This practical guide for BlogsterApp’s first steps will help you discover, learn and understand full potential of our service. Once complete you’ll soon be on your way to become an expert!
Contents
- Introduction
- How is BlogsterApp Useful?
- Synchronizing Blog Entries
- Managing Active and Inactive Blog Content
- Adding Calls to Action to Achieve Greater Reach
- Keeping Your Community Informed Through External Links
- Defining the Order of Posts
- Setting a Community-Oriented Distribution Plan
- Knowing the Status of your Blog
- Review Past, Present & Future Posts with Outbox
- Analyze Impact of Content Distribution
- Conclusion
1. Introduction
Taking your first Steps
BlogsterApp is an online service which is accessible through your Web browser via BlogsterApp.com, meaning there is no need to download anything onto your computer. Whenever you sign in, you’re working with the latest version.
The goal of BlogsterApp is to help disseminate all the fresh content of your blog to social networks through your Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Google+ pages.
What previously was a daunting task for a blogger or community manager (promoting all the fresh content of one or more blogs through social networks) BlogsterApp solves easily.
Through this guide we will help you understand, configure and launch your blog from the get-go. You’ll also discover how to improve and enhance the use of the application.
2. How is BlogsterApp Useful?
Let’s review the basics
BlogsterApp is an application aimed at bloggers and community managers specifically designed to manage, distribute and analyze the impact of synchronized content from your blog to social networks.
The main difference from other content distribution tools is that BlogsterApp shares all blog content following a customized circulation plan that you create yourself, per social network. Even if you do not create new content for your blog, BlogsterApp is working 24 hours to maintain the activity on your linked social media profiles.
One clear benefit our users often remark on is how much more free time they can now dedicate to hobbies, family and friends, and doing more of what they like. (Of course, that includes creating more, better content for your blog!) There are other notable benefits that you will experience, such as increased interactivity on your social profiles and, of course, more visits to your blog, which should translate into increased traffic conversions from visitors to subscribers/customers.
BlogsterApp plays an active role in online marketing strategies, content management and social media marketing. Its customizable plans and round-the-clock care make it a great ally for your blog, business or company.
3. Synchronizing your Blog Entries
From My Blogs
BlogsterApp is able to synchronize content from major blogging platforms like Blogger, WordPress.com and WordPress.org. Use the “Synchronize” button in My Blogs to incorporate your blog to the application.
Once your blog is synchronized, it will appear in the My Blogs window, as you can see in the picture below.
This is a control panel regarding information about your blog
Within the control panel of your blog, you will see several sections. All of them show relevant information and also act as links to navigate to other sections of the application.
At this point, the most important piece of this page is the data regarding the number of entries (the first data block), where you will see the number of entries. (Few are fresh and many are outdated, but more on that later.)
If this is the first time that you have linked your blog to the application, BlogsterApp considers all your entries as Active. So the next step, Managing Your Content, is very important.
Tip: Through the sync icon located to the right of registration, you can link new content posted on your blog to BlogsterApp after your last synchronization.
4. Manage Active and Inactive content from your blog
From the Entries Page
Once synchronized your blog, go to the Entries section where you’ll find all your blog entries. The most important thing now is to mark those entries that no longer make sense today to share in social networks as expired. You should consider entries having to do with events, initiatives, awards, acknowledgments, etc as Inactive
You can select one or more entries using the first column of the table. Then, set the content as Inactive. At any time you can switch to that content to Active. All you have to do is mark the entry and use the same button (“Set Status As”.)
Tip: You can use the search, filter by labels and sort by date to mark several entries. Visit the My Blogs section to find statistical information regarding entries, which shows any changes and reflects the reality of your blog with respect to content.
5. Add a Call to Action to achieve greater reach
From Call to Action page
By default, Call to Action 1 is the title of your blog entry. Call to Actions can be edited and enhanced using hashtags or tags (#) to achieve greater reach. Keep in mind that text boxes offered in BlogsterApp are universal to all social networks.
The image shown on the right is obtained automatically during the synchronization process. If you want to distribute it with your Entry, you need to activate the associated icon. By default, the first Call to Action icon is set as Activated. In the event that you want use another image, use the icon located below it. Move between Entries using the top drop-down menu to edit other Calls to Action. If you have many entries, you can search within the drop-down menu, which shows only the content you previously marked as active. If you need to open your entry in another browser tab, simply click on the link icon.
Tip: It is not necessary that you complete Calls to Actions 2 to 5 (especially if you have many Active entries in your blog), because in the first distribution cycle, BlogsterApp uses the Call to Action 1.
6. Keep your community informed through the relevant news
Through the External Links Page
External Links are publications that exist outside of your blog. A good content strategy is to select sources that provide you with useful and interesting information for you and your followers, usually related to the theme(s) of your blog. The first step of good content curation is dependant on finding interesting news for your communities, and adding the URL to BlogsterApp. See the image below.
You can add as many External Links as you like. Your BlogsterApp circulation plan can and will alternate between headlines and External News. This way, you can achieve a balance between the distribution of proprietary content and other sources. This prompts more people to follow you and ensures your community stays informed.
As is the case with Calls to Actions, External Links can use images, tags or hashtags, mentions of people and brands.
