Day 10: Dress up your blog with widgets
This is part of the UU Blogging Workshops’s Zero to Hero Series
Today’s assignment: add and customize two widgets.
If you take a glance to the right of the page you’ll find my list of gadgets and badges and little icons of wonder. It actually took me a while to put all of that interactive stuff up. Over time, I’ve integrated my Twitter and Instagram accounts into the blog just in case people feel like seeing what other interweb mischief I get myself into. As far as social media goes, I’m pretty connected, but I still don’t have a Pinterest account and don’t do a lot of the YouTubing so maybe there’s hope for me yet.
But blogging was perhaps the first internet social media craze before we coined “social media.” Maybe some people still remember sites like Livejournal? Yeah, I had an account back in the day. This was the way we made ourselves heard and connected with other people before the facespaces and the mybooks took over. These days, it makes sense that blogs should also connect followers with other parts of the author’s social media presence. It’s called synergy baby!
Plus, social media is a great way to promote your blog to your friends and family. I have my WordPress account set up so when I publish a blog, it goes to Google+ then straight to Twitter which then syncs itself with Facebook. It’s a great benefit of the WP interface! Just make sure you set it up so each social media outlet gets ONE post… there was a brief moment where I accidentally had it set up where my Facebook page would get three posts, spamming my wall. Not very good etiquette.
What is your favorite social media platform? Let me know!
Rev Justin Almeida, MDiv 
Nice job getting the blog all dressed up! No “follow by email” widget?
One of my current favorite social media outlets is “Good Reads.” Apparently it’s an Amazon acquisition now, but….that kinda makes sense.
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Who follows these things by email anymore? Lol just kidding…. There’s a subscribe widget around there somewhere.
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I really must about learn this new Twitterverse. I am such a post-luddite. I was thinking that GoodReads might be a spot for me to keep track of my ‘reading list’ for the ministerial fellowship, hmmm…
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Twitter is an interesting platform and definitely not for everybody. Christine did some good posts on using twitter here: http://www.christineslocum.net/twitter-strengths-challenges/
However, personalize your blog the way you want! 🙂 A lot of people use GoodReads and sharing your list could definitely generate some conversation.
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I think widgets work best linking to things which are going on now, rather than past things on my blog: some people ignore the side-bar completely, and, unfortunately, do not all want to explore my site in depth. I did a survey.
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Yeah… I wish there was a better history widget. I use them to connect all my social media 🙂
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