Today’s assignment: extend your brand with one of the following: a custom Blavatar, a custom image widget, or a Facebook fan page.
As soon as you started publishing, you became a brand: you announced to the world, “This is the place on the internet where you come to find XYZ.”
As you define your brand, you build a distinct personality and consistent experience for your readers that reinforces why your blog is worth reading. Think of the sites you love reading. You can probably give a one-sentence description of most of them — that’s their brand. You’ve got one, too (even if you don’t know it yet).
Today’s assignment: extend your brand with one of the following: a custom Blavatar, a custom image widget, or a Facebook fan page.
Why do this?
- Because a consistent look that extends across the internet creates a consistent experience for your readers.
- Because it helps you feel like a “serious” blogger, and that means you’ll be more likely to keep it up.
Think about a few well-known brands: Nike. Coke. Zappos. Target. You may not like the services or products, but you know what they are and what makes them unique (or at least, what the companies think makes them unique), and you probably have some feelings about them. That’s the power of a strong brand.
A strong brand is more than a logo, it’s a guarantee. When a reader sees something associated with your brand — a post on your site, a tweet, an email, whatever — they know what to expect, be that a laugh, a great DIY project, a recipe, parenting advice, or whatever else you crazy kids are blogging about. It’s unique to you and creates an emotional connection with readers, and that’s what keeps them coming back.
You’v already started defining your brand when you picked a theme and title for your blog, added a header image, added widgets, and played with color and font. Now, take that a step further by choosing one of these options:
- A custom Blavatar. A blavatar is an avatar for your blog. It appears in readers’ browser address bars when they visit your site (think of the yellow “a” you see in front of amazon.com, or the red “N” for Netflix). Upload one — try a piece of whatever image you’ve chosen as your header, or your initials — for a custom detail that makes a difference. Head to General → Settings in your dashboard; here are all the details.
- A Facebook Fan Page. A fan page gives you a place to share your blog posts and related content without feeling like you’re spamming friends and family; you can take advantage of Facebook but keep your personal life and blog life separate. Get the down-low on how to start and maintain one.
- Image Widgets. They’re simple to make, and take your theme from typical to tailored. Take a look at how With the Grains uses image widgets with unique drawings to highlight her Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter accounts, and her regular features, like as “Juice of the Week.” We particularly love the waffle/Instagram mashup. (Mmm, waffles.) Here are some more examples and inspiration.

Quelcy Kogel‘s clever link to her Instagram account resides in a text widget in her sidebar.
If you’re looking for sources of free images to use on your blogs, we highlighted several of our favorites last week.
PicMonkey, which lots of you have already tried for custom headers, is perfect for this project. If graphic design feels beyond you, pick a few related images, slap some text on ‘em, and you’re off.
Be sure to take advantage of support documents and the forums today — you may need to stretch yourself and learn something new. And of course, there’s always The Commons
Need to add an image widget, and create a Facebook fan page.:-)
galacivilization.wordpress.com
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Nice header pictures and you know I like your blog! The letters maybe a little too big (for my taste) but I like the idea of what you are doing! Keep up the great work!
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Hey Joel, I see what you mean about the letters, I tried making them smaller, but they were getting a little lost in the background.:-( I’m glad you still like it though!:-)
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Good series you have going here, thank you for all the tips!
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You’re welcome! Happy to know you’re enjoying it.
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I’d never even heard of a blavatar before…but now I have one. 🙂
http://www.lookingglassmama.wordpress.com
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Hi there! Sorry but I don’t see a blavatar up there.
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Liked your blog! I don’t see it either…
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Nice job! I’m a few days behind but I’m looking forward to catching up and figuring out how to do a blavatar myself!
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I have already created a facebook fanspage for my blog.
Please like it 😀
https://www.facebook.com/indomoto
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I just posted blogging 201 day seven on the same topic. I am way way behind blogging 201 but have not given up. Co-incidentally while doing this topic – Extend (Broadcast) your brand, I chose to add Instagram thinking I could add my blog’s photos onto instagram but had no success. I think it is the other way round, ie first you have to take a picture on instagram and then add to your blog so no way to transfer my old blog photos to instagram? Can someone please share with me? Thank you and happy blogging.
