How much social networking is enough

…or too much?!!  Are you getting value for your time invested?

Dianne Rigdon posted 2 comments today.  The first one is an excellent point. 

Connie I am loving all these great marketing tips and links and concepts. I?d love to hear an overall opinion about all the different social networks?whether we should try to be active in multiple groups such as facebook and twitter and kaboodle in addition to the digital scrapbooking forums and groups that we are already active in. It?s overwhelming to think of doing more, esp that which takes me away from design, but I love these concepts. Just trying to figure out how to fit it all in!

We are always juggling how to ‘fit it all in’.  Someone else had asked a similar question too, expect she said she was just getting into blogging.   I think that the wonderful thing about the web is that there are socialization opportunites just by powering up your PC.  We share our love of our hobby with each other & grow & learn together.

But there has also been talk of ’social network fatigue’.  How much is too much?!  Dianne questions how much she should be involved in?  And that underlines my efforts here.  My goal is to introduce our readers to the myriad of social networking options.  I’m outlining the ones that I’ve tried and trying to save everyone time by providing ideas for utilizing them for marketing your designs as well as the digiscrapper to enjoy. 

Please note that I’m not proposing that you use them all!  That is an individual decision.  Today, I think Dianne noticed my note to her on Kaboodle that said, ‘I don’t use Kaboodle for lists, but rather Evernote.’  I’m willing to be a hub for people starting out there though.  But I’ve been participating in the digiscrapping group there & enjoying that conversation.

My advice is to treat these social networking sites as places to experiment at.  Choose one & give it a chance.  I will provide you with the information to get started & suggestions for making it applicable.  You get to decide if it fits into your needs.  If you want to read an interesting article, this one on Social Networking Fatigue is quite in-depth & interesting. Brian Solis has some excellent points that I’ve extracted to save you reading it if you don’t have time.

1. Start with listening & watching, then participation becomes clear. (I have done this for you).
2. Monitor the guys on the front lines (again I’m doing this for you)
3. Why start with Facebook?  it experienced 270% growth in one year’s time!
4. Get involved & participate

“But, of them all, Facebook is the most interesting and so far, the most rewarding and engaging of the bunch. It’s not just about the ability to connect with people. It’s about creating, cultivating, and promoting a strategic online presence and personal brand.
Remember, participation is marketing.”

The option to have “…embedded feeds that represent all of my online activity for those who visit my profile, all in one window.”

And this is a great summary,

And what about Social Network Fatigue?
Well, that’s for everyone else. Your job is to not only promote your expertise, but also engage in conversations and discussions that matter to you and to your business.
Facebook is one of many social networks that require your attention. To truly engage in social media, you need to be wherever the people that matter to you congregate, even if it requires your participation across many different locations.

Well, Dianne made a decision before I had time to respond, and this is what she said:

Well I am just gonna try it all - facebook and twitter and delicious and kaboodle…play as I get time and see what works for me. So far I really like the interactive nature of facebook and that I can import links to my blog with it. I am also trying out the wordpress blog too just for fun lol.

And I think she answered her own question!  Try as you have time.  She realized like Brian stated that you can bring your other platforms like Twitter & your blog into Facebook.  But, the interactions at forums & your stores can’t, but maybe you can find a way to export your galleries as RSS feeds?  That’s a great idea!  In Brian’s conclusion, he says that you need to be where your people congregate, so it’s definitely important to be involved in the digiscrapping communities.  I’m not suggesting giving that up.  What I am offering are suggestions for sharing our digiscrapping hobby with the world & possible marketing opportunites for designers.  But as pointed out, you need to be a person first and develop meaningful relationships.  (and we’re very good at that - that’s why we love this community so much!)  

As I introduce these social networking sites, you’ll find that each has it’s own unique spirit. 

• Facebook is a platform where the masses are gathering.  (and I see you’re having fun with the over 2000 app’s  :)  ) 
• Kaboodle is a shopper’s dream site. (it’s in beta & growing quickly)
• Twitter is like mini blogging (I’m more of a listener there - Julie Ann Shahin is using it in a cool way though!)
• Flickr is about photography (there are also others like Fotki & others)
• Stumbleupon is a unique approach to finding new sites

Do I use them all?  Remember that I work full time & maintain this site with my sister, so no.  But I’ve been playing with them so that I can know what’s out there & in turn save all of you time.  That is our goal here to provide information.

