Must-Have Blog Resource: IFTTT

I really like it when other bloggers share their tips, advice, and resources for working on your blog, promoting it, and making it better.  We are community that should work together!  So, in recent escapades in the blogosphere, I have stumbled upon many tips, tricks, and words of wisdom for my blog.  Some of these blog resources have worked out great, some have been invaluable, and some have not worked out so well (but a great lesson learned on how not to do said thing).  

There is a LOT of information out there to utilize for your blog!  I didn't want this article to be overwhelming, so I've decided to make it a "series" if you will of this as well as follow-up articles on one core topic.  Today's topic will be:  Promotion of Your Blog.  I'm focusing on one invaluable blog resource, IFTTT.

Obviously enough, social media is necessary and vital to promoting your blog, getting the word out on your articles, and gaining new followers.  But it can also be overwhelming.  Just keeping up on your Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other accounts can be exhausting (even if you are using services like HootSuite to help you).  Social media reaches way beyond the most popular sites.  You have to be sure you're spreading your content to where you feel it is most releveant.

One site that I have found invaluable to help with the social media map is the great blog resource IFTTT (pronounced like "gift" without the "g" ).  I would go crazy without it!  It takes some time to set up, but once it is, it works seamlessly and you really don't have to revisit it unless you need to change or edit something.  When you create a free account with IFTTT, you start creating what they refer to as "recipes".  Their verbage is "if this, then that".

You set up an originating website or social media account (the "this") and then select a target website or social media account (the "that").  This is one of your "recipes".  For example, a common one is every time you post a status update to your Facebook business page, it posts a tweet to your Twitter account.  That is just the tip of the iceberg!  You can have every imaginable combination you can think of.  I have a lot that run every time I post a new article on my blog.  It sends the post to numerous social media outlets (LinkedIn, Tumblr, Delicious, etc.).  I send my Instagram photos to Storify.  My pins go to Tumblr.  They offer up some common "recipes".

IFTTT pre-loads commons trigger sites and destination sites.  But there are a lot of "recipes" that bloggers have posted themselves, so if you are wanting to incorporate a certain social media recipe, do a search on the site for that and see what comes up.  For example, I have an odd one running now that I kind of like:  every time I like a photo on Instagram, it posts a tweet about it.  You wouldn't find a recipe like this unless you were to manually search Instagram.

So, I highly encourage you to check out the incredible blog resource IFTTT.  If you have questions or comments on your successes, suggestions, or troubleshooting, please post them below.

Stay tuned for my next topic in blog promotion:  Twitter lists.

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