Don’t let Twitter & Facebook steal you away from your blog

When I started Twittering a year ago, I noticed I was spending far more time there than at this blog, and I wondered if other bloggers were finding the same thing.

So I asked the question on Twitter and Facebook. Indeed, many bloggers admitted to either abandoning their blogs, or posting far less frequently. That’s a huge mistake.

Twitter and Facebook are incredibly powerful tools for those who are patient enough to learn how to use them correctly. But they’re sites where you can also fritter away your time—time that should be spent at your blog. 

I had forgotten about that problem until just now when I read 6 Reasons Why Your Blog is Your Most Important Social Media Tool by Newt Barrett. He makes an excellent argument for keeping your blog timely, updated and interesting.

“To have meaningful social media impact, you must provide a critical mass of content that will position you and your organization as thought leaders within your market niche.  Nothing works better than a blog to achieve that objective.  Over time, your blog will contain an increasingly rich and relevant reservoir of information that serves as a Google magnet.”

Here are a fews tips I’m using to post to this blog more frequently while saving time and writing original content.

• Set aside a certain time of day to blog. For me, early-morning is best, after I’ve had a chance to check email and my Twitter and Facebook feeds.
      
• Set aside certain days of the week to blog, and schedule the time on your calendar.
      
• Involved in an interesting discussion on Twitter or Facebook? Blog about it. You can even use screen shots of the discussion to dress up the copy. This screenshot shows some of my followers commenting on a tweet I posted about 40 percent of new followers abandoning Twitter within just a few months:     

•  Giving advice to somebody who has emailed you? It’s fodder for a blog post. But don’t use the person’s name unless you ask permission.  
    
• Make your blog, Twitter and Facebook work hand in hand. Import your blog headlines into both.
        
• Don’t forget to take the time to comment at other people’s blogs. I have created Google Alerts for several topics I’m interested in and comment regularly at other blogs to promote my expertise, pull traffic to this blog, ask questions,  and get to know other interesting people.   

You’ll find many more ideas on what to blog about and how to use a blog and 50 creative ways to make your blog popular.

What about you? How do you force yourself to devote adequate time at your blog while participating in conversations elsewhere online?