What’s up everyone? I want to share with you a personal story about using social media as an advertising tool.

My name is Austin. I am in college. Thus equating to the fact that I have no money.

I know that it is cliché to say that I have no money as a college student, but seriously, I have less money than Nicolas Cage right now. My only job is two days a week at my church, which means I don’t have a lot of money because you didn’t tithe last time you went to Sunday School.

Where am I going with this?

Two years ago I started a comedic sports blog called Korked Bats. A buddy of mine and I both loved sports and we both loved making people laugh so we figured, why not start a blog that is primarily jokes about sports news.

The popularity of our website spread like wildfire. We currently have 5 writers and accumulated over 40,000 hits internationally in less than 10 months last year. Not to mention we capped off a great 2009 by being named “Site of the Day” by ESPN’s SportsNation. I don’t mean to toot my own horn (yes, I do), but Korked Bats has blown up faster than Tiger Woods after slicing a tee shot.

Now, I know what your asking yourself, “Did I remember to TiVo Dancing With The Stars?”

I can’t answer that.

But you should be asking yourself, “How did Austin grow his blog to what it is today?”

That, my friend, I CAN answer.

In fact, I can answer that question in three words:

“SOCIAL MEDIA, CHACOS!”

(I figured the “chacos” part would add a nice effect. Obviously, I was wrong.)

If you were to search “Korked Bats” in Google, you will see that Korked Bats has a Twitter account, a Facebook Fan page, a YouTube account, etc. I have branched my website out to as many social media outlets as I can manage. Through this, I am able to Tweet or update my status whenever Korked Bats releases a new article or video. Over 80% of our normal hits come from social media websites.

What’s the best part of reaching out to various social media sources to advertise my website? It’s 149% free. That’s right, it’s more free than Willy. Which, as I was saying earlier, fits perfectly in my budget.

So if you have a website, a YouTube channel, or even just a casual blog, get yourself set up in social media, trust me, you won’t regret it.

• Sign up for a Twitter account.
• Set up a Facebook Fan Page for your site.
• Comment on other blogs or website with your site’s URL on it.

Every time you update your site, Tweet about it, update your Facebook status, and spread the word in any other free way possible. So far that is the only way Korked Bats has grown.

However, it’s not something that will happen over night. So don’t be discouraged if you don’t see a quick change in your site’s analytics. Continue to work hard, stay consistent and ALWAYS post your work on your social media outlets. Eventually, this word of mouth word of keyboard advertising will work. Take it from me.

Hopefully, soon Korked Bats will attract advertisers on our site to eventually help pay for us to advertise on other sites. See how that works? It’s like a chain reaction.

If you have any questions about advertising with social media, Korked Bats, professional sports, starting a website from the ground up or states and capitals, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Twitter: @TheAHuff

E-Mail: austin@korkedbats.com

• • •

For more information about Korked Bats, check us out:

korkedbats.com

Or follow us on Twitter:

@KorkedBats

• • •

-Austin H.

Let’s take a closer look into Clove App. What do ya say?

Everybody loves parties. Whether it is just attending one or even throwing one. Parties are fun.

I love Clove App. To me, Clove App is a party.

Alright, roll with me on this…

Close your eyes and imagine you’re throwing a party at your house. Ok, now open your eyes so you can read the rest of this post.

When you throw a party, you invite anyone and everyone. Your best friends, your friends, people from class, people from work (except that annoying guy who always seems to be in the copy room at the same time that you need to make copies), people you’ve never met before, your extended family, that guy or girl you kind of have a crush on, that guy or girl that has a crush on you, your dentist, people who work at the Laundromat. You know, pretty much everyone is invited to your party.

Well let’s say that when everyone shows up to your party, you send them to different rooms of your house. For example, you send your best friends to the living room, you send the people you know from work to the kitchen, and the people who are in your bowling league, well, you send to your bedroom.

Throughout the night you are forced to go into each room separately and check up on everyone. You have to make sure everyone is doing ok, catch up on the latest gossip, share your latest stories with them, etc. After a while, it gets annoying and exhausting just checking each room for each different group of friends.

That’s exactly how the Internet is.

You are forced to go to several different websites to check each social media outlet. You go to Facebook.com, Twitter.com, all of the various blogs that you follow, etc. It gets annoying and takes a lot of time out of your Internet surfing time.

Why not bring everyone into the same room at the party? That way you can have all your information in the same area.

That’s what Clove App does. It throws a party in which all your social media outlets can party in the same “room.”

Clove App is a desktop application, which brings together your Twitter feed, Facebook news feed, blog RSS feeds, and much more. Clove App is currently still in the BETA stage, and will soon be released to the public for download. If you are new in the social media world, or an experienced expert, you need to get Clove App!

-Austin H.