Arachne's Sister

In Part 1 we covered the basics of setting up an account and starting to follow conversations. This article will discuss content syndication/reuse.

First, some basic techno-info…

To understand how “syndication” works, I need to delve briefly into some slightly technical territory. Bear with me here, since it will make understanding what comes after a bit easier…

I’m sure you are familiar with viewing content online, take, for instance, a post on someone’s blog. Generally there will be a title and date for the post, as well as the content, which will be made up of text, images, and/or video. There might be some other info too, like categories or tags, related links, comments, etc. You will also see the design of their blog – the header graphic, maybe a sidebar or two, possibly a footer with more graphics or information. They might have some advertisements on their site as well as a navigation menu.

Most likely they will offer an “RSS Feed” for their blog. (This might be a link called “subscribe” or something similar, or it might be a version of the standard RSS icon, which is often an orange box with a dot in the bottom-left corner surrounded by two concentric quarter-circle curves.)

If you were to view the RSS feed, you would see that it is very “bare-bones” and missing most of that extra stuff that you see on the blog itself. This is done so that the content (aka the actual title and post information) can be displayed in a different context, without the additional graphics and formatting interfering.

Now, the great thing about this “RSS Feed” format is that it is very simple and standardized, so most feeds, no matter what website they come from, behave similarly. Because of this standardization, other websites and tools can “read” these feeds in the same way.

What this means for you

So, if you have a blog, or a website which offers an RSS feed version of your content, you can use that feed to automatically display the same content on different websites, for instance, your Linked-in profile, Facebook page, or in your Twitter feed.

Whenever you update your blog, your RSS feed is automatically updated to match, so those different websites that are “subscribed” to your feed, will see the changes also, without you having to update those different websites individually.

I hope you can see how useful this is.

How to link your RSS feed to your twitter account

So, fist, you need to have an RSS feed. If you have a blog, most likely you have a feed, you just need to locate it on your website (ask your web developer for help if you can’t find it).

Next, you need to use a tool to make the linkage – www.HootSuite.com has a built-in capability (under Settings > Rss/atom), if you want to use that. You can also get a free account at http://twitterfeed.com which has the advantage of tracking clicks to the links back to your blog post (since you can’t post the whole article on twitter).

Using either tool, you just click “New feed”, and input the feed url (from your blog), tell it which social networking profiles to post to, and set some other simple options. That’s it!

There will likely be a bit of a delay between the posting of your new blog entry, and it getting copied to twitter or your other social networks, but within several hours, it should appear automatically.

Web Action Steps

• Determine your RSS Feed (ask your blog or website developer for help)
• Set up an account with HootSuite or TwitterFeed, connect your twitter account and any other social networking profiles to it.
• Add your blog feed to your HootSuite or TwitterFeed account and set the appropriate options.
• Continue to blog away!

Syndicating content you are already writing is a great way to get more mileage out of it. If you need help getting these pieces connected, I am now offering a “Social Media Setup & Integration” service. As always, feel free to tweet questions to me @hfloyd.

This is a great post by Guy Kawasaki about why he decided to create a FB Fan page for his new book launch, rather than a separate custom website. I think “speed of implementation” is a great motivation for going this route. However, I might argue his point that a website would cost significantly more than a custom souped-up Fanpage.

I have been aware of the “opt-in” content reveal possibilities for FB pages, and only my lack of time to mess around with FBML coding has prevented me from further experiments with it (that and the rumor that FBML is going out and everything will be implemented as iFrames soon… [sorry for the geeky aside…]).

Anyway, it’s very difficult to do real SALES on an FB page, so you will need something online that can handle sales and link to it from any FB pages you create. (For example, Guy includes links to Amazon, BN.com, Borders, and Indie Bound bookstores.) If what you are promoting is not being sold by a third-party, you’re still going to need a “sales page” outside the realm of Facebook. In those cases, I say – Do both.

Read it all: Ask the Wise Guy: Facebook Fan Page or Website? : The World :: American Express OPEN Forum

Whether you like it or not, Twitter is becoming a marketing force to be reckoned with… Even if you aren’t yet sure about how Twitter will fit into your marketing mix, I suggest that you get yourself set up with an account and start becoming comfortable with the tools.

Select Your Twitter Name

The first thing to do is create an account on twitter.com. You will need to choose a name to represent you on twitter. My suggestion to people is that you select a name that represents you personally, even if you will mainly be tweeting for your business. The reason is that twitter is not really a “broadcast media”, even if you can send out “mass messages” on it. It is really a relationship building interface. Recently I heard twitter referred to as a “cocktail party” with lots of people in the room and you circulate around talking directly to individuals in the room.

If you are concerned about your business identity being poached on twitter, go ahead and register an account for your business name also, but I do suggest that you do your main tweeting from your personally identifiable twitter name.

Another tip for selecting your twitter name is to make it as short as possible. This might mean using some of your initials, or a nickname. Play around with variations until you find one that is available to use.

Get Some Productivity Tools

There are many different tools you can use to manage your social media conversations and postings. One you should definitely get an account with is HootSuite, which will help you get a handle on the different information you want to see, as well as provide ways for you to schedule future tweets and delegate some of your tweeting to your team.

If you have a smartphone, you might want to look into what twitter apps are available for it, so you can manage your social media while on the go.

Start Watching Conversations

Next, compile a short list of key phrases that connect with your expertise. For instance, if you are a financial planner, you might include “401(k)”, “disability insurance”, and “financial planner”.

Do a search on those terms. You can use search.twitter.com, or if you have HootSuite, set up separate “streams” for each of those phrased so you can continue to watch them.

You might notice that there are some “authority” people who turn up frequently in your searches. You can add these people to your “Follow” list to stay abreast of what the general conversation in your industry is.

If someone asks a question, feel free to reply to them with some tips. The idea is not to hit them over the head with your sales pitch, but to give something of value without expecting a return. You should also reach out and ASK questions, even if it’s just to get an idea about what sort of help people are looking for. You might even start to pick up on HOW people talk about your industry, which can be very useful when you do start putting marketing messages out there, even if via your website, blog, or articles.

This period of beginning engagement and listening can last as long as you feel is necessary to become comfortable with learning the tone of conversations around your topics.

Web Action Steps

• Brainstorm several potential Twitter names
• Register an account on twitter
• Sign up for an account at HootSuite
• Brainstorm a list of search phrases
• Set up search streams in HootSuite for your phrases and start looking at the conversations going on around those topics
• Reply to interesting posts with questions or free advice, not a sales pitch

Next, we will discuss putting your messages out there and automating some of your tweeting, but it is important you become comfortable with the way conversations happen before you start sending out mass messages. Feel free to send any questions to me @hfloyd.