As a small business owner and a twenty something tech geek, I’m always looking for ways to bridge the two, and leverage apps to help me either automate tasks, or connect with my customers. Recently I’ve been reaping the fruits of Apples recent App Store Anniversary, and trying out a bunch of apps, from Traktor to Tiny Wings, I’ve found some really fun and useful apps.
But the reason I’m writing this post is to let you in on a new app that graced the App Store right around the same time of the anniversary.
It’s called IFTTT.
IFTTT, An acronym for If This Then That, is app automation bridging tool that utilizes recipes to accomplish tasks between two apps.
Now, there’s really a ton of ways to market your business or content using IFTTT. With options like RSS to Email / SMS, Facebook Fan Page Status / Image to Email / SMS, and those are just of the few options I’ve started implementing for my clients, I’m sure there are many, many more. (If you’ve found any, make sure to mention yours in the comments below)
But one recipe caught my eye, and I think it’s a really great idea that I’ve been able to leverage and see success from.
The Recipe is If RSS then Email, which the RSS Feed is for all Top Free Apps in the iTunes Store, and it emails you periodically about the latest apps. I thought this was really cool, and I believe bloggers and business owners can use this tool to their advantage.
For this tutorial, we’re going to do the same thing, but with a blog / community.
Say you’re a company like..Moz, who has quite a few different RSS feeds. In this example we’ll only use one, but of course this can be replicated easily, and we’re going to pick YouMoz as it’s probably the greatest thing since cronuts.
So, Moz really wants to promote the YouMoz RSS feed, and get some additional traffic, and they’ve decided to let me use IFTTT to do so.
Easy-peasy lemon squeezy.
First, download IFTTT from the iTunes Store or IFTTT.com
Then, click the “recipe” icon in the top right of the App:
Next click the “+” icon in the top right of the App:
Begin creating the recipe by clicking the blue & white plus box where it says “Start Here”:
Next, find the RSS icon in the list of triggers provided by IFTTT and click “New Feed Item”:
Add in the full URL of the RSS Feed being used ( in this case it’s YouMoz’s URL):
Next, click the orange plus box:
Find the Email icon in the Actions selection and choose “Send me an Email”:
Note: If you don’t have these channels activated, you’ll be prompted to do so before completing each choice.
Now, you should see a screen like this:
Go ahead and click Finish to finalize the Recipe.
Sharing Your Recipe
Once you’ve done this, select the recipe from your choices, and click “edit Recipe”, we’ve got a few things to add really quick!
Go ahead and optimize your recipe’s description and usage, so that others understand what it does in the areas shown below:
ProTip: If you’re heavy into mobile advertising, down in the Action section in the body area, you can add a bit of html or a link to direct visitors as well!
Make sure to save, and the recipe should now be in the sidebar along with the other recipes.
Now, we’re almost done! It’s time to share the Recipe for the world to use! So head over to http://ifttt.com/, login to your account, and click the “My Recipes” up at the very top.
Now we’ll find the recipe we’ve just created, and click the “share” button in it’s column:
Fill out the Title and Notes areas, and make sure to look over the options available in case you’d like to change something.
Click Share Recipe at the bottom, and you should see a page like this that will allow you to share the recipe with your social media contacts!
And there you have it! A nice simple way for Moz to get some additional traffic to the YouMoz community blog, and of course, a tutorial for you to do the exact same thing.
But that’s really just the beginning, the app hasn’t been out long, and already they have a buttload of channels for you to use. Just in case this doesn’t suit you, here are a few of my other favorite recipes to get more traffic / exposure for your website or business.
Post YouTube upload to Facebook page – http://bit.ly/135UfzO
Posts the NASA image of the day to a FB page and album you specify – http://bit.ly/16TDOaY
That should be enough to get you started. As IFTTT grows and evolves, there will be much more potential to reach your readers and customers, so make sure you’re keeping up to date with their blog. Personally, I’d love to hear how you’re using IFTTT, and if you’ve got a favorite recipe that should be shared with the world, leave it in the comments below!