If you have comments, please add them.  I really enjoyed discussing Dianne’s comments & I’m thinking that many of you were wondering the same thing?!

Subscribe to the comments for this post

Kaboodle

Shopping is the main purpose of Kaboodle! It’s also a social networking site, so you can create a profile, add friends, and people can see what you are adding to your lists. And like Facebook there are groups with discussion threads.

Are you ready to be Kaboodled?! I’ve seen Kaboodle used in many creative ways. And there is a lot of potential yet I think. So let’s explore it. Because I haven’t played there much, I interviewed an awesome Kaboodler! Jen agreed to share how she uses Kaboodle. She describes many ways that she’s using Kaboodle & if you look at her profile you’ll see how highly organized she is!

Connie: How does using Kaboodle help your digiscrapping?

Jen: Kaboodle has been very beneficial for me not only in digiscrapping, but also for my checking account LOL It helps me to stop all the impulse buying. When I get newsletters from all the stores with their new products in them, I save my absolute favorites to Kaboodle. Then as I’m working on a layout and I think to myself that I knew I saw something that would work perfect on this page, I go and buy it. I also have my lists broken up into each individual store so that when a site is having a sale, I can shop more effectively and productively for what I want.

Connie: How do you manage your lists & categories - adding & deleting after purchase?

Jen: As previously mentioned, my lists are broken up by each store. When I add items to the list, I put my very best favorites on top so that when hubby occasionally picks up some goodies from my list for me, I won’t be disappointed. Most of my purchases will end up in my Ultimate Favorites list so that hopefully I can help promote for my favorite designers. I always try to support other designers such as myself.

Connie: As a designer, how do you use it to promote your creations? or do you?

Jen: I never would have thought to make a list for my own creations before but I noticed another designer did that so I tried it. It can’t hurt to have my own list on there right? Even if it gives me a little more exposure, every little bit helps. You never know when someone on Kaboodle will come across your list that may have never heard of you before so it definitely can help get your name out there a little more. I have also searched for my name to see if any of my stuff is on someone else’s list. This, as well as my sales, can help me determine what people like and dislike.

Connie: Are you interested in exploring creative ideas on that? joining a group of designers to share thoughts on that?

Jen: It all depends, I don’t have a lot of time to post in forums or chat anymore. If it was occasional and not very time consuming then yes I would definitely love to try that.

Connie: Do you use groups & network there?

Jen: I have joined a group on Kaboodle before but I’m not so sure about how it works really. I looked around on their page a little and was kinda lost in there so I just left. I don’t join too many groups anymore, not even yahoo groups because I don’t know what’s going on half the time and I would much rather just not be bothered with the emails.

Connie: Do you look at what other people are adding?

Jen: I definitely look at what other people are adding to their lists. It’s mostly when I add something to my list and I see the list on the right side of related items. I love that feature because it’s shown me a few things that I may not have noticed otherwise. There is sooooo much going on in the digiscrap world every day and so many new kits and trends etc, it’s almost impossible to keep up with this rapidly changing online community. So anything that helps keep everything simplified and in one place is definitely an asset.

Connie: What other things do you love about Kaboodle?
Jen: Well, that’s just it, I love Kaboodle too much. It’s so versatile and there’s definitely a ton of other shopping you can do on there besides digiscrap shopping but I try to stay away from that because A) it’s too expensive and B) it’s too expensive LOL If I start shopping on sites like walmart, target, or penney’s etc, it would be just like my digiscrap shopping and it would be too much. At least digital stuff is a little cheaper and you can use it over and over again but with stuff from those other stores, well, there’s not much you can find for a couple bucks that would be worth very much. I still prefer to go out to Walmart and pick up what I need when I need it. And if I need something I can’t find there, then and only then will I come home and search for it online. I shopped on ebay for over a year and spent well over $1,000 so I’m trying to stay away from that for just a little while. I feel the need to simplify things in my life lately. So another reason i love Kaboodle is that it keeps my wishlist in one place rather than one on each store. Before when I wanted to find something to buy that I saved in my wishlist, if I didn’t remember which store it was in, I had to search a bunch of different places until i found it and sometimes I didn’t find it.

