It’s time for another Dear BAKERY installment— today we’re discussing the beauty [and ugly] of social networking sites:

Dear BAKERY,

My question is this… I have been blogging seriously for about 5 months and am getting a reasonable amount of traffic, however in order to attract more readers I have been looking into (and joining a few of the) many MAAANY blogging directory type sites – i.e technorati, stumbleupon, digg, blogcatalog, weheartit…you see where i’m going. I was just wondering what your opinion of them is and if you think they are worthwhile joining and submitted your content to them.

It seems like you could spend 90% of your bloggging time not actually on your own site but submitting various posts and links to all these sites. basically do you think it is worth it? And do you think if people see your posts on these sites most of them will actually make the effort to click onto your blog?

Love,
Socially Confused

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Dear Socially Confused,

You bring up such a tremendous point. Social networking is a beautiful curse indeed. Yes, there are certain sites that do gain considerable traffic [I'm thinking WeHeartIt, Ffffound, and Digg to name a few], and if you’re on the front page of any of those few, you will see results.

However, at what cost do you find yourself on page 1 of these sites? With Digg, you need to have literally HUNDREDS of readers recommend one particular post of yours, and the odds of that sort of situation are quite slim. Not that Abby would never tell you to reach for the stars, b/c she would, but I do think your time may be better spent in other avenues.

For instance, if you continually generate great content, the masses will notice. I’m a firm believer that hard work produces great results, and the great thing about blogging is that you don’t necessarily have to be your own fan; your readers will promote your work for you through links, word of mouth and “diggs.’”

I recommend joining a few key networking sites that you enjoy most [keep in mind usability, as some of these sites are so difficult to figure out that you won't end up using them anyway!]. I enjoy Facebook, Flickr and Twitter, and to be honest, that’s my limit. I can only focus my efforts on three “social networking” sites, which raises another note to keep in mind: if you can’t devote yourself to social networking, it’s worthless. So, keep your registers to a minimum, as not many people have time to continually market yourself online [yes, we have "real lives," too!]. Thus, my advice is to pick three that you can actually become an active member in, and focus on those.

So which sites do you choose? It’s up to you. I’ve listed my three, and I’ve chosen them simply b/c they are easy to use and I enjoy the community element. You might find something more suitable for you based on your interests.

Whatever you do, remember that good content is always the #1 goal. The rest will follow with time.

Keep up the good work!

Love,
BAKERY