We talk a lot around here about blogging, and why it’s important for every brand or company to have a blog. Publishing original, useful, interesting content regularly on your blog is vital for search engine optimization (SEO) and is really, really helpful when it comes to building relationships with your current and potential customer base. But what about when you’re working hard to write great content that is valuable to your readers, publishing posts regularly, and yet your blog readership isn’t growing as fast as you’d like?
Today we’re going to talk about how to use Triberr, a unique tool-slash-social-networking-site that helps you to find new audiences for your content – which, of course, means new potential customers.
How to Use Triberr to Increase Traffic to Your Blog
Triberr bills itself as a “blog amplification tool.” When you sign up for an account and connect your blog using an RSS feed, you have the opportunity to join “Tribes” of other bloggers who blog about similar topics to your own. The idea is that everyone in the tribe shares each other’s content, which leads to increased exposure for everyone in the group.
Sounds pretty great, right? Before we dive into what Triberr does, let’s first back up and show you how to get started.
1. Create an Account and Link Social Networks
Sign-up is incredibly easy – all you need is your name, email address, and your blog URL. The next screen will prompt you to sign in using your Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn account. Since most Triberr users choose to share their “Tribemates” content via Twitter, we suggest connecting this one first. It really doesn’t matter too much, because you can connect the other networks later within your profile settings.
2. Find and Join Tribes
Once you are logged in for the first time, Triberr will use a series of little popup blurbs to briefly explain the site’s features. The two most important areas to acquaint yourself with are the Stream and the Tribes tabs. The Stream tab is like your newsfeed on Facebook or your Twitter feed, but for blogs. Once you are a member of a tribe or multiple tribes, this is where your fellow tribe members’ blog posts will appear. The Tribes tab is where you can go to search for tribes by name or topic.
After Triberr guides you through how to navigate the site, it will immediately prompt you to find tribes to join. Enter one or more search terms based on the topics you write about, and voila! Triberr will show you all the tribes that align with that topic or category.
IMPORTANT: Even though you can see the content that tribe members share, other tribe members cannot see the content you share when you are merely a “Follower” of a given tribe. You must become a “Member” for other tribe members to see your blog posts. To become a member of a tribe, you must be invited by the tribe’s “Chief.”
A more common approach is to start out as a follower of a tribe, and the Chief may eventually decide to promote you from follower to member. There is no surefire way to guarantee becoming a member of a tribe, but you can improve your chances by regularly publishing great content that fits the tribe’s topical category, engaging with tribe members, and frequently sharing tribe members’ content on your own social networks.
Expert Tip: To get expedite the potential of getting accepted into a tribe, write on the Tribe’s wall letting them know about who you are, what you blog about and asking to be added to the Tribe. The Chief will then be notified and may be more apt to add you to a his or her tribe.
Alternatively, you can create your own tribe – in this case, you are the Chief and have the ability to invite members and promote followers.
3. Refine Your Settings
Triberr will automatically pull your photo and bio from whichever social network you used to sign in, but you can customize your profile in the Account Settings. This is also where you can connect multiple blogs to your account using the “My Blogs” tab – which is helpful if you have both a personal and a business blog. Use the “My Social Networks” tab to connect your other networks.
4. Share and Interact
Once you are a member of a tribe or tribes, your blog posts will automatically appear in your tribemates’ streams, just as their posts will appear in yours. At this stage, you can review the posts in your stream and approve them for sharing. To do this, simply hover your mouse over the green “share” square until it turns into a green check mark. Any posts that you mark for sharing, Triberr will automatically share to your Twitter account.
Triberr will automatically space out your sharing so that all your approved posts don’t get shared at once. You can customize your sharing frequency on your Account Settings page under Stream Settings. From this page you can also adjust how posts are approved (hover vs. click) and whether or not to show images in your stream.
Sharing is Caring
It takes a little getting used to, but once you start interacting and sharing via Triberr, you’ll quickly realize what a valuable tool this can be. Not only does it vastly extend the reach of your own content, it also provides you with a steady stream of relevant content to share with your own network. Happy sharing!
Do you use Triberr? If so, have you seen an impact in traffic to your blog since joining? Share your tips and experiences with us in the comments or on Twitter.
