Welcome to my first article. I am going to tell you about myself as I hope to become a regular blogger. I am a web year old web developer, that loves the color blue hehe! I am 23 an I live in New Zealand.
I have run many different forums in the past, and I too have had trouble trying to create forums that are on overused genres. So if you’re wanting some tips, just reply to this blog post. 🙂 Continue reading
Managing multiple social media channels is a time consuming and a labour intensive task. Not only do you need to manage the log-in details so that you can post to each account, you need to track responses, collect engagement data and schedule messages. Fortunately for those of us who have “social media manager” as part of our job description, there are many tools out there to make life easier.
This article was first posted on our blog on 01/04/2010. For this reason, the information may be outdated and no longer reliable/correct.
When you think of a social networking site like Facebook, you probably think of a place where you interact with your friends – a site where people connect with each other. This assessment would be accurate, connecting and sharing with others is your primary goal. This can be an invaluable tool in forum promotion. User ‘A’ posts your site on his wall, user ‘A’ has five hundred friends, all five hundred of those friends now have a personal recommendation to visit your site from someone they know. Let’s say that approximately twenty people visit your site and choose to share it. A chain reaction occurs. This shows how valuable social network sharing can be.
Now, telling people, “Hey guys! Post this site on your profiles online!” is most likely not going to do much. I’m going to teach you today about how to integrate social networking onto your site with minimal effort.
The first site you should check out–and one I personally recommend–is http://addthis.com . AddThis is stunning in its simplicity, but it works. Sign up for an account on AddThis and follow its instructions to get your button. It should give you an HTML code that can be posted anywhere on your site. You may ask, “What does this magical AddThis code do, exactly?” When a user hovers over the AddThis button, a little drop-down menu appears. On this dropdown, they can choose to post a link to your article, your page, your post–wherever the button was–to virtually any social network with very little effort. Some of these sites include Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, StumbleUpon, and Delicious. Over two hundred sites are included in total. AddThis provides advanced analytics, and I was shocked to find that about twelve people had shared my site on Twitter within ten days. Over 800,000 sites utilize AddThis, and you should become one of them.
Moving on, another option is http://bar.meebo.com/ . The Meebo Bar is an interesting little piece of code. To get it, sign up at the URL provided. The code is a little more complex than AddThis, but if you’ve ever edited an HTML document, then you should be able to use it. Be more cautious when adding it to your site, though. What exactly does Meebo do? It adds convenience and connectivity. You can have a link to your Facebook fan page, a built-in preview of your site’s Twitter, Drag ‘n’ Share photo sharing, easy Digg sharing, and more. One of the most interesting features is the Meebo chat. If your users have a Meebo accounts, then they can chat on services such as Facebook, MSN, YIM, and AIM. It is similar to Facebook chat. When they visit another page on your site, their chats are preserved. Your users will be connected to all of their friends, and they will be more apt to share your link.
Of course, the possibilities of social networking in forum promotion are endless. Facebook and MySpace connections allows you to have users log in with their Facebook and MySpace accounts, bypassing registration. Easier registration means that users will be more likely to sign up and post. IP.Board and vBulletin both have some form of these built-in. Another possibility is the use of a Twitter page for your site and all of the promotion efforts that come with that. Look online for more information on promotion via Twitter. A Facebook page is yet another option to be considered.
In conclusion, many users on the web today prefer to visit sites shown to them by friends and acquaintances. Using social networking sites, your site can be promoted that way, and activity can flourish as real-life bonds do the promotion work for you. Using the tools available for these sites, it has become very important. The possibilities are endless, and I hope that you learn to utilize them.
There are thousands of social networks out there. All these networks can be used to generate more traffic and revenue for your site if they are used correctly.
RSS Feeds
RSS feeds are an underrated tool. It only takes a user one click to install an RSS feed which will continually update itself. Every time new content appears on your site the user will be alerted. Naturally, the user will choose to view new content that interests him/her. Offering RSS feeds that can be modified to only show content from certain parts of your site will lead to higher user satisfaction and create more interest from your users.
Facebook is the social networking giant. Every day, millions of users read adverts all over facebook, join groups and read status updates. Creating a Facebook page for your site with a very easily added Like button and link on your site will help to increase traffic. Updating the status on your site’s Facebook page will publish the update on all the status feeds of users that have “Liked” your page, which will keep bringing them back to your site. Being advertised in Facebook’s cleverly placed spotlight with interesting pictures, will generate interest that will bring more users to your site.
Twitter is a rapidly growing status update site. Tweeting about the latest events on your site will keep users coming back. You can gain followers through cleverly placed ads and links on your site. Just having your site registered on Twitter will bring users with similar interests to your site through your followers.
MySpace
Create a page at MySpace and regularly update with information and news. All pages on MySpace can be viewed by all users, so this is a great way for new users to discover your site. Most MySpace users are interested in music which gives those sites with a music theme a great audience. Try adding some videos of your site and put effort into your presentation.
Delicious
Get bookmarked! Spread the word through your users so that more users will be able to find you through the adapted search engine. This is a great way to get new users. Find sites that are similar and generate even more traffic by cooperating with them. Remember to use an interesting and catchy description.
Forums
Forums are a type of social network. Advertising on various forums through methods such as signature links or creating discussion threads about your forum is a great way to gain new users. Just make sure that you follow the forum’s rules.
Using Social Networks the Right Way
Don’t over-do it. Updating too often can annoy users since your updates will stop them from seeing other ones that they want to see. Updating three to four times per week is usually about right, but it depends on the size of your site.
Update regularly. Decide if you are going to update once a month, once a week or several times a week. Long and uneven breaks between updates can cause users to forget about your site.
Create discussions. Use discussions to generate interest and get feedback from your users. Facebook’s comment feature gives you loads of opportunities to do this.
Don’t give too much away. Publish the beginning of articles or news updates on the social network of your choice and provide a link for further reading. This will make users click through to your site and possibly lead to further reading, generating more interest.
Be professional. Keep to the subject, regard your site as a business, and keep a professional look. Nobody wants to visit a site that looks like it’s being run by a child.
Social networks are an amazing tool. They can be used for so many different things. These are some of the largest ones, but there are many others that are more specialized. Spend time looking for ones that suit your site, and publish some interesting information about your site on them. Remember to read the network’s rules before you start posting, so that you don’t cause yourself any problems.
One last thing to remember is that when you are promoting your site on a forum using a signature link, you must act professional. Everything you are posting on that forum represents your forum, and you want to give people the right impression of your site.
This article was first posted on our blog on 22/05/2011. For this reason, the information may be outdated and no longer reliable/correct.
Home
Forum
Guide
Blog
Members