Tip: We recommend you always have a stock of External Links to spread, so that BlogsterApp may share them through the social profiles you have connected, always alternating between Entries and External Links.
7. Defines the Line-up of your publications
From the Line-up tab
How should BlogsterApp share the entries from your blog? From the most recent to the oldest or vice versa? Depending on the type of content of your blog, you can choose between two options in the Line-Up Tab: Standard and Reverse. The Standard covers your fresh publications from the most recent to the oldest, using the first Call to Action 1. Once it reaches the end (or the beginning, depending on how you look at it) a new cycle of distribution will begin, using Call to Action 2, and then the Call to Action 3, 4 and 5, and then start again, in successive cycles.
Tip: the undefined line-up acts as a master switch: if at any time you want to disconnect the spread of BlogsterApp, simply designate this particular line-up as one to keep and save. The blog will then cease distribution for however long you want and you won’t have Calls to Action created for that particular spread of posts.
8. Set a Distribution Plan tailored to your communities
From the Social Networks page
Once you have synced all of your blog’s content, set which is Active and Inactive, and defined by the Line-up, it will be time to consider the broadcast. You must adjust each distribution plan for your social profiles independently. Keep in mind that each network has a different rhythm, the independent social network configuration that BlogsterApp offers will allow you to optimize this.
Characteristics of a Distribution Plan:
- Enable your Social Networks (Twitter, Facebook, Google+ y Linkedin)
- Set your timeZone so that posts are distributed at the time you’d like them to
- Set the days you would like them to be distributed (M,Tu, W, Th, F, S, Su)
- Distribution slots. You have up to 4 with which you can set morning, noon, evening and night posts. If you are not sure what time will yield the greater impact, we recommend you use the default configuration that includes extended hours, for example from 7:00 am to 23:00h, BlogsterApp will distribute messages to cover the entire slot that you establish
- Set the maximum number of messages to spread
- Priority of Calls to Action/External Links
- High. The first message will be an External Link
- Low. The first message will be a Headline
- Excluded. This network will not receive any messages
- Minimum time interval between messages
- 15 min
- 30 min
- 45 min
- 60 min
- 90 min
- 120 min
- Set the status of your Network; (Active or Inactive)
If at any time you want to disconnect one of your Networks, you only have to change the state to Inactive .
Tip: By default BlogsterApp has configured each Social Profile with predetermined values. If you do not know the slots where you have more impact, we recommend you set a single slot with extended hours. After a while you can analyze the impact through the statistics and then adjust the Social Profile. The maximum number of messages a day, depends on the social network , establishing a maximum of 10 messages (between External Links and Call to Actions) to Twitter and Linkedin.
9. Diagnosis of your blog to know their health and status
From the Status Page
Status option lets you know if your blog within BlogsterApp meets all requirements, in this case the ON status will be present. To achieve the ON status, your blog must meet the following requirements :
- Define a Line-up
- Must have ACTIVE content
- Must have atleast one Active Social network
- Must have Call to Actions. Remember that by default Call to Action is the title of each publication
- You must have confirmed the user registration process by validating your email address
- You must also have an active account
BlogsterApp generates messages and broadcasts the content of all active blogs automatically, see the following section.
Tip: the undefined line-up acts as a master switch: if at any time you want to disconnect the spread of BlogsterApp, simply designate this particular line-up as one to keep and save. The blog will then cease distribution for however long you want and you won’t have Calls to Action created for that particular spread of posts.
10. Outbox contains today’s messages, sent messages and the next 72 hours
Find this in the Outbox page
Through the Outbox, you will be able to view, edit, delete and manually share messages. You can also see any messages previously released and pending messages for the next 72 hours. The application has two automatic processes: the generation of messages using Calls to Action corresponding to Active Entries and External Links, which occurs every hour, and the distribution of content. Every 15 minutes BlogsterApp shares pending messages. The only requirement for this feature is that your blog’s status is ON. There is no need to log in to BlogsterApp to keep the content distribution going. BlogsterApp distributes your content 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
As you can see in the picture above, it is easy to distinguish messages by social network, messages that are sent from those that are pending, and which are Internal vs External. At the bottom right of the message icons you have three action option, such as delete, edit and share.
Tip: Our recommendation is that you review pending messages daily, so that you can edit and enhance these messages. In case you mark Inactive content as Active, you can delete the message before it is sent and mark the entry as Expired.
11. Analysis of the impact of your content
As observed in the Analytics Page
BlogsterApp helps you not only with content management and distribution, but by providing web traffic analytics as well. When a user clicks the Call to Action accompanying your link, it is detected by BlogsterApp and shows this information on your Analytics Page as a click (not applicable to External Links). Over time you can see how it evolves.
Tip: Analyzes each Social Profile, even at the level of hours and adjust the Social Profile to optimize your blog.
12. Conclusion
BlogsterApp’s functionality is a fundamental part of content strategy as well as a great ally in Social Media Marketing. It can provide aid through the different phases of distribution and analysis of proprietary content management and external content. BlogsterApp considers itself to be a standard of best practices, helping both bloggers and Community Managers gain productivity, save time and increase interactivity in social networks. We hope that this Guide has kept you up to speed with BlogsterApp’s processes and allows you to see the potential of the entire tool.
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Edited by the BlogsterApp team December, 2016
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