Social media. Social networking. These words are being thrown in left and right these days. So what are social media sites really? Do a search, and you’ll find lots of definitions. Let’s make it easy, and stick to the essentials. Basically, the label can be applied to any web site that makes use of tools that allow interaction between people. Think blogs, user groups, and the like.
More than merely wanting to have fun online via these web sites, there are actually productive uses for them. This is especially true if you are using social media sites to promote your own web site, blog, product, or service. One way by which you can do this is to submit articles.
Why should you submit to social media sites?
As mentioned above, social media sites hold the potential of driving traffic to your web site. These social media sites have thousands and thousands of members and viewers who just might discover your web site if you submit articles. It is thus not a surprise that people continue to submit articles on a regular basis. If you aren’t doing so already, then it is about that time that you did – that is, if you want to gain more visitors to your site.
What are the social media sites that you should submit articles to?
There are many choices, but here are several that are sure to drive some traffic your way.
- Reddit. This site has been around for quite some time and gives you the option of submitting links to articles as well as images. You can also refine your submission by choosing specific topics called subreddits. A submission to Reddit that becomes popular can easily give you hundreds of hits within an hour.
- Digg. Arguably the largest social news site that you can submit to, you can gain a lot from submitting to Digg. Like Reddit, Digg has various subsections so that you can choose which category to submit to. It also has separate sections for video and images.
- StumbleUpon. Another popular site, StumbleUpon is not technically just a social media site, but you can submit links to articles, which can be “discovered” by other users. You can also add reviews to your submission so that you can provide more information.
- Slashdot. This site is more focused on technology topics, but functions just like the others.
This is by no means a comprehensive list of the social media sites that you can submit articles to. However, the sites on this list will give you a decent amount of traffic.
So how do you submit articles?
The answer depends on which social media sites you choose to submit articles to. The first thing that you have to do is create accounts in the sites that you want to regularly submit articles to. You simply have to go to that site and join. You can follow the prompts that will be given at every step. It really is a very simple thing. Just remember that you need to use a valid e-mail address so that you can verify the accounts that you create.
Once you have created accounts, you can submit articles whenever you want to. As with the account creation, you will be given prompts regarding the information that you need to include. More often than not, you will just need to copy and paste the URL, choose a category and tags, and maybe add a review or short description.
Automatic submissions
You can easily surmise how time consuming it can get to manually submit articles to social media sites. Think about it – if there are 50 social media sites that you want to submit to and you have one article to submit to each, you’ll have to plow through each site and manually input the necessary details. Is there an easier and faster way to do it?
The answer is yes. There are actually services available that can submit articles automatically for you. By using these services, you can focus on creating content that will provide value to your readers. The submission part will be taken cared of by some other entity, freeing up your time for other equally (or more) important activities. Let’s take a look at some of these services.
OnlyWire lets you auto-submit to more than 40 sites with a single click. They have various pricing plans to suit your needs. There is also a free plan, which is perfect for personal use. The other sites are more like add-ons to your browser so that you can submit links faster. The number of sites that you can submit to vary, and the process is still semi-manual, with a little more work required than OnlyWire. Still, with the integration of these services, you will be able to submit to various social media sites without having to manually visit each site and entering the details.
Photo credit: SocialGrow