How to be a better Blogger using Twitter, Linkedin, facebook

Over the months of my blogging, I have occasionally posted articles documenting my experience as a newbie blogger. I did this as a way to share my learning. This post continues the story and and at the suggestion of Blogger.com, asks for something as well: please follow my blogs.

Here is my experience since my last update:

• About a month ago I decided to stop the emails to friends and family telling them to check out the blog posts. Now I only promote online. I am sure they are relieved :). It was a scary day for me however. And a surprising thing happened: visits to my blogs increased.
• Promote on facebook (http://www.facebook.com/) in a couple of places: on my 'Status' and in relevant groups. This is a great social network site with more emphasis on the social.
• Promote on Linkedin (http://www.linkedin.com/) in my 'Status' area and in relevant groups as well. Linkedin is a more business-oriented network. I have received the most response here. The comments on the blogs and the direct communication is generally more well thought out. Plus, I have expanded my network because of the email exchanges. I strongly recommend linkedin.
• Twitter of course (http://twitter.com/). This is a bit of a 'Push' network, but I always see an increase in blog visits when I tweet a new post.
• And most recently, I have found Ping (http://ping.fm/). This site is still in beta, but it allows you to update all your networks with one post. I currently use it to post to twitter, facebook and linkedin. I like the one-stop approach and heartily recommend this.
• I stumbleupon as well (http://www.stumbleupon.com/). This is in my browser toolbar and is an easy way to say 'I like it'.
• I submit my articles to digg (http://digg.com/). Gives me additional exposure.
• I submit my posts to Zimbio as well (http://www.zimbio.com/). I used to publish to my own ezines, but now I submit to various others. This seems more effective.
• I have increased my blog roll on each of my blogs. I ask for a reciprocal link as well.
• I post comments on various blogs that interest me. I post with my name and blog URL.

All of that sounds like a lot of work. It is but it actually takes about 15 minutes after I post new material. And with ping.fm, I can update twitter, linkedin and facebook with one post. This is much more efficient.

And now the next step, working to increase my followers. Please check out my three blogs and if you see something you enjoy, follow me. Here are the blogs:

• http://mykalsreport.blogspot.com/
• http://giraffemarketing.blogspot.com/
• http://realjamaicancooking.blogspot.com/

Thanks for your support