~Jen (Jen is a designer & has a blog)

So how do you get started?

1. Register at Kaboodle
2. Add me as a friend if you’d like & I can be a central point like in Facebook. Look thru Jen’s friends to see if you see any mutual friends to add.
3. Then you will be ready to start adding items to your lists. Look at how Jen set her’s up. She has 35 lists based on stores. You can organize your lists any way you want.
4. And if you’re a designer, then you can RAK people (random acts of kindness). More coming on this too.

Subscribe to the comments for this post

WHY use Facebook?

There was an excellent question posted today at DST:

Hi,
I went and read thru your blog posts about facebook. But in a nutshell, can you explain to me WHY I should sign up??? LOL
Actually, I have recently (really) gotten into blogging…. LOL But it took me awhile…. LOL
So what really is Facebook all about? I am really clueless??? I went to Facebook, but they don’t seem to have all a lot of info - ie tour etc…. it is pretty vague…. WHat is it’s purpose and how will it benefit me as a designer and scrapper???
Thank you!!!
Lori

Hi Lori,
Those are very good questions. I like people to ask why! I’m one of those people too. At my day job in my role as a leader/manager, I always try to explain ‘why’ when explaining something new.

I’m going to answer in two parts:

Why use Facebook?

Facebook is a site where you can do a number of things that is different from the experience that you have on a traditional forum. It’s more of a 2 way interaction than on a blog (which is mostly the author speaking). There are a lot of things to ‘do’ which sounds odd. I tried to point out things that can be helpful, but people like playing with the app’s. Let’s just say that there are diversions there. My suggestion is that if you’ve just gotten into blogging & are working to get a routine down, then work with that. (Are you using Live Writer?). My prediction is that Facebook is going to become more mainstream. The message system there is nicer to read than email. Making a profile is quick & then you can look around. Add me & then look thru my friends & I bet you’ll find lots of digiscrappers to add as friends.

What is it’s purpose & how will it benefit you?

Facebook was built for college students, but it is now open to everyone. People are realizing that it can be used for business networking in addition to socializing. It’s another place to talk about your digiscrapping, upload layouts, or link to your layouts. My guess is that if you ask around, your family members/friends may be a part of Facebook (or Flickr - I’ll be talking about that later) & you can share your work there whereas they probably wouldn’t join in at a digiscrapping site. We’re just kind of intense at our forums . Hummie had a great idea today in creating a regional group. She created a Missouri Digiscrapping group. I will get one made for Minnesota soon too. What a great way to have a central place for planning crops! & sharing news. Because digiland is spread pretty far & wide. I’m not a designer, but if I were, I would want to expose new people to my products. Your existing customers are very important, but growing your business has value. So why not go where the people are? And there are LOTS at Facebook. 35 million people are using Facebook & spending 20 min’s per day there.

Lie Fhung has been putting up her products in Facebook with links to her store. She puts up her previews into albums. I love how the previews come up full screen! (and I put comments on them for her — you’ll need to register to see the link) Amy from SBB has started a group for her store. As I see new ideas I’ll let you know. And please share if you have ideas.

Since I started this series, I’ve been having a blast! My friend’s list has doubled. (If you’re feeling blue about not having many friends, go thru my list of friends & invite the people you know. And as you gain friends continue to find mutual friends. If you’d like to add new people, put a note in like Amy did below.)

I’ll try to get around & say hi to people as I have time. I totally agree with Hummie that the networking should be sincere & genuine. And I love meeting new people, so I’m in my element. And these happy notes are just awesome!

Amy says, “Hi! I just read your blog on Facebook. Since I am addicted to both digiscrapping and Facebook, this is perfect. Thanks so much for the tips!”

And for those of you eager to read more, I found these last night. This blogger is from MN too & has some great ideas! There’s something in there for the beginner Facebooker to the advanced.

