A guest post by Uttoran Sen of TravelTamed.com

Why bother about social media when your brand new blog has got fewer than 30 visitors a day?

Everyone starts small, it is how you move, will determine where you will reach.

The secret of building a strong readership partly depends on how you handle your initial readers. Turn them into loyal readers; let them become your cheerleaders who will take your brand on Facebook, twitter and elsewhere. But to do that, it is important for you to treat them properly.

Read on to find how to make your blog – social friendly.

1. Configure Feedburner

The default RSS feature of wordpress is just not enough when it is compared with Google’s Feedburner.

1) Go to feedburner.com and login using your Google id.

2) Once you are logged into your feedburner account, navigate to the bottom where you will find an option, saying – “Burn a feed right this instant.” Enter your default wordpress feed link into that box (yoursite.com/feed/), and click on next. Enter the feed title, and feed URL in the next screen, followed by a few more customization screens and your feed is ready.

3) Customization depends on the blogger’s own needs; if you are a podcaster you can select that option. In general, I keep the “smart feeds”, “Feed flare” options activated.

4) Now, it is time to add it on your blog. To do that, navigate to the “Publicize” tab on the top. Use the email subscription option. Activate it; customize it from the options under it, that says – “email branding” etc., and copy the code.

5) Once you have the code, there are quite a few places on your blog, where you can paste the code. Blog sidebar is a popular place; however, the most effective place is to put it on the single post page, just above the comments section. Some themes do provide you with an option to add the code at the end of the post, however if your theme does not allow you an easy way out, with some html abilities you can edit your theme files and add it yourself. Another option is to use a plugin, something like – Extra Plugin (my own), there are other free plugins that can work as well, and, anyone coming from this article will get a free premium API key of extra plugin. Just mention that you came from this post.

2. Add to Technorati

Technorati is a blog directory and is famous for maintaining the list of top 100 blogs based on popularity and backlinks. Technorati has changed its algorithm recently, with much less spam and more quality blogs than ever before, Technorati is lately becoming a good place for bloggers. To add your blog on Technorati, follow these steps.

1) Go to Technorati and create an account. Then log in to your account. In your account, you will find an option that says – “Start a blog claim”, put your blog URL in that field and click on claim.

2) In the next screen, fill out all the details of your blog. In the blog feed field, you can add you’re newly made feedburner feed link. Once all the fields are completed, proceed to the next step.

3) Next, you will have to claim your blog. Return back to your Technorati profile and click on the button, below your blog, that says – “Check Claim”. Make a new post, or edit an existing one, on your blog, make sure to put the Technorati claim code in your post and publish it. Return to your Technorati profile and click on, “verify Claim Token”. Once done, Technorati will auto verify it and if the token is found, it will take you to the next step.

4) This is the final verification stage. Once this is done, your blog will be added to the Technorati directory. But remember, this is like a manual review and if your blog is too new, with low quality posts or low amount of posts, your blog might get rejected. So, for a brand new blog, it is usually better to wait for a few months and get the blog established before adding to Technorati.

3. Social Share Buttons

Getting votes on Facebook, Twitter, Stumbleupon and the others become a lot easier when you have their share buttons on your blog. After placing those buttons on my own blogs, my social share ratio has gone up. You can place those buttons by yourself, by manual coding, or perhaps use a plugin like this – “Digg Digg” which has all the important buttons in it.

4. Facebook fan Page for your Blog

Having an active Facebook fan page allows you to leverage the power of Facebook for marketing your own blog. Make it interesting, likeable and be consistent in updating it and soon you will have a strong Facebook following for your blog. For making a fan page for your blog, follow the following steps:

1) Navigate to the Pages link. There, on the top, click on the button that says – “Create a Page”.

2) In the next screen, choose the option that says – “brand or product”.

3) Then, select “website” from the drop down options and enter the name of your page. This is likely to be a temporary name, still enter the best name possible.

4) After this, you will be presented with a few customization screens. Once you are done with all that, your Facebook fan page will be ready.

5) Now you need to place the fan page widget on your blog. To do that, navigate to the developer page that provides the like box code. Enter your newly created Facebook fan page link, select the options that you want, and click on – “Get code”. Copy that code and place it on your blog. The easy way to do that is by pasting that code in the sidebar widget. Another way to do this is to put the send button option at the top or bottom of the single post page. That way, it will appear before or after the blog posts.

6) Once you have some fans for your fan page, please visit the Username page and get your page a brandable name. Please note that, it can only be done once. So choose wisely, as it is a permanent change.

5. Be Quick to Spot Something New

When it comes to social media, something new pops up every day. The latest on the list is – Pinterest. One has to be always on the alert and whenever something good comes up, be ready to jump in. Here are a few Pinterest share buttons for your blog, use them to generate more traffic.

6. Keep it Light

Your blog’s virtual estate is an expensive and limited space. Is the dedicated social space on your blog providing the best ROI? Is that digg button that you placed on your blog, ever sent you a single visitor? It is time to cut back on that space and keep the ones that are useful. Keep it light, make it useful for your readers and make sure it does not look too crowded.

7. Getting Active on Social Networks

Placing the buttons and widgets of these social networks on your blog is just the first step. One has to be very active on these networks so that one can bring the social savvy visitors of these networks to their own blogs. To do this, join these popular networks, be active in terms of commenting on them and voting for stories that are interesting and popular. Try not to submit anything at first and most certainly do not plug your own blogs to start with. Once you have a good profile on those networks, very occasionally, submit your own stories. This way, you will be able to bring some very targeted and loyal visitors to your own blog.

Remember, there is a niche social site for every topic you are blogging in. For example:

• Finance – Tipd, fwisp
• Blogging – Blogengage, blokube
• Green – care2, greenscollar
• Small business – Bizsugar
• Tips and advice – She Told Me

When it comes to social media, don’t think about what you can get from it – try giving it first and see how it all comes back to you.

Uttoran Sen is a travel blogger and a social media Expert. Follow him on twitter and join his Facebook fan page.