Here’s my post on the assignment
http://littlegirlstory.wordpress.com/2014/05/11/blogging-201-day-seven-broadcast-your-brand/
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My photos are all stored in my Cloud storage on my iTunes account so I was able to use my iPad/iPhone to grab some of my favorite images that I’ve used on my blog and move them over to Instagram.
This weekend I’ll take photos and I probably won’t get around to editing until mid-week. Some I will filter through Instagram and some through my photo editing software on my laptop. So as long as you can get your blog photos onto a tablet or smart phone you can transfer them over to Instagram. It just takes a lot of work.
Hope that answers your questions.
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That makes sense. I have never use itunes for storing photos (didn’t even know you could) so that is a handy tip. I find it hard to blog on a smartphone hence I store most of my pics on my mac. I may have to sync the iphone and the mac to get those photos. Sounded like hard work. Thanks so much for your tip.
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I use my iPad for actual blogging – though I prefer the laptop (I’d kill for a MacBook Air)
Once you sync the photos to your iTunes photo stream Instagram will pick them up. I can use photos from my camera roll, shared folders, photo stream and saved folders.
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I now have a Blavatar too! I didn’t know that was an option. I love these posts and have used a lot of tips, thanks!! 😉
Here is my blog with new Blavatar:
http://dorianshand.wordpress.com
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It’s cool checking out everyone’s Blavatar. It is helping me discover new blogs, like yours! I enjoyed the Annabel post and look forward to reading more.
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Hmm, need to work on my Blavatar… I think. However, I already have a Instagram account, but I’m not sure if i can connect it to my blog. Could it be so that some themes do not allow “Latest pics from Instagram”?
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Instagram is on your dashboard – <Appearance <Widgets but I'm not sure if some themes don't offer it as an option.
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The widget is there for all themes. You can also embed Instagram images into posts:
https://wordpress.com/support/instagram/instagram-images/
and create a badge for your sidebar:
https://wordpress.com/support/instagram/instagram-badge/
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I just created a fan page for my blog. During the course of the day, I will be editing it and fixing it up. I did add a few of my latest posts on it so far. https://www.facebook.com/everchanging88?ref=hl Feel free to check it out.
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I am not sure if I want to make a fanpage for my blog right now. So I just uploaded a blavatar for the time being. Its just for the temporary though as I am still looking for a better idea:)
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I love your blavatar — to me, it looks like the spark of a new idea.
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I was wondering why my palm tree was still showing up when I didn’t have a featured image picked out. Now my cow is showing up and I’ve adjusted some of my date and time settings. The things you forget once you’ve got everything set up. Today was a good review of my settings. 🙂
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Thanks so much for your great advice! As my blog starts to grow it is definitely a good idea to try and incorportate other forms of social media… Thanks for sharing! 🙂
http://fromayoungfoodie.wordpress.com
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I have created a twitter acc and a Facebook page – it’s difficult getting people to like the page though! 😦
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Accidentally-Reflective/1463375153880305
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The blogroll is a great place to get started. http://101april2014.wordpress.com/zero-to-hero-bloggers/blogging-101-social-network-pages-profiles/
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Thank you Kevil! I’ve asked to access the site. 🙂
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You don’t need special access. It’s located at the top of the commons 101 page.
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I just started a facebook page and I am worried about getting people to actually like my page. Thanks for the advice Kevil
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I’ve set the blavatar but I don’t see it in the browser address bar 😦
http://ladieswholunchinsurrey.com/
I’ve also created a facebook fan page:
https://www.facebook.com/ladieswholunchinsurrey?ref=hl
Facebook says to get 100 likes, does something happen we I do or does Facebook then tell me to get 200 likes?
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I’m not sure if something happens — a lot has changed since I had a fan page for my blog. When you hit 100, let us know!
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I have a Facebook fan page that I link to my blog, not sure if it will actually gain me followers on the blog since WordPress does a great job of this within it’s community. But it’s worth a shot like this lesson said getting your brand out there can’t hurt!
http://www.facebook.com/itsmypagesolikeit
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I know what you mean. I’m still not sure about making a Facebook page, however I shouldn’t knock it until I try it! Good luck! I’ve noticed you already have a lot of people liking your page so far, so you should be fine.
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For sure! Just make sure you’re using the page for more than just promoting your own posts, or it quickly becomes redundant/stale.
