Social media is a dynamic tool that can be used to promote your blog or your podcast. Twitter has quickly become a social media icon and it’s my personal favorite. Due to it’s popularity with bloggers, several software developers have created plugins that can make Twitter and your blog work together so that you can easily promote your blog on Twitter.

The Tweetmeme button is most often found on WordPress blogs but I plan to install it on other blog platforms too like Blogger, Posterous and WordPress.com using a widget or short code. I recorded this screencast for @Another-blogger based on a question he asked me the other day on his blog. If you’re using the WordPress plugin you might need to adjust this setting also. In this video you can see how to make sure when your readers retweet you, your Twitter name will appear.

Take a look at Customize the Tweetmeme Plugin and you’ll see what I mean.

When you’re done customizing the settings on your Tweetmeme plugin, retweets will now include your Twitter user name. This will show up if you use HootSuite or TweetDeck to follow your @ mentions and you’ll know right away when you’re posts are retweeted and who retweeted them for you.

If you know of any other tips for customization of this plugin, please share them in the comments area over on the left.

Branding!

In the business world one of the keys to success lies in the power of brand recognition and brand awareness. Over the years, many successful and Fortune 500 companies have cultivated their brands through the use of traditional advertising media likeman commercials, newspaper ads and online promotional campaigns. Now that social media outlets including blogs, Facebook and Twitter have become more mainstream they are also being infiltrated by many popular brands.

As a podcaster you should also include social media, in particular blogging, as part of a successful business strategy. If you’re just getting started with your blog, take a look at my post So You Want To Start Blogging for some pointers.

By the same token, if you are a blogger looking for ways to increase traffic to your blog learn how to Promote Your Blog With a Podcast.

Brand building can’t happen overnight, but it has to start somewhere. In 5 Ways to Build Your Brand Effectively from MyBlog2day,  the author Lee Ka Hoong lists these essential tools to help your brand stand out from the crowd.

1. Logo
2. Theme
3. Comment
4. Avatar
5. Content

With that being said, I’m sure you’ve already noticed the shiny new logo that Erica Mueller from Erica Says created for The Podcast Blog found at the top of this post. I won a contest she posted on her blog earlier this month for this fantastic logo design which she provided in 3 sizes. Erica also introduced new branding for her site just recently and talks about it in Proud to Announce The New Erica Says. Thanks again Erica!

For more on the topic of brand building, Gordon Cindric examines the difference between personal branding and company branding online in his post Branding Websites and Blogs. These same concepts can be applied to branding your podcast.

How about you? Can you think of some additional benefits or ways to brand your podcast or your blog? Please leave a comment and share your expertise.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Fun Twitter Promotions for Your Blog (ileane.wordpress.com)
• Guest Bloggers Lend A Helping Hand (msileanesblog.blogspot.com)
• Social Networking in 2010 from EricaSays.com (bloggingwire.com)

Developing Content for a Blog Post

When you start creating a blog it’s very important to understand that you will not spend as much time writing for your blog as you might think. Be prepared, because you’ll soon find out that one of the secrets to blogging success is reading and posting comments on other more popular blogs.

Here’s why reading and posting comments is vital to your blog’s success. You will:

• Discover blog post ideas
• Improve blog traffic
• Get your blog noticed within the community
• Learn techniques to enhance the content of your blog
• Gain credibility in your niche
• Connect and develop relationships with other bloggers
• Develop your writing skills

Take a look at this commenting strategy in an excerpt from a post found on Zemalf’s Trek In The Blogosphere called Website Traffic Analysis – Lessons For Blog Promotion.

For effective blog commenting:

• Comment to add to the discussion first, everything else is a bonus
• Spam comments will not send you any traffic, so forget it
• Be among the first ones to comment (if the comments are displayed with the oldest on top)
• Leave meaningful and value-adding comments
• Use your real name
• Always adopt to the blog comment rules of the blog
• Link back to your site from the comment text only if it is really relevant, and if the comment policy allows such links. Make sure the comment itself is beneficial even without the link, which is for additional information.

Now your ready to get started reading and commenting on blogs in your field of interest. Start building your blog from the ground up. Keeping track of the comments you leave is easy with a bookmarking service like Diigo*. You’ll soon find yourself developing content on the way to your first blog post.

On my blog Ms. Ileane Speaks I have over 350 comments from visitors with 63 comments on Fun Twitter Promotions for Your Blog. Why don’t you join in and start by commenting on this post. I’d love to hear your feedback.

*Learn how to use Diigo on this page I created - WordPress.com Diigo Group.

UPDATE: I found an excellent post from Robert Bravery of Integral Web Solutions – Where To Find Blog Post Ideas that shares tips from 6 great bloggers about where they get blogging ideas, be sure to check it out.