Automating your blog post promotion will kill your audience
Since I started my blogging career there has been a lot of talk about automating your blog and automating your promotion of individual blog posts.
Gotta confess here, I would love the magic bullet or the magic one click (but know there isn’t one). That doesn’t stop people buying into the automated blog post promotion dream.
The dream that says click this button and all your social profiles will be updated instantly, if not sooner… and not only will the screaming horde descend upon your lovingly written post but you will get heaps more leads, have a better sex life, get more backlinks and keep your bank manager happy, all with one click.
People think that automation is the cure to their time management and not managing their time more efficiently. It’s not but I suspect you don’t want to hear that 
Like me you were looking for a quick fix, one click or magic bullet.
Let’s have a quick look at what happens when you automate your Facebook status updates.
These images are from my Facebook newsfeed.
Do you see that line in bold at the bottom?
See 12 more posts from NetworkedBlogs
You don’t get to decide which one you see in your news feed, you see what Facebook decides to show. In this case this blog from Networked Blogs and not the ones underneath it.
Imagine how many potential readers you lose if you are the one underneath.
It’s not just Networked Blogs before you all rush off to delete that app.
It’s any third party app, any tool that automates updates. Yes that means Twitter, Hootsuite and all the other wonderful things that make your life a little easier…
If you next thought is “Ah…but” I think I know what’s coming…
And here is your answer, they are not all status updates from the same person but from all different people.
If you take the time to promote your blog post over the course of a day and add status updates by hand then you will reach the biggest possible audience. If you automate the lot, you’ll miss out and so will the audience you have painstaking built up.
Mari Smith talked about the “whys” of this at the Blogging Summit, it’s to do with Edge Rank. This is the mechanism Facebook uses to work out what shows in your feed. According to Mari an update with an image and descriptive blurb has more “Edge” and is more likely to be shown. A third-party app simply has less Edge compared to a manual status update.
If you automate all your blog post promotion you may miss out on valuable traffic. If every social media platform behaved in the same way as Facebook then you would not be able to grow your blog’s readership, your promotion would not work and by default you would blame yourself, your blogging team or any number of other things. You would blame everything except for the fact your promotion is not reaching your audience.
If you think that adding status updates by hand is hard work then consider outsourcing to Nikki or getting a VA, and make sure they update by hand and not fully automate.
Don’t kill your audience by making life so much easier for yourself that you forgot why you needed to promote your blog post in the first place. That really will make the bank manager unhappy.
Like these pearls of wisdom? In a few days I launch my Advanced Blogging eGuide, it will have a snappier, sexier title like “get good at blogging or die trying”, you can get on the early bird list over by clicking the link.
About Sarah ArrowSarah Arrow is the managing editor of Birds on the Blog, in real life she is the communications director of a same day courier service. She is an enthusiastic UK based pro-blogger and co- author of the soon to be published Zero to Blogger
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12 Responses to Automating your blog post promotion will kill your audience
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I promote my blog almost entirely by hand – the exception is the “Tweet Old Post” facility you installed for me! I even respond to to new followers on Twitter by hand which is a bit of a chore, but allows me to suggest different articles and posts on my blog that may interest them personally. It must be working because I get a lot of responses back from those, thanking me for my suggestions. So much better than the awful autoresponder…
One thing I’ve found with Facebook is that even if you do updates by hand, if you do two or three in quick succession, FB will show one and refer to the others as “see 1/2 more posts from…” The only way I’ve found to get around that one is to leave a few minutes between each update.
Great post, Sarah and a very useful lesson for us all.
Sz
Suzan St Maur recently posted..How to write a book – and dry your laundry
Twitter: SuzeStMWrites
I love the attention to detail you show with your engagement of readers and followers Suze, you add a lot of value to your audience and readers.
Sarah Arrow recently posted..Trouble shooting parcel couriers
Great post Sarah – thanks.
Had already heard something along these lines from Ed Dale – that basically automated Facebook updates didn’t show in people’s feeds or somesuch. He couldn’t work out why he wasn’t get more response until he started updating by hand, and then “whammo” – things started happening.
I’ll look forward to your “Enjoy a better sex life through better blogging” book
Jane
Hey Jane, long time no chat! I’ll be wanting a guest post from you…
I know a lot of people who automate the process and then wonder why, Suze has a great way of promoting her posts where they are most appreciated and that to me is targeted marketing
“Enjoy a better sex life through better blogging” book – yes, that is exactly what it should be called 
was going to add a tagline but then I remembered the site has a PG rating…
Hi Sarah,
Once I get “into the flow” again – I’d like to be a regular blogger if you’ll have me
Get into the flow? Look your guest blog is due next Wednesday *cracks whip*
I am a hard task master as the rest of the birds will testify. BOTB needs a regular supply of blogs and blogging here is hard work, so get writing hehehhehehehe
Sarah Arrow recently posted..Trouble shooting parcel couriers
Why are you having trouble shooting your parcel couriers? Or indeed, why are you trying to shoot them in the first place? Hehehehehehehe – (your latest blog – trouble shooting parcel couriers or was it carrier pigeons?) Lol!
Don’t go there Jane, that company were the most idiotic company in charge of peoples parcels. Sent the driver on a long weekend with his van full of packages on his driveway. This means they wouldn’t be insured and they wouldnt be delivered by anyone else… darn, you have tripped me on a rant about them now… may have to go and blog it again just to get it out of my system!
Oops – sorry – eek – didn’t mean to hit a nerve.
Oh dear, many thanks for this Sarah, I didn’t know and I have automated all the blogs- so off to delete the lot. I must admit, I did this without understanding how it works exactly
ethnicsupplies recently posted..100 years of International Women’s day- Lillian’s story
Twitter: ethnicsupplies
Don’t delete the lot Ida, add some by hand and take the chance by automating just some of it. I do that for Birds and *crosses fingers* it does ok for now, I think Babs does Blokes on the blog all by hand except for the twittering. For Arrow I do both throughout the day at different times.
Sarah Arrow recently posted..Trouble shooting parcel couriers
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