The Three Things Every Blogger Needs to Understand About Social Networking

I can't even describe how big of a role social networking is to blogging nowadays. For some critics, social networking might just be the new blogging or worse, the start of blogging decay. Whichever way you look at it, only one thing is very clear - that social networking is there to stay. Now, we bloggers are on the rush to use this new tool. But before you dive head fast to the craze, know what you have to know first.

Name me a person who doesn't have Facebook or Twitter

Some people might brag about this that they don't actually have an account. Anyways, let's go straight to the point almost everyone has one. Meaning, social neworking is a place where literally millions of people from all views and walks of life converge together. Marketing people might even call it as the "target market haven" precisely because whatever you do, you're sure to find an audience in there.

How bloggers behave in social networking

The first thing you have to know is to how we behave on these sites, later on, I'll show to you why that behavior greatly affects the outputs. Basically, we bloggers extensively promote in social networking sites. On some extreme cases, a number of bloggers even do heavy spamming without any respect to the community of people especially to the most basic terms of services (TOS). Twitter is a very good example of this case which kinda tell you why I bulk unfollowed 1,831 people months ago.

How people respond to bloggers in social networking
Here comes the funny thing. Still an overwhelming number of social networking users have very little grasp on the concept of what 'professional blogging' really is about (their aint idea revolves around things like Facebook notes, Myspace, and Livejournal blogs). So, what does this mean? Now here comes the simple truths.

ONE: Social networking for probloggers could be pointless.
Why? because usually your contacts here will still be the very same bloggers you know. That's a very interesting thing that I've noticed really. Especially for niches like blogging tips, make money online, internet marketing etc., no normal person would really understand the linggo used (unless he starts to get real interested). But of course, the obvious use to would be the using it as a tool for your campaigns (like new posts, announcements, etc.).

TWO: Personal blogs leads in using social networking sites
You have to understand, the very reason why social networking sites are in boom is because people can connect and share their personal thoughts with people they know. It's an interaction gone online. And this is the main advantage of personal blogs and bloggers who covers topics about normal day-to-day living. Compare shopping tips blog from an seo blog for example. Who would care about things like page rank and google bots anyway except we bloggers? Now, talk about shopping tips and in an instant, you get to have people who's going to be interested about it simply because it's a normal activity everyone can relate too.

The lesson here is that if your blogging about relatively common, normal things in everyday life, social networking will work out best for you.

THREE: People from social network sites take LESS action [important]
It's a trend bloggers are seeing when it comes to promoting via social networking. ProBlogger Darren Rowse for example, when he released his 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook specifically noticed it. The rationale behind it is that SN sites are built and are used for the purpose of leisure. You can't expect everyone to take you seriously simply because they're not even serious when they are on SN mode.

In conclusion, one can always say that social networking sites as a promotional tool is a very powerful one. But like any marketing principle would tell you, you have to learn first the behavior of people using it and your own way of using it. It's how you try to create an even better technique for your own blog's sake.