We all have email, yet our inboxes are often overloaded. RSS is great, but some are letting RSS take a back seat as they are to busy on social networks.
Where is everyone? They seem to be on Twitter and Facebook.
Twitter and Facebook are two of the fastest growing sites on the internet which makes them two of the biggest networks that your blog should be promoting its content.
The easiest way to do that is to set up your blog with its own Twitter profile and Facebook page.
One of the biggest reasons is for branding. Most people know that protecting the brand is very important. You own the domain, you have the legal rights to the name, so why don’t you have the Twitter profile and Facebook page too? The last thing you want is to try to register your brand only to find out someone has already taken it.
Another big reason is that it’s also a subscription channel. Many users are getting their updates right in Twitter or in their Facebook stream. Why wait for them to check their email or feed reader, when you can get content in front of them right away?
So how do you get it setup?
First you have to register on Twitter to obtain that username and you’ll need to set up a Facebook business page too. Both are free and easy to get started.
Once those are setup, you can easily feed your blog RSS feed into Twitter via FeedBurner, TwitterFeed or Dlvr.it.
Setting up your feed in Facebook is just as easy and I’d recommend using the RSS Graffiti application.
Once everything is set up, then you need to promote your new accounts. To do so, add Twitter & Facebook icons to your blog, corporate website, email campaigns, email signature, or whatever promotion channels you’ve got available.
As the Twitter and Facebook channels grow, there will need to be monitoring and interaction as those are ‘social’ networks after all. However there probably won’t be a lot of work right away as there won’t be many followers.
Getting Twitter and Facebook setup for your company, and claiming your username, is what’s really important here. Managing, maintaining and interacting can come over time.
Facebook and Twitter are two channels that every company should be in. If you’re not already in interacting with customers then you should at least have accounts to protect the brand and promote your content.
Facebook and Twitter accounts are quick to set up, easy to use, and can potentially reach millions of people. Why wouldn’t you join?
