How social media made me from a nobody to a somebody
As a blogger if you are known only to bloggers then you are a nobody. You only become a somebody once people from other industry start noticing you. People who have nothing to do with webmaster industry. Maybe some one you inspired to start a blog. I will tell you that before social media I was a nobody. Ofcourse, I was well reputed on forums like Digitalpoint, and Namepros. But again those were webmasters. People on these forums have something to do with webmasters.
One thing that I have learned is that it is very lame if you are only known by webmasters. I have been following bigger bloggers like Merlin Mann, and Darren Rowse. Their presence is very widely known. People who are not even into blogging know about them. I have seen even mommy and daddy bloggers naming these two guys as an inspiration. The reason why they started a blog.
So I will share with you how I became a nobody from a somebody by using Social Media.
I started with Digg. Where I was relatively unknown. But I started finding nice articles and getting those in. Even though those articles weren’t my own articles. I was not affiliated with those. Well I added a few people as my friend. Now I have over 520 friends, and I can tell you that over 75% are mutual friends. Does that say anything. It says people who add me as their friend, don’t remove me from their list. These people doesn’t really have to be in the webmaster industry.
So if I really digg, and shout to all these people, imagine how many diggs I can get in a few minutes. Well that is the power of being somebody rather than being a nobody.
When I started this blog, I was popular in the directory industry. Before that I was that kid who have a big proxy network. Before that I was in domaining. So people have been following me since then. I started Balkhis with a bare of 90 - 100 readers that have followed me from the directory industry and previously. Now I am almost hitting 1800 subscriber mark.
The reason for that is that I market myself rather than marketing my product. If I start a website, and start marketing that using social media. Make all my profiles for that. And then end up selling the site. My efforts went worthless. Well It did good for that site, but now again I am a nobody. That is the reason where ever I go, I try to use my name in it. Balkhis for Balkhi, Syed as a combo of last / first name, or I try to use Syed Balkhi as many places. I have been known around for smub (my initials) on a lot of places also. So people can recognize me wherever they see me. Not by the owner of a certain site. While I would like to keep those in my portfolio as well, I don’t want people to know me as an owner of idk.in, and when I sold idk, they still think I am the owner. You don’t want that to happen. So market yourself.
A lot of people talk twitter all day. While twitter is great and all the traffic that comes from twitter is awesome as well. I will pick Plurk over twitter any day. Why? Because plurk gives me a sense of community. I can easily read what everyone says and have conversations without getting lost about what the reply was for. Twitter is very unorganized. But use all social media networks to get your name there. But you don’t have to be active on all those.
Stay active on the ones that you really like. I like Digg a lot, and ofcourse I like stumble, but I don’t use my stumble account a lot. I love using plurk, even if I don’t tweet every day. I try to have at least one plurk every day. These microblogging is something that is very hard to adjust to because I don’t have internet on my phone, so I can’t update it as often as a lot of people, but I am getting a hang of those.
People who think social media is a distraction need to think again. You can be active on webmaster forum for all you can. Remember there is no point of having the same user read your blog, and another person blog and another person blog. It is better to have those and then some more. So use social media. I cannot stress how important of a role social media has played for me and Balkhis.
I have noticed that whenever I write a good article, I can ask for people to stumble/digg for me, and almost all the time, I get very good response. People stumble and digg it for me. I do the back if I like the article that others ask me to digg. But this is the way how you can increase your presence around the web world. Not just webmasters use social media, the whole world uses social media. So they are the best way to reach other audience aside from webmasters.
Get on with Social Media and become a somebody. Because there are too many nobody’s in this industry. If you want to see a list of social media networks that I am a part of, scroll down to the bottom and see my profiles. Add me to your friends if you like 
Have fun with Social Media.
Hey, I am Syed Balkhi, The guy who is behind Balkhis Inc. I entered the industry back in 2002 not knowing a single thing. I barely spoke English at that time. In the past six years, my language barrier has been eliminated. Aside from English, now I also speak html, and php. Along with the languages I have also managed to master a few arts. Art of web-designing started when I first entered. Messing around with photoshop, I learned how to create my first web design. Now I founded a web designing firm Uzzz Productions. After running numerous amount of websites in various niche, I have mastered the art of web-development. Now I am compiling a resource of what I already know, and what I am learning on this blog. This resource is to help me if I ever need a guide to look back to, and it is help my fellow webmasters.
Syed, I just joined Plurk through your invitation. I am richhill. I have been reading your blog now for a couple of months and really appreciate all you share. I got a chuckle out of the four languages you speak in your about profile. Thanks and see you the socials.
Rich Hill
Great blog , yes social media marketing is a great form of website promotion , good stuff
Yeah, you should never under estimate the power of Social Media!
Syed, the only social media i’m using is digg, but i’m not getting the full benefits out of it.
I’ve got a few hundred mutual friends, but don’t know how to shout them all at once to my article? Is there just some simple button i’m missing?
Yes you are. Click on the button that says Share and there is a tab up top that says shout, and you just click select all. But if you have more than 200 mutual friends, you would have to select 200 manually under 200 you can send shout to all at once.
Cheers, got it all now
You know I read your blog consistantly Syed. I can get something out of most of the articles you post. This article is the first that did not come across to well with me. In my experience people who are “somebody” don’t feel a need to tell tell it to the world….
Barack Obama is a somebody but I don’t hear him calling press conferences to let the media know how he did it
if you catch my drift.
I know that you were probably just looking for an angle to make your point on social media but to me it did not come across that well. No offence meant Syed, I am just being honest.
Social media a great way to get well known especially if you are starting out
social media is the best great post Syed
That was a very nice post, Balkhi! Although I had never been able to get the hang of Digg and StumbleUpon, I agree with what you say about twitter. Plurk gives a sense of community whereas in twitter I feel sort of lost.
Wow syed you digg thing, like mutual friends is simply superb..cheers bro !
People talk about getting the hang of social networks. There is really no hang to get. As you show in your post, it comes down to just jumping in and submitting stories that interest you. Eventually you become a natural. Great post!
A very good post, buddy. You’re right too that you should promote about yourself more than your blog or “product”. People tend to get turned off when you are promoting your “product” but they don’t mind once they’ve known you for a while
Some good insights in here, thanks.
Marketing with the new techonogies takes time and consistency but it does work. What’s next on the horizon
Your article inspired me how to built relationship. This is really great job. It really encourages me to stick more with this social media.
Yes, definitely! Social media can do so much for you and your blog(s) if you invest your time into the right websites. I’m known more for my place in the music industry than my blogging tips, thanks to Buzznet.. I’ve met a lot of people there, and get a lot of support. I’ve only been there for a few months now, but the turnout has been awesome. Nice post.
nice post Syed. thanks for sharing.