If you have a blog, make sure each post is easy to share across MULTIPLE social outposts.

If you’ve made each blog post easy to share across multiple social outposts, make sure that each share is automagically assigning you credit, e.g., when a post is shared via Twitter, the (editable) post ought to include “via @username.” 

It’s shocking to me how often this is overlooked by bloggers.  Don’t annoy your generous readers by forcing them to figure out how to give you credit for your own work!  Besides, as much as you may want credit for the post, they want some karmic kickback too; they want you to notice their generosity.  (I can tell you, as a blogger, that I tend to pay much more attention to people whom I recognize as consistent boosters of my work on Twitter, FB, etc.)

NOTE the use of “via @username,” NOT “via (blog name).”  The author deserves credit and wants to know when/how content is shared, and this makes it easier for them to do so, plus helps their personal branding/credibility.  It also tends to leave more character-spaces for the reader to add their own commentary.  If you automagically add “(LONG POST TITLE) ǁ (BLOG NAME) ǁ (VIA @USERNAME)” you’ve killed your reader’s chance to praise you.  You sucked all the oxygen out of their tweet.  You’re making them work harder!

If you’ve made each blog post easy to share, and credit the author appropriately (and automagically), you must also account for multi-author blogs, which are increasingly prevalent.  When a blog is authored by multiple writers, you should still ensure the credit goes to “@username” vs. “(blog name)” … The author of the post deserves the personal branding boost, as in any case anyone clicking the link will be brought to the blog.

If you’ve linked to another blogger’s work in your post, you should consider calling that out to them on Twitter (etc.)  Many bloggers are interested/excited to learn that they’ve been cited, even though fewer of them check to see if that’s happening with the regularity of their early days. And (*ahem*) it nearly guarantees a RT.

Promote your own work. Share it on Twitter, on Facebook, on Google Plus.  Think of this as “THE OUTPOST ECHO” — if your post is hanging out across multiple owned and third-party sites, it will be that much easier to discover by readers and search engines.  Just don’t be obnoxious.

These are basic & simple guidelines. Yet I daresay I’d call this post a “rant” because I still come across scads of blogs that bollox the works.

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