Ideas begin with one person, but the best ones are chewed over by many before being released to the public.
There’s a reason for this. Personal bias and parental protection often makes us myopic about letting go, and this can make us miss the bigger picture. Afterward, we realize our good idea became great because of universal viewpoints.
Something to keep in mind the next time you’re about to tell someone they’re too junior to offer an input into your business masterplan.
Untapped is a weekly video blog that looks at everything and anything. Not just social media; not just business; not just blogging; but more the human voices behind these and more. To receive the latest episodes, feel free to subscribe via email and get the latest video in your Inbox every week.
This is the fourth part of a seven part mini-series looking at how and why to turn your blog into a social media hub. You?ll be able to find the complete series?here.
So far we’ve looked at prepping the networks you’re going to be using for your hub, and what features you might want to consider. By now, you should have a pretty strong idea on what your hub is going to look like, so all we need to do now is find a home for it.
For that, the best option is setting yourself up with a self-hosted WordPress blog.
While there’s nothing wrong per se with free blogging options like Blogger or WordPress (the .com version; self-hosted WordPress is on the .org domain), they severely limit how much interaction you have with them from a user perspective. Designs are limited as well, and add-ons aren’t supported, and to make a truly effective social media hub on your blog, you need fluidity to design.
The worst thing about free blogging options is that you’re also placing all your content into the hands of a third-party. If Blogger, WordPress or any other free blogging platforms change their Terms and Conditions, you could find yourself without a blog. With a self-hosted option, all the control lies in your hands. While there are other options like TypePad and Squarespace, I just prefer WordPress for its ease-of-use and community support.
Just in case you aren’t already using self-hosted WordPress, here’s a quick guide to getting set up :
The reasons for using a self-hosted WordPress blog are numerous, but the main two (at least as far as a social media hub is concerned) are design and add-on flexibility. Since the hub is going to be both your home-base and outpost, you need a platform that can handle your needs – WordPress is perfect for this.
The look and feel of your hub will define how useful it is to your visitors. The less cluttered the look, the more effective the hub can be, although some folks prefer a more information-led design. This is where WordPress and a premium theme comes into play (a theme is just a pre-designed look or framework for your blog) -? you can choose a template, page, sub-pages, sub-domain or any number of design options to present your hub.
There are benefits to each option:
What you choose will mostly be determined by how many resources you populate your hub with. How you populate these resources is up to you; again, the great thing with self-hosted WordPress is that the flexibility of design is limitless, thanks to plug-ins.
WordPress is an open-source community, which means that there is a whole community of developers making really cool applications (or plug-ins) every day. These are released to the WordPress userbase (almost always free of charge) and you can then use them on your blog to help turn it into anything you like.
Some of the best ones for a social media hub (and ones that I’ll show you examples of in the design post coming next in the series) include:
These are just some plug-ins that, along with your design and the existing applications from the various social networks, will make up your social media hub. The great thing with WordPress is that, no matter what you’re looking to do via your hub, you can probably find a plug-in for it. Just go to WordPress Extend and start searching – that’s where the treasure is to shape your hub, your way.
Takeaway: Make a list of how many features you’d like on your blog. Decide if you want to go for a single page, sub-pages, sub-domain and how intensive or lite you wish your hub to be. Sketch some ideas for layout, since tomorrow we?ll look at the various options available, with examples of each to a successful hub. To make sure you receive the latest from?7 Days to Turn Your Blog Into a Social Media Hub, feel free to either?subscribe by RSS feed or?email subscription.
Note: This blog no longer runs on the Headway framework. Instead, it’s a custom WordPress design by Lisa Kalandjian of SceneStealer Graphics.
This is the third part of a seven part mini-series looking at how and why to turn your blog into a social media hub. You?ll be able to find the complete series?here.
Last time we looked at decluttering your social networks, for the simple reason that having too many spreads you too thin. Being spread too thin dulls your impact, and to use social media for your goals (and meet those of your customers) you need to have impact at every touch-point.
Think of it like a flashlight in a power cut. All your current networks are lights, and too many lights blind and confuse, especially if they’re on at the same time.
By cutting the power (culling the dead or less important networks), you naturally switch on the flashlight to guide you to where you can restore power and see clearly again (concentrating on your strongest networks).
