it’s still worthwhile to market their home businesses on Myspace. My response: “Absolutely”. Allow me to further expound on this conviction with five core reasons.

1) Still a social networking leader: Let’s not forget that while it’s lost some ground to Facebook, Myspace is still among the top five social networks. In mid-2009 it still boasted over 145 million users. Even if a small percentage are home business seekers, that’s plenty for you to target

2) Branding: Myspace allows for ample branding opportunities with your photo albums, customized background and website link. Having your DubLi brand representation on several social sites will strengthen your credibility and approval by visitors.

3) Videos: Always post your DubLi Youtube videos in your Myspace blog posts for added backlinks to your youtube channel but also more enhanced personal interaction with your prospects.

4) Blogging: Any non-static content sharing site has a huge advantage of a plain or stagnant one. Take advantage of the Myspace blog section by posting a few times a week on relevant DubLi topics such as auction news, trainings or reviews.

5) SEO: Myspace has a Google pagerank of 9/10. This is exceptional high which will give preference to your targeted keywords and related backlinks. Look for content-rich DubLi Myspace pages to individually rank in Google.

Creating an attractive DubLi myspace page beings with a customized background.  Here’s a simple 6-step process that will help you customize your page so you can establish a strong sense of branding and credibility.  This process is based on what I did for www.myspace.com/dublivideos

Watch this video to see how I set one of mine up…

1)      choose a large file size jpeg that will blend well together when tiled continuously.  Choose one that is generally a single color but with contours and texture.  There are several website that offer these.

2)      After saving it the file to your computer open it in Microsoft Paint.  (I edited mine in Photoshop but this isn’t necessary).

3)      Add a variety of randomly placed text layers with your website or just simply “DubLi”.

4)      Save the file as a new jpeg

5)      Upload the jpeg into http://www.pimp-my-profile.com/generators/myspace.php

so you can import the generated url into your myspace background set-up.

6)      In myspace, click on customize profile and then backgrounds.  Copy/paste the url from pimp-my-profile and specify ‘top-left’ and scroll with page.

Keep in mind that your new background jpeg can be used for a variety of social networking sites.  Good luck setting up your own DubLi Myspace page.  Contact me with specific questions or steps I left out.

Thousands of people are searching for DubLi information on Facebook every day.  Searching the term “DubL” yields dozens of related groups and fan pages from which to choose.  Creating a dominant thumbnail for your group or page is critical in standing out from the crowd and thus garnering more click-throughs.

1.  Size:  The size of your thumbnail is the first criterian that should be optimized.  Although Facebook allows for varies shapes, the majority of page owners opt for the standard 4:3 rectangle with the usual DubLi logo.  View the search results space online ‘real estate’.  If Facebook permits taller images (e.g. 200×100), why not use them?

2.  Color: Its human nature to be drawn to brighter, richer colors.  Chances are that if presented with five white background images and one that is fluorescent orange or purple, you’re going to click on the colorful one.  Incorporated a colorful background behind the DubLi name will definitely enhance clicks.

DubLi Videos Page Icon

3.  Topic- specific:  All the flashy advertising will never trump continuity, relevancy and quality.  In other words, make it more than worth-wide for your visitor to view your DubLi Facebook page.  If possible, include your specific DubLi topic in your image and then offer free content inside with discussion boards, notes and/or videos.

The announcement of Facebook Fan pages elicited mixed reviews among countless online social circles.  Many hailed it as a superb and simple alternative to the often-cluttered personal profiles while other scathed it saying that they didn’t offer sufficient “real estate” to develop a business’ brand image.  Other critics felt it was turning Facebook into the Myspace.  However you feel about, I’ve included the top four reasons why every DubLi associate as a home business owner should start their own fan page.

1)  Pages are public.  As opposed to most Facebook personal profiles which prohibit public searches, fan pages allow anyone with a Facebook account to locate them.  This increases the chance for targeted DubLi prospects to find your business.

2)  Control.  Fan page administrators have full control over the posted content.  For instance, they can approve whether a fan wants to post a wall video or add to the discussion board.  Other social networking sites do not offer this privilege.

3)  SEO.  Since fan pages allow for links in wall posts and discussion boards, your chance of quality indexing improves.  Facebooks overall Google pagerank is a strong 9, so keyword rich posts will be more heavily weighted compared to lower pagerank site.

4)  Branding.  Your prospects need to see your DubLi brand image and representation on several social networking sites.  Fan pages allow for ample branding opportunities through the company history, products, photos and videos.

This list of benefits is certainly not limited to just five, however, this should provide sufficient credence for any DubLi home-based business still in doubt.  Launching your fan page is the first step in embracing the online evolution of social media.