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I love instagram over Facebook. In 18 days I was able to get 50 people to like my account. That would never happen on facebook. I also find Instagram is more interactive (people actually like and comment on your pictures). My username on Instagram is : paws4moment.
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Wow – that is amazing. I am struggling to get to a 100 (I was but after the last update I lost 20 something followers) – How do you get that many followers in that short time, if I may ask?
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Hi. My account is strictly cat pictures. I also try to have a variety of pictures (not just head shots). Also I make sure my pictures are good quality (I will not follow an account that just has blurry or dark photos, lol). Now on the other hand my other account (thescarecrowforest) has only 11 followers and I’ve been doing it for 3 to 4 months, lol. I post pictures of anything and everything on it and people don’t seem to like that. Also I try to follow as many people as I can who have the same interests as me. I’m guessing some types of pictures work on Instagram and some types of pictures don’t.
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I am on the Facebook fan page fan (would like som love here, please) and the instagram should also be up – Now for the blavatar – that needs some more work and thinking
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I just updated my Blavatar for my new collage blog http://littlecollages.wordpress.com/ though I’ll probably change it soon. I actually just started the site to separate my collage hobby from my academic writing. Fingers crossed!
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Blog looks great but did not see the blavatar…
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Thank you!
My main blog doesn’t have one, just the collage blog (it’s blue). I will check on other browsers to see if it’s showing up …
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I actually made a Blavatar within the first few days of creating my blog. I saw it on other blogs and thought “I had to have one of those”. It is a really cool element to have on your blog to help distinguish your brand. It’s interesting image widgets are mentioned, I have been thinking over ideas to display my social media networks over the last week. I will get started today!
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Blavatar……, now I have got one. Quite an interesting feature.
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Looks good!
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I have just finished my new image widget addressing Pinterest.
I am learning a lot from your valuable support.
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Thanks for the wonderful tips!
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Ok, I’ve designed buttons for my social networks and put them in place. I still need to make a facebook page and figure out how to configure the buttons so they open in a new page.
http://beingchelle.wordpress.com/
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Cool buttons! How did you get them on there?
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Thank, I need to alter them a little.
I uploaded each one in the add media panel, then created a image widget and linked them to each website.
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Also for anyone looking for something else to add try: https://www.bloglovin.com/
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Thank you for posting this one…will have to check it out…
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These series are so helpful
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This is my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Life-in-Poetry/1471451296407521
The only thing i really ever post on there is links to posts on my blog. What else could i put on this page to make it different from my blog? Any suggestions?
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Do you get more comments on your blog page or facebook/twitter?
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definitely my blog. I don’t repost everything onto my fb page. I find theres not as much traffic on fb and twitter as i get on here
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Facebook and Twitter are more interactive in that you have to really get out there and retweet or share or post, things of that nature…a blog is different as people tend to find you…twitter especially it’s very time consuming…you need to get in there and twit fairly often and talk to people or use #s…Facebook is a bit of a combination of both…it’s a different beast…I know I have a couple of pages on Facebook, and one gets seen by hundreds of people, while the other does not…it’s odd…with twitter I noticed the more I engage with others, the more I get out of it, but that is monumentally time consuming and depending on what you do it for may not be useful. It’s really about your intention for who is reading your stuff and what you want to get out of it and find where ‘the audience’ is so to speak. Don’t forget though, if people know you don’t use that (meaning you have made comments about that) they won’t go there as they know you won’t really post there…Hope this makes sense…
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Yea, i have twitter but its something i really never could get into. I’ve tried, i just don’t get the hype lol maybe one day
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Check out the post here on Facebook fan pages — it’s got lots of ideas for ways to keep your page engaging and engrossing.
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I have facebook, twitter and instagram on there…thoughts? Does anyone have a problem with the widgets? Also I changed the header…thank you all for the feedbacks!
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I started a Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/myyardville) a couple of weeks ago. Now I’m trying to increase my fan base. 🙂
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Great tips and information. Although I’m not starting my “promotion” tonight, I am definitely flagging your blog as a “must do”
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I have a facebook link on my page, but I don’t think anybody went on my facebook page from WordPress. Maybe i did something wrong?
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Well that was good timing. I updated my blavatar yesterday & I have a facebook page that’s about 2 weeks old. A massive 16 followers haha But I’m still new to the blog thing. http://simplifycreateinspire.com
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