So now that you’ve restored power, it’s time to start building your power base. To start collecting your conduits, both incoming and outgoing, and focusing their energy on providing the strongest light beam for you and your customers.
The real benefit of turning your blog into a social media hub is two-fold. You can better manage your social activities, allowing you more time to target and meet your audience. And in return, your audience can find everything they need in one place. They can see your resources; your activities; your skills; your outposts and home-bases. And we all know simple makes for a better user experience.
To start building your hub, you need to decide what results you want from the networks you decided to keep. While they can interconnect, there’s also a lot of nuances on every network. Knowing how to separate them, and then transfer that effectively to your hub, is where the trick is.
So let’s look at some of the main ones from both a home-base and an outpost approach.
While it still has its issues regarding security and reliability, Twitter has become one of the best social platforms around for a multitude of purposes. Connections, conversations, research, customer service, promotional tool, crisis communications and much more. For these reasons and more, it should be a key ingredient in most social media hubs.
The most popular social site around at the minute, Facebook is a behemoth. Yet it’s still very much underused by both people and businesses as an area to drive a social media hub on your blog, and back again. Like Twitter, its potentials are yours to explore.
One of the most underrated sides to blogging is podcasting and video blogging. Both offer an interactive extension to “normal blogging” that often can’t be met by text, and they’re perfect for cross-marketing purposes as well. Seeing a face makes a world of difference in trust factors, and a voice can display the emotion of the content or the excitement of a pitch far better than the written word. The key to integrating into a successful hub is (as with the others) your goals.
These are just three examples – depending on your needs, you define what networks and platforms you integrate. Obviously there’s LinkedIn (although that’s fairly limited for true interaction). Slideshare is another great network for highlighting your knowledge and allowing your customers to benefit from it.
The previous exercise of decluttering your networks makes sure you’re selecting the strongest building blocks for your hub. There are many resources available that will help you integrate them depending on your needs – Google is most definitely your friend here. Once you have the building blocks, we can look at how they benefit your business, and this will be addressed in the penultimate post in the series.
Takeaway: Write down what you want to achieve with each part of your hub. If it’s Twitter, make a list of uses and Google for examples of businesses using each one. Find examples of the best Facebook pages for both large brands and small businesses, and take ideas from each as to what works and what doesn’t. Whatever the platform, find examples of best practices and adapt. Tomorrow we?ll look at why a self-hosted WordPress blog offers the best platform to build a social media hub, in readiness for the design to a successful hub. To make sure you receive the latest from?7 Days to Turn Your Blog Into a Social Media Hub, feel free to either?subscribe by RSS feed or?email subscription.
photo credit: cesarastudillo
photo credit: gilderic
photo credit: nathaniel s
Hi guys.
So today was meant to be the third part of the 7 Days to Turn Your Blog Into a Social Media Hub series. This will appear tomorrow, as something’s been chewing on my mind today (and apologies to anyone who was expecting the Hub post).
When I write a blog post, it’s obviously my point of view. Once it’s in the open, though, it then becomes a shared point of view with you, the readers – and your point of view is what builds the discussions around a post. Sometimes you’ll agree with me; other times, not so much. And that’s what makes the comments after a post such a fervent breeding ground for ideas.
I don’t even mind if you attack me for my views. Heck, I’m big and ugly enough to take your shots, and it shows me that you’re passionate about a topic – and I would never discourage passion.
Besides, I’m the person that’s invoked that reaction, so if it’s an attack, let’s have it open and unfiltered.
What I won’t accept, however, is attacking other commenters. They’re like you – simply offering an additional view on the starting topic. By all means, attack me – the blog is my home and as the owner, I’m responsible for what goes on inside. But attacking another commenter – that’s poor form.
I’m a firm believer in an open comment policy; I don’t moderate before publication, because I feel that stints genuine interaction and conversation. Going by the conversations that have happened over the months, it would appear that most agree.
Let’s play nice and keep it that way. Like I say, attack me if you wish – as the instigator of discussion, I’m open to all views and words. But let’s treat the guests (and that includes you) nicely.
What say you – fair?
photo credit: Martin Deutsch