Top 10 Facebook Business Uses (note the one on Limiting your Profile - I can do screenshots if you’d like help? just ask)

Hummie talked about mixing it up with Facebook & Kaboodle. I nominate her to blog on it!

Keep your ideas coming ladies! And if you’re enjoying the information, sign up for our newsletter.

Subscribe to the comments for this post

Using Facebook & Groups

Amy Edwards was quick to make a group for Scrapbook-bytes.com & that made me realize that I should give more info here. I will share what I’ve learned about setting up a group & getting it going. And there are a few more tips about Facebook that I have & I’m sure that all of you have can share your experiences too.

Privacy Concerns

Social Network Phobia - if you’re concerned about using your real name, then don’t, but you can still join in. I was just reading that article last night (there are some good tips in it). But, as I said, I haven’t been bothered by ‘yucky people’ at Facebook.

Mixing personal, hobby & professional life - there is a lot of discussion about how this is changing how people network. For example, my friends include:

• digiscrappers
• bloggers & people interested in web strategy
• my daughter & her friend (who was like my 2nd daughter)

Keep in mind that no one can see your profile until you invite them to be a friend, and likewise you can’t see my friend’s profiles until you invite them to be a friend. And, be careful about changing your settings because people may not be able to find you when they search (or see you in mutual friend’s lists). Your friend’s list won’t grow that way.

And if you invite someone to be your friend, just put a note in on how you connected.

Layout of Facebook Profile (this took me awhile to figure out. so I’ll save you some time)

• You can edit the layout of your profile at any time. Simply use your mouse to drag and drop boxes anywhere on your profile.
• Please note that you cannot move your Mini-Feed or Friends box. Also, some boxes may be restricted to either the right or left column of the profile.

Annoyances to be aware of:

• personal messages - I really like the format, but the email notification doesn’t include the message, so you have to go there. Email notification can be turned off though.
• Facebook Applications - there are over 2000 & I’m going to repeat myself because this really bugs me. Be careful when adding new ones, because Facebook encourages you to invite all your friends to try it… umm it’s like spamming your friends (in my opinion).
• Not as personalizable as MySpace - I’ve heard from a couple of people that you can’t make it pretty. Maybe that will improve? Jeremiah has a group here to post your requests. Go place your requests for customization.

Creating a group -

On left, click on Groups

• on left is info on the groups you’re a part of - which is interesting to see which are growing
• on right is info on groups your friends have recently been active in

At top, click on Create a New Group

1. Fill in the info - make sure that it links back to your site/blog
2. Add a picture or icon of your group
3. Invite your friends (this can be done later again too) - it sends emails to people that you choose on your friend’s list.
4. In your new Group; go into the Discussion Board & put in some questions & conversation starters. Things like - Introduce yourself; What’s your favorite…; What new products would you like to see in the store… etc
5. And once you start it, don’t forget it, check in periodically.

Later options

• Invite people to join (after you have more friends on your list)
• Message all members - send email to group members
• Create an Event - sends an invitation to members
  • I haven’t used this option yet, but I’m seeing potential for announcing chats & other special events at your site.

So you can invite people by email to join your group at any time, but how else can you kick off your new community? It’s just like a forum - tell people about it. Blog about it, ask your CT members to join & tell their friends, post at your forum, spread the word! What if you ran a contest there? Encourage the ‘tell a friend’ concept.

For more reading: Web Worker Daily » Blog Archive 12 Ways to Use Facebook Professionally «

(there’s a good link in there on Top 10 Facebook App’s for Work)

What creative ideas can you think of for promoting your new group?

Subscribe to the comments for this post

Facebook is in

Not long ago I saw a question about utilizing MySpace for promoting a website. The trend is that MySpace is out & Facebook is in. These statistics are from Jeremiah O’s blog:

• Over 150,000 registrants daily.
• Average visitor stays 20 minutes.
• Most growth is among people over age 25.

Each post in this series will give you an overview of using these sites followed by marketing ideas.

Facebook used to be limited to college students, but since they’ve opened it up to everyone, it’s being flooded. Professionals are using it to network in addition to people just connecting informally. Exchanging messages there is easier than email because they’re displayed in a logical way.

