When you do post though, how do people find your posts?  Even if you are a personal blogger like Paolo Jr, you at least have a small group of dedicated readers… be it your immediate family, circle of friends, or Second Life buddies. But, how do new people find your posts?

In your blog design, you need to make it very clear how people can subscribe.  Look at the big RSS button with “subscribe” next to it there on the right.  You could be doing that.  I have to like your site a lot in order to check back frequently without simply using a subscription option to tell me when something new has been posted.  If people are not subscribed to your blog, it is easy for them to forget about it and stop checking in.

Now that you have subscriptions displayed prominently, you need a better way to bring in new readers than simply just waiting for the search engines to crawl your new material and then hoping that someone’s search brings them to your site. If you are on Twitter, and you should be if you are a blogger, you need to tweet links to your most recent posts. If there is anything Twitter is good for, it is spreading news quickly.  If you have 500 followers, 50 that click on your link, and 1 or 2 (also with 500 followers each) that retweet your link, how many people do you think you can get reading your new blog posts?

Sadly, I see too few bloggers who take advantage of news aggregators like Reddit, Digg, Sphinn, Mixx, Stumble Upon, etc.  This is seriously how often some people check these sites for new things to read.  My personal favorite is Reddit, but that is because I like the stripped down UI, the customization options when it comes to topics, and the general vibe of the community.  Digg is the big dog in the arena though and should not be overlooked even if it is impossible to get to the front page.

Ideally when you post something new, your readers will submit you to news aggregating sites because your post was just that great! Why not help them out and include buttons for them to do so… like the Sphinn button at the bottom of this post or the set of buttons on Self-Promotion for Smart People.

Regardless of whether readers would submit new posts to news aggregators or not, I usually beat them to the punch, making it even easier for them when they come to read the post because they only need to vote it up or down. A solidly formulated title and a good post can easily explode your daily visits and pageviews by 2000% of your average.  I have had it happen.  You can too.

Let’s say that you average 100 visits/day, but you rework your design to display subscription options and news aggregation buttons, and then, you use Twitter to get 1000 extra people to visit your new post and Reddit to get another 2000.  If only 1% of those new visitors subscribe and you formulate compelling titles and great posts once each week, you can see how you can quickly get your news spread around.

So, how quickly does your news spread?

Do you simply use those tools?  Or, do you participate with their communities?

Personally, my favorite internet tool is Twitter, but I have a hard time dealing with tweeple, who only tweet about what they’re doing and thinking without ever interacting with their followers or the tweeple they follow.

Take a look at Twitterholic.  Even if you have something witty and insightful to contribute, you will be hard pressed to get a response from anyone on the first page.  Now, many of them are extremely busy and simply cannot follow every tweet.  However, the sheer numbers of people they follow or are followed by make it difficult for them to really interact.

As Chris Brogan has said before, there is constantly a torrent of tweets coming his way, and unfortunately, he cannot address them all.  I applaud Chris for being as interactive as he is.  However, check out some other twitterholics.  See how often they @ reply people.  Not often, right?

Now, let’s widen our scope.  How many social networks are you a member of?  If the answer is more than maybe 3 or 4, do you ever find it difficult to really take part?

I, for example, find it hard to get involved in Linkedin’s Answers section or my Ning group’s events.  What does this mean?  I take slight advantage of social media by being a member, but sometimes, I am just spread too thin to actually take part.  Do I try?  Yes.  Do I always succeed? No.

In this sense, the social web is exactly like regular, old, face-to-face networking.  If you cannot spend quality time in your network, people can tell, and they will take it as a sign that they are less important than whatever else you are doing.  That is a turn off.

If they can see that you really are not trying to interact, but are instead just broadcasting your thoughts or selling/promoting yourself without end, they will again get turned off.

Often, I find that I build the best online relationships with people, who only interact in just one or two places.  We can chat in depth and give thoughtful commentary to each others’ work because they do not have so much to deal with that they cannot focus on what we have in common.

It’s easy to explain to individuals that spreading yourself too thin waters you’re your ability to interact and meaningfully take advantage of social media.  Now, if we could only find more companies that understood that we do not want them to simply use their Facebook pages, blogs, or Twitter accounts to just broadcast about their latest promotions.  We want them to talk to us like they care about what we have to say.

