What We Do: DIY Content Syndication and Promotion

There are now so many ways to get your word out, that every blogger has to make the decision: how far and wide do I want to distribute my content? Do I want it to be automated or selective? When do I start to feel like a spammer, not a sharer? Which tools are really effective, and which are just taking my content for free? How do I track my words, once I’ve set them free? How do I still protect my content? What about audio and video? We’ll be talking tools like Twitter, Facebook, kirtsy, StumbleUpon, Digg, Qik, Utterz: all of which can be either well-used…or abused. –from the Blogher website, the panel summary on which I’ll be speaking

Hard to believe we’ve only got two weeks until Blogher, y’all. Registration closed yesterday but I’m seeing a lot of Blogher ticket giveaways over on Kirtsy…if you want to get in, there might still be a way!

I’ll be speaking this year about DIY Content Syndication and Promotion (see the first paragraph of this post for more on what that means). Thought you might want to pre-think this out with me…

1. Get to Know Your Tools Beforehand

Someone asked me yesterday about how to use applications such as Twitter to reach out to customers. The first step, I honestly believe, is to get comfortable as an individual using the tool first. Don’t hop on in CEO-mode and think you’re going to learn the ropes in 24 hours. This goes for any social networking site. Invest time with the tool and it will serve you well. These two weeks before the conference would be a good time to start learning Twitter, Plurk or any other platform you might want to explore. Plug for Socialthing! — if you want to see a steady stream of other people’s updates (Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, etc) in one place, you might give it a go. I have 1 million Socialthing! invites (I, uhm, know someone on the inside), so send me an email or leave your addy in the comments here if you want one.

2. Twittetiquette

The next question, once you’re confident using the tool, is typically, “How do I begin to develop community or buzz around my brand?” Tara Hunt has a great guide to Twitter for companies that may spark some ideas…including a substantial list of “stuff to tweet about.” Some companies to follow that get it right, for the most part, are BrightKite, Zappos and JetBlue. Check them out for good practices.

For the most part, remember that if you’re using a tool, be it Facebook, Twitter or Vimeo strictly for marketing purposes, you’re likely going to be following thousands and be followed by like twenty-three people. That’s worst case scenario. Opening up the dialogue is a commitment and takes work. Companies are hiring evangelists in many cases to keep up with all of these information streams…it can be a little like Pandora’s box in the beginning, well worth it for keeping in touch with the people using your product or service.

3. Good Practices (Online + IRL)

Be Accessible: Stale tweets/status updates need not be replied to publicly, use direct messages for that.
Be Prompt: Avoid the problem of stale tweets altogether. Subscribe to mobile updates and have your outreach person/evangelist monitor the stream.
Be Helpful: Answer questions honestly. Questions you can’t answer? Promise follow up and then…you guessed it…follow up.

4. What Do I Do to Increase My Reach?

This year’s Blogher theme is “Reach.” The question on my mind is not just how to increase my reach but, more importantly, who do I want to be reaching? There’s no secret recipe to getting people to your blog. Invite them, share your enthusiasm, visit theirs…

Last year after Blogher I wrote a piece that stirred up some emotions about blogging being dead complete with a photo of the Macbook that didn’t make it out of our house fire (never been accused of understatement). I was wrong and right. The blogosphere has honed its collective focus a lot over the course of 2007-2008. Blogs have raised design standards and “personal brand” has become a buzzword, for better or worse. This year at Blogher I trust there will be a lot of talk about how to “brand” ourselves…which leads me to my next point.

5. Be You. You, You, You. Plant Seeds, Grow Flowers…

A conversation from a few months back with my friend/biz and brainstorm partner and sworn introvert Paul, went something like this:

Me: “I’ve been working on this for over a year now and I can’t seem to do it, Paul. I can’t summarize myself in a few words!”

Paul: “Gwen, step back from the ledge. You’ll never be able to do that…and you wouldn’t want to. You can’t sum yourself up and that’s not the point. Put yourself out there and listen to what people respond to. Let that give you direction.”

Me: “Well, dang. Ok, so I don’t need a really killer tagline?”

Paul: “You think people will stop reading if you don’t have a tagline?”

Me: “Oh.”

You are not your blog (seems obvious now, but doesn’t during the insanity of the conference). You aren’t your tagline (although I’ve seen a few witty ones that sum people up pretty well). You aren’t your company (even though it might feel like a marriage sometimes, it’s not). When we meet at Blogher we’ll be introducing ourselves and becoming friends based on shared interests…I kind of think of it like phenotypes. You and I pair up and match on certain interests, we create a red flower. I meet with another person later in the day with another set of interests, we create a purple one.

The point is, we’re co-creating our realities. Blogher is about planting seeds. Let’s see what we can grow together.

Stretch, reach, breathe, release, repeat. Who knew blogging helped you burn [brain] calories, too!?