One of the more effective ways of promoting your blog is to use a site everyone either loves or hates – Facebook. The social networking site allows you to create a page to promote your blog or business – and it’s completely free. MakeUseOf has one and it’s doing very well.By having a Facebook page for your blog, you can set up your RSS feed so your new posts appear on your fan page. Facebook members can then become a “fan” of your posts and comment on your posts inside Facebook.
In short, you can:
- create a mini community of loyal blog readers inside Facebook.
- encourage them to click through to your blog and sign up for the proper RSS feed.
1. Sign up on Facebook
First you have to have a free Facebook account. If not then go here and set one up.2. Click zee link
Then click on this link to get your fan page going. Here is the page that will then appear :
Enter the name of your site (or whatever you want your page to be called) in “Name Of Other Business”, tick “I am authorized to create this page” (assuming of course you ARE authorized), enter your name under “Electronic Signature” and then click “Create Page”.
3. Customize Your Page
Your page will now be set up and you will be taken straight there.Here are some of the things you can do to customize your page :
Customize your image :
The first thing your page obviously needs is an image. For blogs, the obvious image to first consider is your logo.To upload an image, just point your mouse to the image area and a menu will pop up with various options.
You can either upload a photo, take a picture with your webcam or choose from a Facebook album.
Customize your site information :
In the “Info” tab, you can type detailed information about your site such as the URL, the “overview” (so this would be a good place to enter any tagline or motto that your site has. MakeUseOf’s is “Cool Websites, Software and Internet Tips”).You can also enter information such as when you started the site and if you have any “products” you’d like to talk about.
In short, use this section to blab away about your site.
Set up your blog RSS feed to show your new posts in Facebook
This is, I think, one of the most important aspects of a blog fan page. If you are unable to show your new posts, how can you possibly persuade people to come to your site and sign up for the RSS feed?- First, click on the “notes” tab at the top of the page.
- Select “Import A Blog” in the Notes Setting section. You can only import from 1 RSS feed at a time. Simply “Stop Importing” if you want to change the RSS feed.
- Enter the RSS URL in the box provided. Check the box next to the statement that you actually own the content. You cannot import RSS feeds from websites that are not your own or that you do not have permission to reproduce.
- Click the “Start Importing” button. Facebook will import the content of the RSS feed for you to preview. If everything looks OK, then go ahead and press the “Continue” button. Your RSS feed will now be automatically imported into your “Notes” section.
- After that, everytime you publish a post on your blog, a summary of the post along with a link will appear on your Facebook page.
4. Publicise Your Page
Now that your Facebook page is all set up, all that remains to be done is to publicise it to your readers so they can “fan” you. Some methods to get the word out there include :- Writing a blog post about your new Facebook page (don’t forget to link to it).
- Putting a prominent link at the top of your blog or in the sidebar. Just grab a Facebook logo from Google Images and then link it to your page.
- Sending out an email to all your Facebook friends and telling them about your new fan page. If they were interested enough to become Facebook friends with you, I’m sure they will be interested in your blog too.
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