12 Most Easy-Peasy IFTTT Recipes for Business Bloggers

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If you haven’t gotten into it yet, If This Then That (IFTTT) is an amazing platform for automating all sorts of activity on the web. As I began to explore it, though, I found that I was primarily using it for blogging.

As a business person who blogs and tries to get others to blg, the three most difficult challenges we face seem to be: finding something to write about, getting people to read what we’re writing, and finding time to write.

IFTTT makes the first two challenges a breeze. The platform can help you use your existing web tools to capture ideas from your everyday life and can help you spread them through your existing social media channels. If you’re looking for help finding time, well, good luck. As far as I know, no one has been able to come up with more than 24 hours in a day.

IFTTT terminology 101: triggers, actions, and recipes. You select a “trigger,” which is any event within one platform. Then you select an “action,” which is an event in another platform that automatically occurs with the “trigger.” Together, the “trigger” and the “action” create a “recipe.” For business people in the blogosphere, these are the recipes I’ve found to be most helpful.

1. Foursquare to Evernote

Whenever you check-in on Foursquare, have a note sent to an Evernote “blogging ideas” folder, reminding you that you were at that venue. When you sit down to write a blog post, it may jog your memory of an experience you had while you were there.

2. YouTube to Evernote

Whenever you upload a video to YouTube, again, have a note sent to your Evernote folder for blogging ideas. The video, whether it’s an announcement of a new product, a discussion about an industry-related issue, or some kind of demonstration, could serve as the central focus for a blog post.

3. Instagram to Evernote

Whenever you use Instagram to take a photo, have a note sent to your blogging ideas folder in Evernote. With few exceptions, you should be using a photo in your business blog posts anyway. Why not make it an original? Perhaps you could use a photo you’ve taken as inspiration for a subject that needs to be tackled.

4. Tumblr to Evernote

Some people use Tumblr as their primary blogging platform. I use it to share quotes. There’s a cool option for “quote” posts that I haven’t seen on any other platform. Use a Tumblr blog to share quotes that you come across. Every time you share a quote, have a note sent to your Evernote blogging ideas folder as fodder for a more detailed blog post.

5. Twitter (Search) to Evernote

Twitter isn’t just a platform for broadcasting your message and having nice conversations. A huge benefit of Twitter is research. There is a gold mine of information on this social network. This recipe enables you to have a note sent to your blogging ideas folder whenever someone tweets using certain search terms. Use this feature to write blog posts regarding what’s out there about your business or industry.

6. Twitter (Favorite) to Instapaper

Another neat platform for collecting information, in this case articles, is Instapaper. When you are perusing Twitter and find an interesting article or statement, favorite it and — with this recipe — it will automatically be sent to Instapaper. When you log into Instapaper, you’ll have all sorts of material to draw from when you’re writing.

7. Google Reader to Instapaper

Take the concept above a step further and send all of the blog posts that you favorite from Google Reader to Instapaper. If you are good at blogging for business, my guess is that you read a lot of business blogs online. The most efficient way to read content online is through a reader like Google Reader. You can peruse the posts from the blogs you’ve subscribed to as they come in and, with this IFTTT recipe, save them to Instapaper with a click of the mouse.

8. Google Reader to Buffer

Now is the time to start sharing content. As most bloggers will tell you, the best social network for blogging is Twitter. But, if you really want to grow a network on Twitter, you can’t just share your own stuff. You’ve got to share what others have written as well. To do this, you can have items you’ve favorited in Google Reader sent to your Buffer account. Buffer spreads out your tweets at intervals you set, so your followers don’t see them all at once.

9. RSS to Facebook

Each time your blog posts publish, have them sent to your personal Facebook account. Your friends may be the best source of referrals, so keep them in touch with what you’re doing in business.

10. RSS to Facebook Page

Each time your blog posts publish, have them shared on your Facebook Page. Make sure the page doesn’t only consist of your blog posts, but you’ll want to make sure they’re in there somewhere.

11.RSS to Twitter

With this recipe, a tweet will be sent linking to your blog post whenever it publishes from your RSS feed.

12. RSS to LinkedIn

This recipe will share your blog post as a LinkedIn status update each time it publishes. You probably aren’t updating your status on LinkedIn very often, but this will let your connections know about the content you’re producing regarding your business, products, and industry.

Have you started using IFTTT yet? It’s definitely a fun platform to play around with and there are literally thousands of potential recipes you can create.

What other recipes have you found helpful for blogging within IFTTT? What recipes are you using for other things in business or life in general? Let us know in the comments below.

Featured image courtesy of tarop via Creative Commons.

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Doug Rice

http://www.douglaserice.com

Doug Rice is the Small Business Storyteller, a writer who helps small business people develop content for web pages, blog posts, newsletters, white papers, and more. He is an avid reader, a coffee snob, and a lover of all things business and marketing. On his blog, Doug writes regularly on issues related to small business marketing.