Many people, particularly bloggers, use data collected from areas such as Google Trends to find topics or keywords to inspire their next piece of content. Social blogging can provide the same type of information, in this case information that is probably more relevant to blogging.

Social blogging sites such as Twitter can be real information gold mines. In fact twist, a site that shows what hot on Twitter has made it easier. Here you can enter in a number of keywords and it will return a graph showing how frequently those keywords appear.

I did a comparison between, parents, holidays, and flowers. Parents came out well in front, however if changed that term to toddlers, it didn’t get onto the screen. Parents are popular topics but toddlers are not.

Using the information you gather, you can see which of your keywords are generating comments and you can then create pages targeting those keywords. The posts wont write them selves, the headlines may do.

Everyone knows that a blog is a great way to provide information to customers and prospective customers. We live in a society that is using the online world to research products prior to purchasing – most of this research is done through search engines, however social networking is becoming an effective means to deliver information. If you can connect with both you will find your traffic and and sales improving.

One effective and underutilized uses for blogs is as a sharing portal for products users. As an example, you may sell a variety of digital cameras. If you have created pages or posts on each model of camera available, you can open your comments for buyers to enter in hints and tips for using that particular model.

I have seen websites run competitions on the best ‘hint and tip’ for items that they sell. These are later collated into a page of their own. Blogs are ideally placed as they take on some of the features of static web pages and the interaction of forums.

Once you start to get feedback and useful hints and tips you can start to invite your social networks to add in their hints and tips. Eventually you will have a mass of user generated content that turns a simple blog into an authority site – a site that can answer all the questions on a particular product.

What is interesting is that buyers are now looking for feedback from other buyers before making their final decision on which product to buy. If you can provide a mass of user generated feedback on your products then buyers are going to be far more willing to buy from you rather your opposition whose only information is what they provide. These days, particularly online, there is little trust between buyer and seller until that first sale has been made.

Capitalize on what your buyers can do for your business. Propagate that information throughout the social networks and you will reap the benefits.

Facebook has a feature that I find interesting, yet limited. Perhaps I have not got the hang of it. The MiniFeeds are handy to grab feeds from your blog, del.icio.us, digg and SU accounts (there are others).

I have not been able to work out how to get the feed from more than one blog into my account. It seems it has a limitation in that respect.

What is interesting is the introduction of comments on these MiniFeeds. This will have one of two effects – one: it will decrease the number of visitors to your blog or website – let’s face it if I can comment on one of your posts in Facebook, why visit your blog in person. Not only that, I can see all your posts and view them in Facebook.

Two: you may find an interesting discussion starting that can be used on your blog as a new post – it can be great to receive inspiration from your readers. That’s value added content.

Of course you need to get viewers in to your profile first and that is where joining groups can be a great asset. Join the groups, add some value and your profile views will grow. The traffic to your site may not.

Whilst you can use url’s in the comments, they are ‘nofollow’ so there is little in the way of link value – however they do sneak through occasionally – if not then perhaps viewers to these comments will follow. Just make sure the comments add value and the link extends the conversation to a higher level. Facebook Minifeeds with comments – and interesting concept little utilized to date.

Social blogging through micro sites such as Twitter has become so popular that the sites themselves are struggling to cope with traffic. With the inclusion of plugins such as those available for WordPress, people can keep up to date with every singe action of their friends.

Conversations now get quite personal with every aspects of life covered. I am sure some people tweet while eating, bathing or engaged in any other activity such as playing sport – yep – I recently saw a softball player ‘tweeting’ on her phone whilst playing softball.

We went through this several years ago when everyone started messaging via cell phone. Before that everyone had ICQ or MS and spent half the day ‘chatting to others’.

Social blogging, or in this case micro blogging has become the ‘in’ thing. As a marketing tool it has its limitations, however it does have the power to suddenly increase traffic – often poor quality, to your site.

Do you twiiter – does it build your traffic? I would like to know – I cannot get in to it.

Social Marketing comes in many shapes and sizes. I believe we have only scratched the surface of its potential through websites like Facebook and MySpace. Proper web design plays a big role.

If you are planning any social marketing related it is important to have a site that looks like it was built by a professional otherwise you will hit a major roadblock with web traffic. Visitors want to feel like they are joining something big and feel like they are part of a professional organization. Quote Catcher can help you find affordable web design for your social marketing website. By filling out an easy and short questionnaire they will provide you with up 5 quotes that your budget and criteria for your design. Quote Catcher is an industry leader in helping others in the field and acquiring the right firm for others to implement into their overall marketing strategy. Quote Catcher is partnered with many design firms ready to speak to you and help you with all website building needs. Don’t let your social marketing website suffer be not taking the time to speak with a handful of designers.

For more information on how Quote Catcher can you help you with your social marketing please visit their site and fill out the information. A Quote Catcher representative will be in touch.