Thoughts?  Do you find yourself spread too thin?  Or, do you get more out of being in lots of different places?  What can companies do to actually take part in social media and not just take advantage of it?

If you are working as a marketer, PR person, advertiser, or any other related job-type, you might have a hard time making the case to your superiors that your company should create a Facebook fan page or its own Ning group. Why? It is so difficult to measure the effectiveness of social media campaigns, because while they have the ability to create better public perception or increase share of voice, they do a poor job creating sales when they are not managed correctly. And, your managers do not even know those things yet. They likely just have the impression that it is an untested medium largely populated by people talking about how drunk they got last weekend or why they hate Britney Spears.

If you were to propose a new print ad campaign, you would argue for it using numbers: impressions, increased sales due to coupons or announcements, etc.  Why not get some numbers on social media so that you can do the same when you, say, argue your fledgling record label needs to post videos on Vimeo?

One of the biggest movements I believe we will see on the web this year will be an increased need for and discussion around social media analytics.  If you know your customer reps can turn unhappy customers into happy customers on Twitter, great! They should be on Twitter, but are you able to measure how many people you connect with there that are going to buy products from your website?  Do you know if that ability exists?

How about this? Website analytics is fairly well understood now, but what about web (and I mean the WHOLE web) analytics? What about social media analytics? Do you know where people are talking about you and what they are saying? Do you know what people are saying about your competitors? Because, you need to if you are going to try to measure growth in a social media campaign in a serious industry. You need to know the size of the digital footprint your company has on the web and how a social media campaign can change that. Otherwise, when you go to your boss to argue for getting everyone on Twitter, you might be hard pressed to find more reasons than “Well, everyone else is doing it.”

Everyone can sign up for free Google Alerts and Tweet Alerts, but few hardcore social media measurement tools exist, and those that do are primarily used by social media marketing companies that are carving out their places in a field that is set for huge success or huge failure this year. If your company is hesitant to jump into the social media frenzy, that is fine, but when you make an argument for it, realize that people are talking about you and your competitors, and if you do not have the tools, counseling, or skills, you will not be able to participate in the conversation and will therefore miss out on the chance to use social media to grow your business.

Do you know of valuable ways to measure social media impact on your business?  Working in the industry, I am aware of plenty, but so many impressive tools pop up everyday that I cannot always keep track of them.

You lost your job? You have some experience marketing? Thinking about becoming a new media marketing consultant? You have a Twitter or Facebook account? Social media is big right now, is it not? You could be a social media consultant!

Better yet… times are rough, so your company needs to work on new marketing angles? Some of your younger employees are real whizzes with Youtube and Friendfeed? You have heard that Zappos, Southwest, and Burger King are doing social media, right? You could totally put those kids in charge of your new social media campaign!

No, without the experience, you probably could not be a social media consultant, and please do not put those kids in charge of your company’s new media marketing campaign. At least read Businessweek’s 5 social media myths and make sure you’re not buying into the sizzle first.

I applaud people trying to work on their marketing chops and trying to figure out how to use social media for business purposes, but there is a big difference between social media marketing and what I will call “non-social media marketing.”  As well, there are many different kinds of social media consultants: technical, creative, crossover, engagement, viral, and on, and on.

Social media has a love/hate relationship with the marketing world. Some of us believe that there is great potential, and we just have not figured out exactly how to transfer that potential to every industry, product, or service. Others of us believe it is just a fad, a buzzword, and that only the inexperienced or the dumb are jumping on that bandwagon.

I tend to be in the former camp, but I am also of the opinion that social media is simply another tool set to use in tandem with other types of marketing. It will not replace non-social media marketing. I mean, only 56% of Americans check their email on a daily basis, but what percentage of people in all developed countries watch TV, read newspapers, listen to the radio, receive mail, or even see billboards on a daily basis? Wouldn’t a comprehensive plan, including both social and non-social media help you reach the largest number of people?

When we talk with clients about marketing campaigns, we make plans around what will draw offline customers online or vice-versa. Can we email a coupon to potential clients and get them to bring a printed version to our shop? Or, how about, can we mail them a postcard that tells them about a special drawing we’re holding for people who submit the best idea to our blog?

This brings me to why you should not ask those whiz kids, as smart as they might be, to help you get a social media marketing campaign going. They might have tons of friends on Myspace, but they have never asked those friends to buy anything from them, have they?