So after that background info, let’s get started!

Registration is easy & you can provide as much or as little info as you want.

There are two main pages that I use:

Profile Page

• wall - where people can leave you public messages that everyone sees
• friends list - click on a friend to send them a private message
• groups list - shows which groups that you belong to
• You’ll see that on my profile I also feed in our blog.

Home Page

News Feed - these list what your friends have done at Facebook

• you can see if they’ve joined new groups, updated their profile, added applications, etc
• Requests & Notifications are also here on right - these are things that people have invited you to do requiring action on your part
  • I don’t really get into the applications - so I tend them (like Ninja, Mardi Gras, etc)

*tip for finding people that you know: Once you have someone that you know as a friend, look at their friend list. Invite mutual friend’s to be your friend. This works well in Facebook & LinkedIn. Or if you see someone in a group that you’d like to befriend (due to the views they express), then invite them & add a personal note as to why you’re inviting them. Personally, I enjoy meeting new people & when people that I don’t know invite me I view it as an adventure. I haven’t had any trouble in Facebook with ‘yucky’ people or being harassed.

Feel free to add me as a friend - Connie Bensen

Facebook allows you to exchange public & private messages with friends. But the true value are the many groups that you can join. For example, I created an ACDSee group. Donna Pelletier created a Scrap Outside of the Box group. There are digiscrapping groups. So if you own a site - you could create your own. There is a field for News with live links, and a Discussion Board where threads can be started & people can contribute. There is also a wall where people can post messages.

Here is what the ACDSee group looks like. Under related groups, you can see digiscrapping groups & Donna’s Scrap Outside the Box group.

So, you may be asking why do this in Facebook when digiland has so many forums? As I mentioned above, it’s all about networking with people you know & those you don’t. It’s another place to connect people with your business too. And it’s fun!

Feel free to join the ACDSee group (whether you use the software or not). Browse thru my groups & see if there are any you’re interested in & click on them to join.

For additional reading - Jeremiah O’s post on Facebook

Leave a comment if you use Facebook or have more ideas on how to use it for promoting your business. I’d like this series to generate ideas that everyone can use.

Edited - Here’s a list of DigiScrapping groups at Facebook - I’ll add yours when you create it!

• Scrap Outside the Box
• Scrapbook-Bytes
  
• ACDSee
• Nuts4Digi
• Photo Walking with Hummie
• Butternug Squash Designs
• Ztampfans
• Missouri Digital Scrapbookers
• Minnesota Digital Scrapbookers - and area states
• Digital Scrapbook Artisan Guild
• Dallas Digiscrappers
• Digi S4O - For people who digitally scrapbook for other people.
• Launch Pads Fanclub

Subscribe to the comments for this post

Put the SOCIAL in Social Networking!

I read a question this morning that made me realize that I needed to connect digiscrappers, bloggers & designers/store owners with more tools. So I’m going to do a series on Social Networking. You’ll see that it’s closely related to personal branding.

The web has many opportunities for networking with others. Why would you want to do that? There are many advantages:

• participate in the purpose of that site (ie: Kaboodle is all about shopping!)
• to meet people with similar interests & share ideas
• use the same log-in everywhere & increase your online presence
• it gets you out of your comfortable home blog/store surroundings to see the world
• encourages collaboration

First maybe we need to ask what is social networking? Just by reading this blog you’re already doing it. You can do it on forums, podcasts, wikis, etc. This series will explore the applications for social networking and show you ways to get involved. I hope that we can generate some ideas to creatively use them in the digiscrapping community.

Facebook, Kaboodle, LinkedIn (Networking)

Stumbleupon (a unique way to find new sites & highlight great information)

Twitter, Pownce (Communication & File Sharing)

del.icio.us, blinklist, trailfire (Social bookmarking)

Flickr (Photo Sharing)

There are many others like Digg, Reddit, mag.nolia etc but I haven’t found them overly useful.

Do you have others that you use regularly & really like?

Subscribe to the comments for this post

More ideas on Personal Branding

In the first two articles in this series I talked about the importance of deciding on a brand and a logo and then reiterating over & over. Maggie commented that it should be lived & breathed.

