How Sharing Information Through Social Media Can Effect Your Blog

Many different things can affect blogs, but many people don’t consider the effects of social networking. Sharing information over Facebook, Twitter and other social networks can be both good and bad, and it really depends on what type of information you share over the Internet. If you think about the repercussions, then you should be safe from any problems. At the same time, these are many of the good and bad things that can happen when you share information over social networks.

More Fans :

There is a reason why most people prefer to read blogs rather than static websites and news sites. Blogs are more social by nature, and most blog writers are more comfortable showing their personality. Reading a news website will give you factual information about a breaking story, but a blog will give you more personality and opinionated information about that same story. People naturally gravitate towards interesting and unique personalities, and sharing that personality over a social network can improve your number of fans.

Many people go to social networks to find people that they like. If you share posts and information about yourself that reveals your personality, then you might get more traffic.

Malicious Attacks :

The lives of hackers have become much easier with social networks. Most hackers try to find someone’s personal information to easily bypass secret questions and to guess their password. If you have heard any news stories about someone having their password stolen due to sharing personal information on a social network, then you know that this is very effective.

You need to ensure that you never share private information that can reveal your password. For example, if you have a secret question about the name of your first pet, then you should avoid mentioning the name of that pet on a social network.

Better SEO and More Traffic :

Social networking can bring in more traffic by improving your SEO. The Google Penguin update ensured that Google received social networking signals from websites like Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus. These signals have been proven to increase someone’s rank for certain keywords and phrases. This is because the social signals show that you are active online, and Google likens this to a sort of backlink.

While the social signals are not quite as powerful as a high PageRank backlink, they are still useful in helping your SEO and improving your rank. You don’t necessarily need to share any information for this to happen. You just need to post updates, talk about your blogs and generally be active.

Embarrassing Information :

Many bloggers keep their blogging personality and their public or work personality separate. This is because many people find it easier to be opinionated or open if no one knows who the author is. At the same time, you might accidentally type revealing details into your blog that will lead people to your work or public social networking account.

For example, you talk about something embarrassing that happened to you in high school on your blog or through your blogging social network personality. One of your readers turns out to be a classmate from your high school years, and he or she start telling people about who you really are and other potentially embarrassing information. This can easily expand into something devastating.

Alienate Fans:

Being opinionated will often keep some people from reading your blog, but it will also build a community around your blog of like-minded people. If you share information on your social network that sharply contrasts your blogging opinion, then you might alienate fans.

For example, you write a blog post about the freedom that independent game developers have over the Xbox 360 network. You then proceed to make a social networking post about how restrictive and damaging this same network is. This is going to confuse readers, and it could damage your blog’s integrity and traffic numbers.

Conclusion :

Sharing information about yourself and your blog can be both rewarding and damaging for your blog. It’s best to ensure that you are consistent with the information you write in your social networking profile, and you should also ensure that you don’t write any information that can help people figure out your password or identity. If you can do this, then social networking shouldn’t damage your blog.

Read more...