Managing Your Time

Blogging and social networking do take a commitment of time. To be effective you really need to be posting and interacting with your communities at a minimum of once a week. I have read that every-other-day is optimal. I'm still working on that.

For efficient blog reading, you'll want to set up a blog reader which will "collect" all the latest posts from the blogs you follow into one place where you can scan through them quickly. I use Google Reader Feedly, though others are available.

I have a filter set up on Google Reader Feedly to group my favorite blogs together. I "follow" hundreds of blogs. Obviously, I'm not able to keep up with reading that many. When I log on to Google Reader Feedly, I first read through the recent posts on my favorite blogs. (My favorites include blogs of personal friends, family, and a few that I read regularly just because I find them especially helpful or inspiring.) When I have time I scan through posts on other blogs I follow. You can also set up your filters to sort the blogs you following into categories-- so you could group all the homeschooling blogs together in one group, and maybe another group would be homemaking blogs, or gardening blogs, or whatever you are interested in.

Building a Blog Following

The key to having a successful social media presence is to build a following. You can have the most professional blog layout and the best content in the world, but if no one is reading it then it's not doing you a whole lot of good.

Be sure and add a Followers gadget to your sidebar to make it easy for readers to follow you.

I also recommend Networked Blogs. This is a great tool for connecting with other bloggers, and also for having your blog posts feed to your Facebook page. You can put a gadget for this on your sidebar as well. The gadget shows how many followers you have and makes it easy for others to follow you.

The only way to build a blog following is to be involved in the blogging community. And yes, it does take a commitment of time.

• Read other homeschool blogs. Leave comments.
• Read other non-homeschool blogs that interest you. Leave comments.
• "Follow" any blogs that you know you'll enjoy keeping up with. (Note: For social networking purposes, I "follow" way more blogs than I have time to keep up with regularly.) 
• Follow up on comments left by others on your blog. Return the visit. Leave comments.
• Link to your blog on other social networking sites.
• Advertise your blog at conventions. 
• Mention your blog in your workshops.
• Mention your blog in SCC Connect mailings.
• List your blog address in your email signature.