As well, have you checked their Twitter histories to see if they pop off with comments that are inappropriate for business? I’m not saying that it is bad for people to be open on the internet or that individuals should censor themselves, but you want to keep a certain image of your company, right?

Social media consultants are paid to achieve your goals in a professional manner. They have experience, are creative, and know how to leverage online media to turn your website visitors into increased store visits, more phone calls, or increased orders, but they also need to weave non-social media marketing into the work they do for you.

I know that this sounds like a shameless plug for social media consultants, but honestly, it does not cost you anything, but a bit of time, to get one or two of them on the phone and see if their ideas gel with your company’s plans. Or, if you are looking at becoming a consultant, why not email or call one that looks pretty reputable and pick his/her brain?

Everyday, you will hear the same refrain “due to this economy… etc, etc, etc.”  Well, if things are getting worse and the pie is shrinking, why not see if someone can help you grab a larger slice so that, when the pie grows again, you’ll be set for even greater revenues. It’s a win-win for you and your potential consultant. But, remember to not be fooled by hype about social media solving your problems. In many cases it needs to come along with a healthy dose of non-social media marketing and real world metrics.

Okay, maybe that’s a bit old for some of us. How about RSS feeds for news sites? Who needs to check CNN.com when you can just grab the RSS feed and be alerted about new stories?

One of the nice things about RSS is that it automatically brings news to me. New post on your blog? I don’t have to remember to check every day. RSS tells me when there’s something new.

Similar to this, we’ve seen the emergence of auto-tweeting in the last year. For those of you who don’t know, services like Twitterfeed allow twitterers to auto-tweet any RSS feed. Mostly, that takes the form of, for example, “New blog post: Day 46 of the Mayonnaise Diet http://nondescriptURL.com.”

As well, services like Tweetlater and SocialToo allow twitterers to automatically direct message or @ reply new followers. Sometimes, that takes the form of, “Just wanted to say hi and thanks for following. Looking forward to tweeting with you.”

These are great tools when used politely, but too many people have gotten lazy with these things and are obnoxiously taking advantage of them.

The problem that many of us have is the blatant, over-the-top advertising that is done. Personally, I think Twitterfeed is really useful. I like knowing when my tweeple post something new. I won’t always read their stuff, but at least, I have the option. The problem comes when you auto-tweet things like, “If I suggested you read one thing today, it’d be this http://URLshorteningservice.com.” To me, that sounds like you found something interesting, and you’re not just shamelessly promoting yourself.

Have a new blog post? Think it’s spectacular? Set your auto-tweet to begin with something like, “My new blog post,” not, “Let me mislead you just to increase my pageviews.”

Now, a lot of so called Twitter experts will complain about auto-tweets for hellos. Truth be told, I think they’re great. I simply cannot send a personal hello to everyone that follows me within a short time of them doing so. Sometimes, I’m too busy. Other times, I’m just not on Twitter. So, what do I do? I auto-direct message a polite hello and then follow up later with a personal hello to anyone that has responded.

This has two benefits. One, it’s simple for me to welcome people, and two, it cuts down the number of people I have to say hi to because there are so many twitterers that follow just to see if you will follow back, but they have no genuine interest in you. So, I figure that, if they message me back with a hello, I should take the time to check out their profiles, maybe their blogs too, and then tweet them a genuine greeting.

The followers that I ignore are the ones that direct message me something like, “Your the coolest person ever! So, I’m giving you access to my new top-secret post on making money the easy way http://ShameShameShame.com.” Notice the confusion between your and you’re, as well as the person just assuming I’m interested in that sort of post, and saying I’m the coolest person ever when s/he likely has never met, or even heard about, me? That’s just poor and annoying salesmanship there.

Chris Brogan would say, “I offered to shake your hand, and you stuck your tongue down my throat. Yuck.” Wait until you’ve built a relationship with me before you assume I’m even interested in your moneymaking tips. If I am, you’ll get lots of pageviews from me instead of just an immediate unfollow due to the uncouth hello you just sent.

What does this all mean? Automation services are great when used correctly. When they’re used incorrectly, they burn bridges that you’ve barely begun to build. Go ahead and auto direct message me a hello and maybe even your URL. Go ahead and auto-tweet your new blog post. Just don’t make any assumptions about what your new followers are interested in, and definitely, do not mislead them. This way, you can join the ranks of Twitter for Smart People and not Twitter for the Socially Inept.