Tapping in to the Larger Blogging Community

In this month's newsletter on blogging, I wrote a bit about how reading and commenting on other blogs is essential to being a blogger yourself. However, commenting on blogs is not the only way to get involved and increase awareness of your own content. Here are a few other ways:

1. Digg. Set up a profile on Digg and use it to promote blog posts, whitepapers, new site content, newsletters, and other content you think is valuable. Make sure you actively digg other people's content and build up a list of friends. Once you have connected with some other "diggers," you can ask them to digg your content, too. I've noted before that the bounce rate from visitors entering our site from Digg tends to be low, since the categorization process assures a more qualified lead.

2. StumbleUpon. Set up a profile on StumbleUpon.com, which is pretty similar in how it works to Digg. It has a bit more detail when it comes to categorization, too. I've also noticed that visits originating from StumbleUpon have generally low bounce rates.

3. Twitter. I admit that, at first, Twitter seemed like a complete waste of time. However, as I began to connect to more and more people, I noticed that the bits of info and ideas I was getting from them as a group were truly valuable. Twitter also allows you to "listen" intelligently to "tweets" on any subject that interests you. So, if someone asks a question that you can answer, you have an opportunity to help someone and promote your expertise. If you've written something, tweet the link, just don't make that your primary contribution.

4. LinkedIn. I've written about this a few times before, but the LinkedIn Q&A is great. You can monitor particular categories (e.g. blogging, web development, etc.) so that you can quickly answer questions in your area of expertise. Those who submit the questions can then rate your answers. This is a great professional development tool, and a great promotion method. I currently have a question open- hop over an answer if you have time! (What strategies or tools have you used to monitor your company's reputation online?)

5. Facebook. I've been going through various phases of skepticism, reluctance, acceptance, and now enthusiasm with Facebook. But I'm now at the point of having figured out how I want to use it, and being comfortable with it, too. We've set up a Newfangled group (join!), which we use to provide RSS feeds to our blogs and newsletter. I also link to some blog posts on my profile, especially the interviews I've been doing for the past few months. Like any of these other tools, the trick is finding a professional/personal balance. But, if Steve Brock can finally bite the bullet and sign up, so can you!