Technorati Not Just an Ego Tool

Among the great features of Technorati is checking your own "baseball card" rankings and subscribing to a Watchlist. You can also subscribe to a search to find when people are talking about you or your company.

But it shouldn’t end there. In fact, that’s probably not the most efficient business use of Technorati.

Hypothetical Exercise: Let’s say I’m an antique retailer, just starting out in blogging. After I check out KnowMoreMedia for like-minded blogs, I scoot over to Technorati for some profitable research. I go to the "Blog Finder" search (near the top):

1. I have a small retail storefront, so I search on "retail" and get 141 results. I can download the OPML and put it in my feeds, or scan them one-at-a-time. The quality of blogs using this term is all over the map, but I do find Whirled Events an enjoyable read. I also notice that it doesn’t take a lot of links to crack the top 20 here. I note that "retail" should be one of my blogs tags.
2. I repeat the process for "antique" and quickly find a few keepers, including The Antiques Blog and Collectiblog. Remember, we’re not only building a business, but also building a conversation. The hope is that we can have some great conversations with these folks – possibly building links (and findability) for everyone (including ourselves).
3. During the last search, I notice that Technorati offers "Related" suggestions near the top of the page. One term I hadn’t thought of is "Vintage." Okay, I get distracted here by reading Modern Mechanix, but I run across old magazines and posters when I buy lots – maybe we’ll find common ground here someday.
4. Think of other things might search on. Remember, you’ll be able to expand your reach by extending your voice in a conversation.

This is still only a portion of what can be done with Technorati. Maybe you’re not in retail, just modify the search terms to fit your business.

Remember Josh’s story on how A Single Feed Creates a Lifetime of Loyalty? You can do the same with some of the tools that Technorati offers.

How do you use Technorati to benefit your business? We’ll be discussing this and more at our Iowa Business Blogging workshops on Thursday nights. Join us!

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