There are millions of people who are contributing content to Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. Many of these folks post interesting content to their profiles on a daily basis. But not all of them actually get the attention they deserve. Not all social posts are created equal. You have to do your research to find what works and what does not. If you are not testing different approaches with your social posts, you are flying blind. Here are 5 ways I have been able to increase the level of engagement for my social posts:

• try photos: have you ever wondered why the most interesting articles you have shared Facebook or Google+ are not getting the attention they deserve? People do respond to visual content better. Using interesting photos in your social streams will increase your chances of getting more responses from your contacts.
• share your own thoughts: I have seen so many people who try their best to be cautious and avoid sharing what they really think about certain topics. It is true that you should keep your brand in mind when adding content to sites such as Facebook. That does not mean you should censor yourself completely.
• include others’ posts: this approach has worked very well for me on Google+. Linking multiple conversations brings more people together and leads to more engaging discussions.
• mix different types of posts: have you found a great article you believe will do well in your stream? You should also do your research to find videos, photos, and audio content related to that very story. Hybrid posts often do better than regular ones.
• use long posts: you may be limited to how much you can share on Twitter. But that does not apply to Facebook and Google+. Long posts that bring a lot to the table can be quite successful on those sites.

In order to be successful on Facebook, Twitter, or Google+, you need to be credible, interesting, and unique. Behaving like a robot on these networks is not a great idea. By trying the above tips, you will be able to get more people interested in responding or voting up your posts.

How do you go about making your social posts more engaging?

Credit: ilco @ stock xchng

Here is a tag cloud that I created for BloggingOT.com using this cool tool. There is nothing surprising about it. I do cover Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, and SEO tips on this blog. Users get to save their diagram. By clicking on the “Theme” option, you can change the look of your word cloud. The “Gap” buttons give users more ways to change the appearance of their word clouds.

Text Analyzer is super easy to use and is quite fast. It is not always perfect (especially for social profiles). But it does a decent job when it comes to creating attractive word clouds.

Video blogging is nothing new. People have been doing it for years. There was a time when you could gain a huge advantage over your competitors by doing videos. These days, you are going to fall behind if you do not maintain your own video channel on YouTube and other top video sites. Of course, you don’t want to make videos just for the sake of doing it. Here are 6 ways you can use videos to take your blogging business to the next level:

• develop a video news channel: every year that goes by, more people rely on the Internet to get the news. Providing news coverage and summary on a regular basis can not only get you more viewers on YouTube, it could drive more people to your blog.
• cover events: covering the events related to your niche market / industry on your blog is a must. People may love reading about these events, but they love watching videos on them even more. If you plan to attend industry events, don’t forget to record a few videos.
• review products: nothing beats video reviews. There is so much one can learn by reading your experiences with the products you have reviewed. Comprehensive video reviews would make it easier for your visitors to make better buying decisions.
• provide commentary: covering the latest news on your video channel is one way to gain more subscribers. Adding your own unique takes can help differentiate your channel from others covering the same topics.
• interview experts: interviewing experts is one of the oldest ways to develop killer content for blogs. Video interviews are much more powerful and have a better chance to go viral (if done the right way).
• create video responses: those of you who have been active on YouTube for a while know too well about video responses. You can use these to engage fellow YouTubers, get the discussion going, and enhance your own profile.

Doing video posts is not something very new these days. But if you are not serious about even testing this channel, you are going to get left behind.

Email2Phone supports various email services. In order to start getting email alerts, you need to setup your mailboxes. Keep in mind that you will get notified for every new message unless you set up some filters. For starters, you want to make sure you provide this service with the correct phone number. I personally use keyword-based filters to make sure I get calls only when my site is down. Emails can be filtered by what’s included in their body, subject, and “from” section.

Schedulers are very useful too. I personally do not want to get a call 3 am in the morning. That’s why I have set up a scheduler to disable Email2Phone from 1 am to 5 am. If you are not going to be around your phone, you should suspend your delivery to save yourself some money.

Email2Phone won’t work for everyone. But if you want to get notified about new email messages by phone, Email2Phone is well worth checking out.

Plugin Test Drive loads plugins conditionally by user name or IP address. That means you get to test new plugins only on your account. Others won’t even realize you have installed a new plugin. You can change your new plugin’s settings and optimize it for your website at your own pace.

