Connect Everything: Part 7 “Pay Day”

It’s Friday the 13th and this blog series is coming to a close. No better day for this to happen than “Pay Day,” right? After today you can take your middle-of-the-month check and go celebrate your online accomplishments by buying a new video camera…

Anyway, the pieces are in place and your online pyramid scheme is almost complete. Now all you have to do is “Connect Everything.” Here’s the basic run-down of how this is works. You’ll need to do a bit of tweaking to get it function seamlessly. Again, just shoot me an email if you have any specific questions. I’m more than willing to help you out, for free. I just want these ideas to spread.

1. Find your blog’s RSS feed and start a Twitterfeed. Now, every time you update your blog with a new post it automatically feeds a “Tiny URL” to Twitter.

2. Log into facebook and connect your “Status Updates” to Twitter. Now every time you send out a new Tweet, it will automatically update your Facebook status with the same info.

3. Connect your blog’s RSS feed to your Facebook “fan page.” Now, all of your blog posts automatically appear there too.

4. Head over to Widget Box and create a widget for your flicker photostream. Slap it onto one of your blog’s columns. Now, when you add a new pic to Flickr it will automatically update the photostream on your blog.

5. Do the same for YouTube.

6. Add a FeedBlitz “subscribe” widget on one of the columns of your blog’s front page.

Done.

Confusing? Yes. Difficult? Most likely. Can anybody do this if they just spend a bit of time in front of their computer with a cold one? Absolutely…

To recap, here’s roughly how your content is connecting to multiple online sources. I wrote this in the most confusing way possibly…

• Your blog’s RSS feed feeds to Twitter, Facebook, and Feedblitz.
• Twitter feeds to Facebook.
• Flickr and YouTube feed to your blog.
• Feedblitz feeds your posts (with embedded video and pics) to everyone who chooses to receive them in email form.

When this is running seamlessly, it’s actually kind of cool to sit back and watch it all work. It’s not important that you are deeply familiar with the subtle nuances of how this is all working. If you’ve taken the time to properly set up each element, it should simply work. It definitely takes a bit of time, patience, and homework, but it’s pretty easy to do.

Now here’s the big reveal: The internet is a principle based on fast-moving, free information that you can choose to view at your leisure. You have just given your fans seven new ways to do that. And you’ve done it with class while following the spirit of things.

Do you see where I’m going with this?

Anyway, I’m sure I’ve left out a ton of important details. I’m also sure that someone else could do a much better job of explaining this more clearly. The reason I put this together is because I tried to find the same info about three months ago and couldn’t. Please, someone take this idea and do a better job with it. Until then, this is all there is for radio folks.

At the end of the day, this concept has worked wonders for the Music Fog blog. Our fans don’t just enjoy choice…they demand it. Why shouldn’t they? I do.

Class dismissed.

See me after school if you have any questions