This blog article has some good common sense ideas for establishing your personal brand. Web Worker Daily - Blog Archive The 3 Laws of Online Personal Branding   They suggest 3 things:  Create a Valuable Messager;  Repeat the Message & Be Consistent.  They also have another article that talks about the value of having an online persona.

When I created the new google mail accounts, I also bought two domain names. I never would have thought that I would do that! My sister purchased this domain name & set it all up.

But, domain names are another excellent way to brand yourself. There are ’search engine types’ for checking to see if domain names are available. Why would you want more than one? A redirect is a great way to catch more traffic. I purchased digitalscrapbookinginfo.com and Heidi will set it up so that if people end up there, they’re brought to our site.

I also purchased ‘conniebensen.com’. Ok, it’s a vanity URL & I don’t have time to have another blog, but eventually if I want to have a personal brand it may be good to have! I watch what searches hit our site & people are searching for our names, so there is some justification. Is your name available? Do you need to reserve it?! And do you have ideas for branding your site/online business/persona? Please do share with us

Subscribe to the comments for this post

Branding your Username

In the first post of this series I talked about the importance of creating a brand that includes a descriptive name for your site & a distinctive logo. The following can apply to branding your website/online business & even your own personal branding.

In the first post I mentioned repetition & today we’re going to put that into action. Here’s the key: think of all the ways you can repeat your website’s name or your username. Let me help you count thy ways!

Forum Usernames - whether it’s in the forum on your site or at other forums, create a username that reinforces your website. It took us a bit to realize how valuable this is, but I now use Connie@DigiScrapInfo.com That reinforces my name as well as our site.

Signatures are also a great place to include your site name and also a link if it’s allowed.

*tip* If you want to change your username at a forum, simply send a kindly request to the site admin.

Email Address - web hosting generally offers email with the suffix of your domain name. We were using our first names @ digiscrapinfo.com, but we found that it was being considered as spam by aol & others (to the point where we weren’t sure if the mail was getting thru).

*tip* create a google mail account - Google mail isn’t generally viewed as spam. After I read James Key Lim’s blog post on this, I realized that setting up an email address of DigiScrapInfo@gmail.com solved our problem of being viewed as spam. If you need a gmail invite, send us an email.

*tip* Use Thunderbird to read your google mail. It’s very easy to set up now.

• Download Thunderbird - it’s free
• Under File | New | Account then choose Gmail
• Log into the online Gmail account & click on Settings | Forwarding & POP
• for POP downloading in #1 click on 1 - Enable POP

Social Networking sites - Again, using your username that represents your site/brand will help establish your online persona. James Key Lim lists a number of social networking sites.

As you interact online and become more involved your username will be repeated, reinforced & reiterated building brand. In what ways do you reinforce your username?

Subscribe to the comments for this post

Branding & your Logo

Marketing has it’s challenges, but it can be a lot of fun too! What I’ve found interesting is how it translates into online opportunities that you can easily use to your advantage. So here’s a new series on branding. I really enjoy creating the series, I hope that you find them helpful!

What is branding? Brands are important to products & yes, even people. It’s the connection we make with a symbol, logo, font, color, etc that makes us think of that product. Think of Coca-Cola, Campbell soup label, Heinz, etc and you know what I mean. Did you know that there are fonts associated with movie titles? There’s a Harry Potter font there too at Simply the Best fonts. (and they’re free! everyone can always use more fonts… and remember that you can use them in ACDSee Photo Manager even if they’re not installed).

Think about some of your favorite sites & does their logo come to mind? When you see DST, 2peas, SBB - do you recognize the acronyms? Can you see their logo in your mind’s eye?

Here at DigiScrapInfo.com we’ve been using this for a logo:

Logos are symbols or slogans that say a lot about your site/business. When you create yours think about the message & how will people perceive it? Does it represent your business & your personality? Is it easy to remember? There are lots of questions to consider. Should you make it or hire someone? It’s a valuable part of your investment. This is the time to be unique.