As a publisher, you owe it to your business to test new plugins from time to time to find solutions that make your website even better. Thanks to Plugin Test Drive, you won’t disturb your visitors as you test new scripts.

You don’t have to be a genius to become a tech writer. You just need to have passion for the latest technologies in the industries that interest you. Building the next TechCrunch from scratch is not going to be easy for anyone (for most it will be impossible). But everyone has to start somewhere. Here are 10 steps you can take to start building a killer tech blogging business:

1. cover the latest news first: that’s key. If you can break the latest news once in a while you are golden. Do it enough times and you may get links back from top tech blogs.
2. read like crazy: making disastrous mistakes when covering the latest tech news can kill your credibility in your market. You should always take time to read about the latest news and developments in the industries you will be covering.
3. don’t forget vlogging: most tech blogs of today offer their visitors a mix of videos, podcasts, photos, and articles. You are going to need a decent camera for your vlogging efforts, but it will be worth it in the long run.
4. cover events/conferences: you may be able to blog about gadgets and emerging technologies from your bedroom. But your content will stand out much more if you actually go out of your comfort zone to cover top tech conferences.
5. do exclusive interviews with thought leaders: getting exclusive interviews with leaders in the tech world is not easy. You will have to be aggressive about it. These types of interviews can be a game changer for your business though.
6. don’t forget reviews: most tech blogs provide their visitors with comprehensive reviews of the latest tech products. This shouldn’t be such a hard thing to pull off if you love playing with new gadgets.
7. get your community involved: adopting a user-generated content strategy can push your site to the next level. Chances are your audience knows tech tips that you may not be aware of. There is no reason not to get your visitors involved to help you build a better blog.
8. try hacks: another popular approach for top tech writers. Articles and videos covering crazy and unique hacks will get your website a lot of attention.
9. be a resource: as a tech blogger, your goal should be to keep people on your website as long as possible. By turning your website into a resource hub for the latest tech news, you will be able to do just that. Don’t forget to link to top works by others to offer your visitors even more value.
10. be everywhere: as a tech blogger, you should be ready to adopt new technologies that may help push your business to the next level. Your content should be accessible everywhere. That means you should have a mobile friendly site template. You should also have a presence on top social sites such as Google+, Facebook, and Twitter. Giving your visitors some content distribution tools for your website is another effective idea (WordPress plugin, widgets, …).

Building the next TechCrunch is a huge challenge. You certainly won’t get there overnight. The above tactics do give you the chance to grow your small tech blog faster.

Your turn: how would you go about developing a killer tech blog?

[image credit: code1name @ stock xchang]

The design for this tool is quite colorful. You can filter through its results by the # of followers, engagement level, activities, plus ones, shares and comments. You could also keep track of periodic changes for the top players. Best of all, you can limit your searches to brands, local businesses, art/sports organizations, and so forth.

ZoomSphere charts its data and helps you better track the profiles and brands that interest you. What’s nice is the fact that you can track top players on Facebook and Twitter as well. Just log on to ZoomSphere using your Twitter and Facebook account to get started.

If you are curious about who the top players are on Google+ (and other social networks), ZoomSphere has it more than covered.

QR Blaster is pretty easy to use. Just choose the type of information you want to embed in your QR Code and go from there. You can change the color of your QR code. The tool changes its fields to handle the type of content you have decided to add to your codes. This tool makes printing or sending your QR code to others pretty straightforward.

QR Blaster is so easy to use even a caveman can use it. You don’t even have to know how QR codes work to take advantage of this tool. It is simple and does the job.

The better way would be to add a “Pin It” button to your site (similar to Like or Tweet buttons). Pinterest has a tool you can use to generate the appropriate buttons for your website. Just provide the tool with your URL and image location. The rest is taken care of by Pinterest. You can always replace the URL in the code with your permalinks function (if you use WordPress) to make the button more dynamic.

Pinterest works great for those of you who share great photos and videos on your website. It is not as huge of a traffic driver as Twitter or Facebook. But you do not want to ignore this social network at this point.

Before using this plugin, you want to make sure you only feed your own Twitter account (or the ones you have the rights to) to this plugin. Tweet Import can import tweets under a specific author. You also control which categories they get imported under. Tags are supported too. What’s nice about this plugin is the fact that it can identify Twitter names and make them “clickable.” It turns hashtags to tags which is nice.

You have to be very careful when using plugins such as this one. Going overboard with them could damage your blog severely. But the plugin does its job pretty well.