Posted on September 8, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

How to use NetworkedBlogs and Facebook to increase blog traffic and engagement

If you manage a Facebook fanpage and a blog there’s plenty of RSS Facebook apps to help mashup the two such as Social RSS and Simply RSS but one stands out to me and that is the NetworkedBlogs Facebook app ( @networkedblogs ).

NetworkedBlogs.com is an extension of the NetworkedBlogs Facebook Application to make our user-generated blog directory accessible outside Facebook and provide more exposure to our blogs.

As I write this I’m wondering what took me so long to add this app to my Facebook fanpage but from my understanding having the NetworkedBlogs update a Fanpage is a new feature and it use to just work with Facebook profiles. Either way here’s how it works.

1. You add your blog to NetworkedBlogs app in Facebook. Think of it as a blog network inside of a social network.
2. Install NetworkedBlogs app on your Facebook fanpage
3. Add the NetworkedBlogs tab to your fanpage. ( I recommend renaming the tab to “blog” or the name of your blog.
4. Use the publisher to share your blog post with your Facebook fans. You’ll see that option when you click on share.

For a more detailed how to, read information on the NetworkedBlogs Facebook page guide here: http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/help_pages.php or How to Promote Your Blog with Networked Blogs Facebook Application

A few notes when configuring NetworkedBlogs that may stump some people is the initial verification process. One is that you are the blog author and the other is the publishing settings to make sure NetworkedBlogs has the permission to post to your Facebook fanpage or your FaceBook profile if you like. There are at least two way to verify you are the blog author. The first is by adding some html code to your blog to claim it or you could ask your Facebook friends to help you claim your blog. While the first option may be a little technical for some, I recommend it vs blasting out a message to your Facebook friends saying verify my blog ownership. But by asking your Facebook friends to verify you, you may pick up a few extra readers because it post a message on your friends Facebook wall saying they are now subscribed to your blog.

Now that you have your blog setup to post to either your profile or fanpage you’ll want to test the feed settings to make sure when you publish your blog that it will automatically update your wall. If the test works, you’re all set. Then the next time you write a blog post it will show up on your Facebook page.

Here’s where the engagement comes in. As I mentioned earlier NetworkedBlogs is like a blog network inside of a social network. As you start posting your blog post to your Facebook profile or page, other Facebook users can follow your blog which is the same thing as subscribe if they were using a RSS reader. Followers will receive updates and are able to leave comments when you publish a post, just as they would on any status update. Also when you visit your NetworkedBlogs profile you’re able to see your blogs popularity ratings and followers from Facebook.

NetworkedBlogs does have a few pro features for $4.99 a month that allows you to do the following:
1. Access to new features before everyone else. (oooh, ahhh)
2. A fan Broadcast Feature (blast time!)
3. Upload an image to customize your blog page ( hmm a shinny new blog image)

You can read more about the pro features here: http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/pro.php I may give them a try later but for now the free version works just fine.

The only complaints I have so far is that I’m not sure how often NetworkedBlogs app post updates to Facebook and is there a way to use Facebook connect and the NetworkedBlogs app to have comments on Facebook to show on my blog too. But beside that if you’re blogging and on Facebook I recommend using the NetworkedBlogs app.

Do you share your blog with your Facebook profile or Fanpage? If so how?

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