Once you have decided on one, repeat it. Put it everywhere you get the opportunity to. The repetition will make it more effective. For example, we have our website name on the header of every tutorial because we want people to remember how to find us again. I’ll be talking about repetition more - it’s the most key point in branding your site & yourself. Wait til you see how many ways it’s possible to do so!

You may also be interested in our Marketing Forums series. It has information about setting up a site & getting the forums hopping.

Subscribe to the comments for this post

Tags, Categories, Trackbacks and your blog

This past week a reader asked: I have just started blogging and I was wondering if you might be able to address the topics of tagging and trackbacks. I don’t think I understand them or know how to go about using them!

The question doesn’t ask about categories, but for me tags & categories are related. They are important to your readers in two very different ways.

Categories are used internally on your blog. When I write a blog post I assign it to a category or two. For example this, will go under Blog Marketing. The categories that you choose help your readers find all the information that you’ve written about a certain topic quickly. After 5 months I went back thru & redid all of our categories because our topics shifted to what people were interested in. Then we added two newsletters with distinctively different focuses.

Tip on categories - Did you know that you can click on any of the terms in our category cloud on the right? Try it! When you set up your blog, you can offer your readers a list or a cloud. In the cloud the topics with more items are represented by the larger type.

Tags are used ‘externally’ when people search. When you assign tags, they are used by Google & other search engines to find your blog. (They become a part of the metadata. Metadata is simply information including the title & tags which are descriptive. You can read more about tags on Wikipedia). So it’s helpful to assign tags that are relevant so that a person searching can find your post. For example, if you had a layout in your blog post using a designer’s kit, it would be helpful to put that designer’s name as a tag.

Trackbacks are a part of a bigger idea all related to linking to your blog post. (I was reading about trackbacks on wikipedia & just learned the difference between terms that I had been interchanging.). The general term is Linkbacks & it’s simply notification that your blog has been linked on somewhere else. And there can be two types of Linkbacks - trackbacks & pingbacks:

• Trackbacks are from another blog - someone has linked to your blog post on their blog (your blogging software ‘notices’ that & generates a ‘trackback’ as a comment). As a good blogger you want to know what people are saying about you, so you follow the trackback by clicking on it in the comment section or from the email & go see what people are saying about your blog. Then, you can leave a comment on their blog. The whole purpose is to further the conversation & build community amongst bloggers who are talking about similar topics by linking them together. It’s a great way to find new blogs to read!
• Here’s an example of a trackback from my post on Live Writer. The first one is a comment & the 2nd is a trackback from James Key Lim’s blog. You can see his post here. Now he will get a trackback from me because I’m linking to his blog. (James also has a cool site called Tellfriends.com) You can set up your blog to notify you of trackbacks by email, just like you get comment notifications.

Here is where we enabled trackbacks & pingbacks in Wordpress (you can see the tabs):

• Pingbacks are linking to previous blog articles that you’ve written. This is extremely helpful to bring older material to the reader’s attention. Maybe they’ve recently started reading your blog & aren’t aware of a related article that you previously posted? So, when I publish that post, I get an email notification of the pingback. And that is also noted in the comment section of the older post.
• This is easy to tell that it’s a pingback because it’s linked from our blog rather than another blog. I wrote a post on Choosing a DSLR camera & linked back to my article on ACDSee’s Pro 2 software. You can see the pingback there.

So, in review, categories are for the reader’s use on the blog, tags help the reader find your blog. Tracksbacks are created when someone links to your blog & pingbacks are generated when you link to previous posts in your blog. These may or may not show up depending on if you’ve turned on the notification. (And I’ve created a # of pingbacks here which will generate some email back to me )

The first question will be ‘Does Blogger support trackbacks?” because I’m getting to know you guys! So I checked into that (just for you!). And it doesn’t, but I found a workaround but it requires the use of Firefox (which you REALLY should be using anyway!). If someone gets it to work, please let us know! Maybe Hummie will experiment with this? (She’s my techie friend that made the really cool Digiscrapping Blogroll on the right - it’s just so spiffy! thank you dear!! Get one for your blog too! - ah! I created another trackback!!

And I really do enjoy researching these types of things, so keep asking questions!

Subscribe to the comments for this post