Before discussing these benefits, here�s an overview of what online presence management means. To most, it would probably be equated to online reputation management. These two phrases are not exactly synonymous, though. Online presence management is broader and includes the process of drawing traffic to a site, blog, or page that represents the presence of an individual, business, brand, or entity being promoted. It is a combination of various methods including web design and development, search engine optimization, PPC marketing, social media marketing, and story / link sharing. Reputation management can be part of online presence management. Moreover, you would probably be surprised how third party dashboards figure in all of these.
Bloggers can make use of third party dashboards to help manage their online presence through the following ways:
1. Improve Efficiency & Integrated Analytics
As mentioned, third party blogging dashboards can provide additional functions not found in the standard dashboards of different blogging platforms. These functions can help improve the blog posting process. For instance, most third party blogging dashboards enable the creation or editing of posts offline. They will only require Internet connection for posting. This feature is certainly useful as it allows bloggers to continue writing or editing drafts with the layout and images preserved from draft writing to posting. While it is possible to write the text of blog posts separately, in Microsoft Word for instance, images will have to be separately uploaded and the formatting cannot be conveniently copy-pasted.
Moreover, third party blogging dashboards can be similar to something like Cyfe, an all-in-one business, social media and analytics dashboard. They can offer more than just the tools to make it easy to post and edit blogs. Their features can greatly enhance blog monitoring by providing different views or interfaces to suit varying needs and preferences. They also provide tools for integrated analytics and pull and present custom data from over 60 online tools you�re probably already using to accomplish various tasks.Cyfe pulls everything together to present views you�re most comfortable with and can better understand.
Integrated analytics issomething which could be lacking in standard dashboards or not as advanced. Analytics are highly useful in general optimization as the numbers and charts they generate serve as guides on what ought to be tweaked to improve traffic or blog revenue performance. Analytics, for instance, can reveal which topics and keywords get the most traffic, and should be the ones to prioritize.
Other features offered by third party dashboards or blogging tools that could make for more efficient blogging are as follows: the ability to make all links open in a new window or tab by default, cropping or resizing of images, the construction of tables, scheduling of posts, and the insertion of some SEO elements like the descriptions that appear on search engines for every post.
2. Social Media Marketing, Quick Link Sharing and SEO
Some third party blogging dashboards come with social media marketing functions that make it very easy to promote your posts to friends or followers on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media accounts. This means being able to automatically promote posts upon publication. Sharing blog posts on social media is one of the most effective ways of attracting traffic. This kind of function is doubtlessly one of major advantages of some third party blogging dashboards or desktop software. While this may not be as comprehensive and powerful as social media marketing management solutions intended for businesses such as $99 Social, it is useful enough for bloggers who just want to share their content to potential readers on social media. In fact, $99Social is great for adding a bit of �automation� (done-for-you) to the social media marketing strategy as they help small businesses maintain their online presence through relevant posting and relationship management; allowing you to focus on other blogging tasks.
On the other hand, similar to tools for social media marketing, some third party blogging dashboards also come with the feature for quickly sharing blog post links and submitting such links to search engines for indexing. Search engines regularly scour the web for pages to index but if you want your page to be more promptly indexed, you can voluntarily submit your links and there are third party blogging dashboards that allow you to do this. There are also those that offer more SEO functions, including suggestions on keyword optimization.
3. Integrated Management Of Multiple Blogs in Different Platforms
Just like Trillian and other messaging applications that provide an integrated interface for multiple messaging platforms, third party blogging dashboards also make it possible to access multiple blog accounts in different platforms (WordPress, Blogger, LiveJournal, Typepad, and more). This is indubitably helpful in improving online presence as it makes it easier for a blogger or blog administrator to oversee or manage different accounts through a single interface. With this, it becomes easy creating accounts to cater to readers in different blogging platforms. It�s just important to remember that this should not be used to copy or mirror content across different blogging platforms since such content mirroring or copying will surely gain the wrath of Google and other search engines.
4. Facilitating Efficient Blog Access for Multiple Authors
Several blogs with different authors are not uncommon. Third party dashboards that enable access to or the ability to post on different blogs are definitely helpful. They don�t have to be the same dashboard for all authors. As long as they can enable the ability to post or do some editing, they should be good enough. The Writer component of Windows Essentials, for example, can be the option for those who have been accustomed to the Microsoft Office interface. With it, co-authors don�t have to go to the standard dashboard. They can quickly post their articles from within Microsoft�s word processor.
Managing an online presence and growing a blog can be daunting for those who are not acquainted with the different tools that make the job easier. For bloggers, fortunately, there are many third party dashboards or desktop software that make blog draft preparation, posting, editing, sharing and general blog management easier and more efficient.