Read the full article and comment at: http://businessnetworking.com/using-a-blog-to-build-your-brand-top-tips-for-a-better-blog

We love to create new features on WordPress.com, but we also like to make it easier for you to connect your site with other popular services. We’ve teamed up with the folks at Twitter several times over the years, and we’re thrilled to help them unveil the new Follow Button to the world for the very first time today.

The new Follow Button makes it easy for your readers to follow you on Twitter without ever leaving your WordPress.com site. Here are three ways to incorporate it on your site:

1. Add the new Follow Button to posts, pages, or text widgets. You can even show a count of your followers, customize the colors, and display a link to your Twitter page. Check out the Twitter Follow Button support document for all the details.

Here’s a working example of what the new Follow Button looks like:

2. Embed fully functioning Tweets on your posts and pages with Twitter Blackbird Pie. The new Follow Button will appear in the upper right hand corner of the Tweet.

@wordpressdotcom
WordPress.com

3 New Ways to Attract More Twitter Followers from WordPress.com http://wp.me/pf2B5-1QT

3 minutes ago via WordPress.comReplyRetweetFavorite

3. Activate the Twitter Widget on your site’s sidebar to display the Follow Button below a list of recent Tweets.

We hope the new Follow Button will help you to boost your site’s reach and exposure. Don’t forget that there are additional ways that you can integrate Twitter with WordPress.com:

• Add a Twitter sharing button to the bottom of your posts or pages with the Sharing feature
• Tweet new posts automatically to your Twitter account with Publicize

Original post by Nick Momrik located at: http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2011/05/31/twitter-follow-button/

The days have been so full of everything else that I felt the need to get out into view to force myself into the blogoshpere.

What’s on tap for me today? Themes.

I have a few clients that I _might_ have been pushing off because it meant sitting down and selecting free WordPress themes for them.  Not that this is a bad thing, you understand, its perfect for the budget conscious person who just wants things set up for them to take over and run with it. The real issue is that I love poking through the themes and letting the minutes, no hours, slide by. And then again, there are the themes that I just love (like this one Neat! by Topi Peltonen) and have trouble not using again and again. Oy, it can be so hard to focus!

WordPress has introduced a new, beautifully designed, free theme called Vertigo. In their own words “It makes great use of WordPress post formats. It has a charming, hitchcockian typeface for site and post titles. And it’s dark.”

OK, forget that the use of the “Hitchcockian” makes it appealing enough, just relish in a theme inspired by the design work of the late Saul Bass, Art Goodman, and Dave Nagata, that lets you set your own colours for links among its other shining features.

How to change your Theme
From your Dashboard>select Appearance (lower left column) and viola! You are at Manage Themes. This area displays the current theme you are using at the top and allows you to browse the theme gallery. Don’t be afraid to preview as many as you wish, nothing will change until you click on Activate.

Last November we launched Twitter Blackbird Pie, a quick and easy way to reproduce beautiful,  full-fledged tweets — not just static screenshots of tweets — in your posts, pages, and even comments. Today we are happy to announce that we've made it even easier for you to interact with tweets on WordPress.com.  Thanks to the new set of tools that Twitter just announced, you can now reply to, retweet, or favorite content without ever leaving the pag … Read More

via WordPress.com News

As far as Facebook the platform goes, over a million websites have integrated with Facebook, and more than 150 million people engage with Facebook on external websites every month.

It’s happened to all of us. The night starts off innocently enough with a little gin and tonic, maybe a Mojito, then next thing you know you’re doing tequila shots with the bartender and the girl from Brazil and you find yourself thinking it would be a treMENdous idea to call up your ex and see how they’re doing and perhaps impress them with your newfound wit.

WordPress has the cure. Now, instead of drunk dialing random friends, lovers, and acquaintances one at a time, what if you could dial your blog and talk to the whole world at once? It’d be like something out of Star Trek.

Right now this is completely free, allowing recording lengths up to sixty minutes, but that limit may go down without a paid upgrade in the future. Mostly WordPress is  just curious to see how people use this.

Jealous? Want to join the call? Check out our about page to join.

How much have we really changed? Is it our need for less privacy in the modern world or is it our lack of awareness of the digital world?

Some time ago I read “the MySpace generation shows pictures, texts, blogs and shares things generation X and baby boomers kept to themselves.” I’m not entirely sure it is the “MySpace” generation, I believe that as we become more and more accustomed to life on the net the more relaxed we become in how we use it.   The line between the need for privacy and the need for an audience blurs.
I’m a big fan of appropriate behavior. Just as I wouldn’t dine at fine restaurant in the same garb or attitude as my local Mickey D’s, I wouldn’t tweet my address or measurements the same way I might share that same info in a personal email. (OK, I’m pretty sure I’m not going to share my measurements with anyone, but you get the idea).

All this begs the question, are people really interested in what everyone has to share and should we be letting it all hang out?

So back to the dashboard we go – look up at that strip across the top and you will see an oval that says New Post- select that.

If you have gone back to the main dashboard page you’ll see that same oval in the upper right or New Post on the upper left – you’ll even see a new post window under the words Quick Press

Pick any one of these and we’ll use it for our Blogging session today

Of course we’ll need a title – Feel free to use, “I can not believe how cool Cys is” (you can change it later)

In the content window you’ll need just a little bit of text or you may let the picture speak for itself.

I’ll wait just a minute while you type some thing like “Cys is on the phone showing us how to add a photo”

now hit return or enter on your keyboard so that the curser is under that your text.

Move your mouse to the little icons about the content box – the very first one that looks like a box inside of a box (almost like a picture frame) is what you want.

When you click on that you will have a window that says: Add media files from your computer

and a select files button (Choose files to upload )

Once you select that you’ll be able to locate the photo you wish to use on your computer

after it uploads you’ll see all kinds of stuff, like:

Title, Caption

Also used as alternate text for the image
Description

Link URL

None File URL Post URL

Enter a link URL or click above for presets.
Alignment
None Left Center Right
Size

Thumbnail (73 × 96)
Medium (228 × 300)
Large
Full size (302 × 397)
Delete

Click on insert into post and we’re good to go. Finish off your post in the usual manner by choosing category, tags, etc and please don’t forget to click on the pretty blue publish button.

If this was taking place on our call, you would hear me say: “While you are all finishing up Tech Support Dave will let me know if there are any questions in the queue. I’ll tackle those now. ” But since we are here in blogland, feel free to leave any questions in the comments fields.

Also, I poked about YouTube to find some helpful videos for one and all:

Adding Photos Using WordPress

Adding pictures to Blogger

Our calls have always featured WordPress as we walked through the step by step, with Q & A related to all blogging platforms. But you asked and we listened, so this month’s call will focus on publishing a blog with Blogger.

Things You’ll Need:
* Web access and free blog account at Blogger or WordPress
* Dial in access to the call – if you are a BNI member, Director or Referral Institute Franchise Owner, this call is open to you for free. Contact Cys.Bronner@BNI4Success.com to added to the telebridge list.

* What is a Blog?
* 23 Questions for Prospective Bloggers – Is a Blog Right for You?
* How to Choose a Niche Topic for Your Blog
* Choosing a Blog Platform
* Choosing a Domain Name for your Blog
* Blog Tools