If you have ever tried to add your social media content to your blog, you know how troublesome it can be. Setting up automatic tweets, and posts is pretty easy, but what if you want to add stuff that is happening live? You first would have to log into your blogging account, and go through several steps before you are able to post your content. Plus, taking your laptop to the department store while you’re trying on clothes, or to the big concert that all your friends are going to would be a MAJOR hassle. For those who are looking for a simpler solution to this ever growing problem of being able to conveniently share your social media content while on the go, then you might want to check out Overblog.com.
This blogging platform brings together all the things that you love about blogging, and social media, and puts it all in one easy to navigate place. Signing up for an account is relatively simple. At the top of the website, just below the main intro video, and slide show, is a button that you click on to create a new account. From there, a pop up window appears, and you put in your email address, password, and the name that you want for your website (ex: http://socialmediaday.overblog.com). Once this step is completed, your account is created, and now you can choose to take a tour of the website. You will still need to confirm your email address in order to access all the features of the website, but you will be able to, at least, do the tour of the site.
The tour details the five most important sections of the website that you will need in order to create your own blog on Overblog.com. The first step is using a tool called FLASHPOST that lets you instantly publish any type of content that you wish to your blog – images, text, links, or videos. The icon for this tool is located towards the left side of the toolbar at the top of the screen. The next part of the tour shows you how to link your various social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, etc.) to your blog. By clicking on the icons shown in this part of the tutorial you can connect some of the most well known social media sites to your blog so that whenever you post to your social media sites, that post is automatically loaded to your page on Overblog.com. For the third part of the tour, you are shown an icon in the far right side of the toolbar that says “THEME”. With this icon, you can choose the theme of your blog. The fourth part of the tour points out a picture of a gear that you click on to set your user preferences for the back office of your blog. You can also fill in your personal information, and the other basic info that you wish to share with visitors to your blog space. Finally, the all important “PUBLISH” icon rounds out the tour. With this icon, you can publish your thoughts, and ideas onto your page. This ends the guided tour of the site, and from here you click the “GET STARTED!” button to begin posting to your blog.
Truly, this website has some really great features that would make sharing your social media so much easier. One of my favorite features is the live video broadcasting feature (aka “livestreaming”). This feature gives you the capability of broadcasting a video stream LIVE from almost any mobile device (smart phone, tablet, etc.) straight to your blog. For those looking to make money with your blog, there is also the possibility of revenue sharing as well. Each member of Overblog.com is given an option to monetize their blog, if they so choose. You can even make changes to your monetization preferences, or discontinue the monetization of your blog whenever you wish.
You can also set up multi-users for your blog, and give contributors access to the editing side of your site. The blog owner sets the permissions of each contributor to either writer, poster, or reviewer depending upon how much access the blog owner wishes to give to a particular contributor. And for those concerned about how their blog will look on a mobile phone or tablet, Overblog.com has a built in feature called Responsive Design that adjusts the way your blog is displayed to a visitor depending on what type of device the visitor is using to view your blog. You can even import an existing blog to the Overblog.com platform if you’d like, and hosting is free. As of this writing, the stats section, and earnings page of this website are still under construction.
This is a great website for those looking for a better way to integrate their social media into their marketing. The live video streaming feature would be perfect for those that wish to do a live report on a trade show, or business conference. Also, being able to post from your mobile device (smart phones, tablets, etc.) is extremely convenient and makes blogging on the go even more possible. If you are looking for a new way to bring something special to your social media marketing, then you will want to take a second look at Overblog.com.
