Ping.fm is a great free web service that enables users to post to multiple social networks at one time. It can be configured to update most of the popular social networks including Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Linkedin and many more. As an SEO guy I still submit my posts to Digg, Reddit, Simpy and Stumbleupon manually as these services require a little more finessing, but are no less valuable.
How to use Ping.fm
First thing you’ll need is a Ping.fm account. Sign up for one here. Once you’re logged in you can add your networks. Below is a screen shot of my network configuration.
From here it’s just a matter of associating your social network accounts. As you can see there are a lot of different services to choose from including image networks like Flickr and Britekite. You can configure ping.fm to update delicious as well. The downside is you’ll have to go back and add your own tags and keywords as this method will only post status updates to the social bookmarking network.
Suggestion for the developers @ping.fm: It would be cool to have a way of pulling tags and keywords from my posts to my delicious account.
Creating Posting Groups
Posting groups are for for submitting to specific networks. At the top of the Ping.fm dashboard is a drop down that gives you the option to ping any of your social networks or posting groups. To create your own Posting Group click on the, “Create Group”, link at the top of the page and choose what type of posting method you wish to use.
For instance I may want to post status updates to all of my social networks except Flickr as it’s an image based social network. From the dashboard I can create a posting group that doesn’t include flickr for Status updates and another posting group that includes only image based social networks when pinged.
Why should I bother?
Any serious web marketing guy will tell you that you need to be on board with the social networks. They’re the wave of the future. Just look at how many businesses now a days that have Facebook and Twitter accounts. It’s an easy and effective way of updating customers about new deals and promotions. Not only that, but with the advent of Google Live Search you’ll want to be submitting to the social networks for inclusion in recent news listings.
How to Automatically Syndicate Your Blog Posts
I wrote a post on the 3rd about how to automatically update Ping.fm every time you make a post to your blog. Check it out here >>
About Me: I've been a web slinger for over 11 years now. I'm particularly interested in web design, search engine optimization and social networking. Check out my site for new tips, tricks, tutorials, and industry news. Come on in the web is fine. 
Nate Balcom on 
There are no comments, yet.
Why don’t you be the first? Come on, you know you want to!