I get asked many times and see many people say they joined SocialSpark but don’t really know how to use it as a social networking tool. They only use it to do paid opps, but want to learn how to leverage the site more. Here is how I use SocialSpark to find and network with my blog community.
First here is how I like to build my blog community, find like blogs in category and befriend them. Then find bloggers by location and befriend them as well. Read their blogs, visit their blog site, see what interests them, take any sparks they might offer…etc.
SocialSpark added great searching features in the last few months, these features did not exist prior to like June/July time frame, so take advantage of them.
Sign into your SocialSpark account
Click on Community -> Browse Users
By default the first screen will sort by newest members first, so people who joined most recent will always be listed first.
There are options to the right, you can search by any keyword. This is useful for finding any blogger or blog that has a specific keyword in their profile.
Here is an example of the returned sites when I searched just for the keyword “Arizona”
(Click to enlarge image if too small)
As you can see only 2 sites returned because only 2 profiles in all of SocialSpark have the word “Arizona” in the Account Description.
Now instead of using a keyword search, I am doing a Location search.
Blank out the keyword, and select Country of “United States” and State of “Arizona”
You will see many accounts returned who selected Arizona as their location.
Now one of my favorite searches is to browse blogs by Channel (aka. Category). I wish SocialSpark had a category for Poetry Blogs, instead of them falling under Other though.
You can leverage a Keyword Search in addition to other searches. For this search I am looking for a Channel of “Technology” and the keyword is PC, so any blog account that mentions PC in the description and their blog category is listed as Technology is returned.
Experiment with different search methods and find the bloggers who match your blogs Channel and other area’s of interest. I do network with almost any blogger as my 4 blogs cover every single category with the exception of Women’s Interests but I just figure that as Personal Diary anyway. I have met so many people through SocialSpark, and crazy enough SocialSpark is one of the reasons why my blog has an Alexa rank of like 16,000 in the Philippines.
I hope this article helps my fellow bloggers who don’t use SocialSpark much to leverage it more, and if you don’t have a SocialSpark account create one. My account is DragonBlogger and all my blogs are listed under my account. You also get really good analytics if you have your blog listed for more than 30 days. I posted about this in a previous post.
Stay tuned for more about how I leverage Zimbio, Entrecard, WhereIStand, Twitter (you can see this article on JustinGermino.com
-Dragon Blogger
Let me know how you all like my tips for SocialSpark and if you like using the site not just for paid opps, but for socializing as well.
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Tags: blog friends, blog networking, blogging, Browsing SocialSpark, dragonblogger, entrecard, find bloggers in socialspark, Finding users with socialspark, justingermino, leveraging SocialSpark, making blog contacts, socialspark, socialspark analytics, socialspark blog community, socialspark channels, Twitter, whereistand, zimbio
October 16th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Excellent post. Your tips are great. I especially like the enlarging images.
Damiens last blog post..Looking for a Death Certificate?
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October 16th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
thanks for this very useful post!
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October 16th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Thanks for the tip. I guess I will be joining social spark now. Can’t wait for your twitter info- I”m slowly but surely figuring that one out. I’m sure you’ll shed some good insight on it.
Kriss last blog post..Free Book Give Away – Usborne’s Going to the Doctor Kid Kit
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November 2nd, 2009 at 5:52 am
Justin,
A great article about SocialSpark. Would you like to write this as a guest SocialSpark Saturday post on BenSpark.com? Change it up a bit so that we don’t have duplicate content and put a little bio of yourself in it. I’d love to help you gain a little more exposure for this post, a fantastic article that is really helpful. I never thought of doing that as a SocialSpark Saturday post.
BenSpark´s last blog ..A Little Scratch
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November 2nd, 2009 at 7:19 am
Thanks I wrote this post last year in October 2008, I probably could write a new one and freshen it up a bit, finding the time is the tough part. I will write something up and send to you via email.
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March 10th, 2010 at 2:48 am
It’s great to know good people like you who shares something useful. I’ll follow you on twitter!
juliet´s last blog ..Family Vacation – Journey to Happiness
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