Ping.fm. Revolutionising Social Networks?
I have now been writing this blog since June and have been toying with the best way to publicise it. I am aware of the positive effect that social networking can have on SEO but also that notifying networks can be a time consuming activity.
This has meant that SEO has taken a back seat to the more important task of learning to be a web designer. Well my work as a web designer does pay the bills but surely advertising is an important part of business? So whilst working; I have been keeping my eyes open for a way of advertising my business, without the mind alteringley boring routine of notifying social networks of changes to my blog and business pages.
During this process, I stumbled upon a WordPress plugin called Links Alpha. This software lets you link all of your social networks to your WordPress blog so that you can auto notify them of changes. LA seems to have a few bugs and this leads me to the major drawback. You have to pay for Links Alpha. It is cheap and the service it provides is potentially very helpful but I do not like paying for something that I could potentially get for free.
So I kept searching and yesterday I found a plugin that I am hoping will make my life easier.
Ping.FM is a website that performs a similar service to Links Alpha but with one important difference, it is free. First you have to open an account. Then starts the laborious task of creating and adding social networks. Here is the list of networks I have successfully added.
TwitterTwitter
# Posting
FacebookFacebook
# Posting
Facebook PagesFacebook Pages
# Posting
Google BuzzGoogle Buzz
# Posting
TumblrTumblr
# Posting
Identi.caIdenti.ca
# Posting
FriendFeedFriendFeed
# Posting
PlurkPlurk
# Posting
JaikuJaiku
# Posting
BloggerBlogger
# Posting
Plaxo PulsePlaxo Pulse
# Posting
YouAreYouAre
# Posting
MultiplyMultiply
# Posting
YammerYammer
# Posting
FlickrFlickr
# Posting
StreetMavensStreetMavens
# Posting
PosterousPosterous
Sorry for the formatting but I have been at it all day. I will sort this at a later date.
Then you have to add the wping plugin to your WordPress installation and the API key from Ping.FM. This is the point I have reached. After finishing this post, I am going to auto publish to 17 networks! There are other networks available from Ping.FM but I made sure that the networks are relevant, as I was advise that this was important for SEO reasons.
It is also important to note here that the word social network is used loosely in this post. It is worth familiarising yourself with the links on offer as picking the wrong links may end up hurting your rankings.
Hopefully this process is going to work successfully. I will post the results accordingly.
So, the results!
Last night I tried to post using the Wping.fm plugin but it didnt work.
Then I tried to post directly from Ping.FM and again nothing. I was simply informed to ‘try again’ So I did. I tried 5 times and gave up. I then tried to access the Seesmic forum to see what was up but surprise surprise it wasnt working either.
At this point I became quite depressed
. Having spent the whole day adding network. it was quite annoying.
I then awoke this morning and gave it another try. I added the URL and link text directly to Ping.FM, hit the button and it worked. I have checked a few of the networks and it seems everything has gone well.