The Good and the Bad with NetworkedBlogs

Good and Bad of Networked Blogs
Photo credit: Stéfan

A few months ago, I started using the popular Facebook application NetworkedBlogs for a few blogs that I manage.

With NetworkedBlogs you can:

  • Import your blog feed into the app
  • Once the blog is set up, it will automatically post when you publish a blog
  • The post can automatically be tweeted out or posted to your Facebook profile or page
  • Users can subscribe to the blog right on NetworkedBlogs
  • Users can participate with the NetworkedBlogs community on a variety of topics

Pretty handy and how many of you drooled a little bit when I said once you post a blog it automatically tweets it out AND adds it to your Facebook profile?

NetworkedBlogs is GOOD if you are trying to get back a few minutes in your day

It is a really great feeling to hit Publish on a blog post and know it is also being sent out on Twitter and Facebook. Once a blog is out, I can move on to another task. A few hours later I can go back and see if we have got any feedback on the post. Before using NetworkedBlogs, I would post the blog, copy the URL, add it to Bit.ly and manually post to Twitter and Facebook. That process only took a minute or two but it is still nice to cut it out.

NetworkedBlogs is BAD if you are a numbers/control freak like I am

What I liked about the manual way, was the control of posting it the moment I wanted AND I liked the Bit.ly stats telling me who clicked on my link or who shared my link. It was a helpful stat for me to keep an eye on and I can compare link to link to see what was more popular.

NetworkedBlogs is GOOD if you want your blog to be a seamless experience on Facebook

Facebook is the largest social networking site in the world. Most likely your customers are on it. It is where they are spending a lot of their online time. If you want to catch people in a seamless way on a network they are already participating on – this could be the application for you. People can get alerted to a new post, read it, subscribe to it and even comment on it right in the application.

NetworkedBlogs is BAD if you want the interaction ON your website

What I like about posting our blog on social media sites is getting that traffic to our website. I like seeing that they clicked on it, I like seeing the visit in Google Analytics and I like seeing where that traffic goes from its original entrance source. With NetworkedBlogs, you lose that control over your data. The blog is read on a networked blogs link and not on your own URL.

So what to do? As with most things in the internet marketing space, you need to determine what is best for you.

  • If you are looking to get some precious moments back in your day and get your content ‘out there’ on Facebook and Twitter for people to read – NetworkedBlogs may be the way to go.
  • If you are managing your social media effectiveness in-house and find yourself very tied to numbers, NetworkedBlogs may not be the best choice for you.

Are any of you using NetworkedBlogs? What are your thoughts on how it has helped you or how it has held you back?

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