How to Move Your Readers Away from Google Friend Connect

Ever wonder why some bloggers seem to easily grow their subscribers, increase mailings and get people to read their posts?

Sure, they’re probably awesome, but a compelling call-to-action doesn’t hurt either.

A call-to-action is a word or phrase used to prompt someone to take an action: to subscribe to a newsletter, to follow you on Pinterest, to buy a product, to download a printable. In marketing, we often abbreviate it as CTA.

The problem with most call-to-actions is that THEY SUCK. They’re boring, flat, and don’t give readers one morsel to encourage taking action. So, let’s make those lame call-to-actions all better with these makeovers.

The Snoozer Subscription Sign-Up Request

“If you’re new here, you might want to subscribe to my RSS feed.”

Zzzzzzz. Does this make YOU want to do anything? Doubt it. People see that statement over and over again. After a while, you really just start glazing over it and moving along.

The Fix: Inject both some personality and some details.

Wake them up with more details specific to your blog and breathe some life into it. Here’s what I mean:

“Want to skimp on time,  not flavor? Get easy, great-tasting recipes dropped straight into your RSS reader.”

“Having five kids is a breeze. Wait- no, it’s not! See how I handle it (and often don’t handle it) by subscribing to my RSS feed.”

Those show personality as well as illustrate why subscribing to your blog is a smart idea.

I use this example because it’s one of the call-to-actions I see the most. But as a side note,  you should know that many people (especially those who aren’t tech savvy) don’t even know what an RSS feed is. So you might even suggest joining your email list instead.

The Timid Social Media Suggestion

“Welcome! If you find this page useful, you might want to follow me on Pinterest.”

I mean, if you think your pins suck, you probably wouldn’t want to show everyone your awful pins, right? You obviously think you pin wonderful things, so don’t be shy about telling others that very thing!

The Fix: Remove hesitation by sounding confident.

Get rid of “I hope you” or “if you want” and just invite readers over… with your chin up and your voice strong (virtually of course).

For example, let’s take Pinterest. Your Pinterest boards are certainly varied, but if you want to focus on Pinterest then zero in on a few stand-out boards versus trying to encompass them all.

“From gorgeous fonts to inspiring color combos, get endless blog design ideas by following me on Pinterest!”

Or say you want to increase your Facebook fans:

“Join other readers on Facebook as we chat about all things crafty (and get ideas I don’t share anywhere else).”

Before you promote a social media network, take a few minutes to think about WHY it’s worth promoting. A Facebook page where you just paste links to your blog posts isn’t enticing; a Facebook page where readers chat with one another and you provide meaningful content IS enticing.

The Unconvincing Email Sign-Up Button

“Submit.”

I’m not sure about you, but I click “submit” when I’m filling out a loan application or creating an account on a website. “Submit” doesn’t really give me any warm fuzzies about joining an e-mail list, especially when I’m inviting someone to email me all their latest posts or their newsletter.

The Fix: Make people feel like they’re joining or getting something, not just like they’re clicking a button.

Offering a freebie like an e-book or printable can really get readers interested in your email list, but they still have to commit to it, knowing along with that freebies comes messages to you straight to their inbox. So after you tell them what your free gift is, get them to seal the deal.

You can do something like:

“Get It!”

“Get Your Copy”

“Download Now”

Underneath the main text, you can even add a small statement in parenthesis as subtext to provide further explanation or just to show off some personality.

“Get Your Printable
(You can download it immediately)”

“Download Now
(Complete with sparkles)”

What if you don’t have a freebie? Don’t fret. In the meantime, use strong words or phrases like:

“Join” (people like to be a part of something)

“Let’s Do This!”

You can even play off your blog’s topics, like for a homeschool or education blog, you could say:

“Get schooled.”

Even “Subscribe” isn’t horrible if your intro to joining the list is compelling and interesting.

Also, the design and color can also increase a button’s effectiveness so make sure your button stands out design-wise too.

Your Turn

Scan your blog. Do you have any blah CTAs that could use a little jolt of brilliance? Get to it!By now, you probably know that Google is doing away with Google Friend Connect (GFC) for non-Blogger blogs. The shutdown happens on March 1, 2012 so there’s not much more time to get your readers switched to something else.

Currently when someone subscribes to GFC, your RSS feed shows up in their Google Reader. However since Google hasn’t confirmed or denied that your feed will stay there when GFC goes the way of the dodo, it’s a good idea to start moving people away from GFC.

So what’s a girl to do?

Well, I have a three-step solution for ya (with an optional fourth if ya wanna go there).

Of course, you can wean people off of GFC however you want. This is just a suggestion. But I would say to start now if you haven’t already!

1. Determine Your Alternative.

Subscribing to an RSS feed is the closest thing to subscribing via Google Friend Connect so that’s probably the main place you want to direct people. Blogs you subscribed to showed up in Google Reader, just like subscribing to a plain ole RSS does.

Yes, yes, I know Google wants you to redirect people to your Google + page (if you have one) but that’s just not the same to me. How many people are using Google + vs using an RSS Reader? Yeah, that’s what I thought.

You may decide you’d prefer to direct people to Google + anyway. Or your Facebook page. That’s cool too. Whatever floats your boat. You can even give people a couple of choices if you want. Just don’t overwhelm them with a list of six ways to subscribe.

If you go the route of RSS, for the love of God make sure your feed is burned so it’s easier for people to subscribe! For an overview of Feedburner, you can read Gigi from Kludgy Mom’s Feedburner tutorial. To burn your feed with Feedburner, this is a good tutorial on how to burn your feed.

For Blogger bloggers: While you’re still able to have Google Friend Connect, just remember that Google can get rid of it at any time. In fact, they really haven’t updated it in a few years so I wouldn’t be surprised if they pull the plug at some point. While you may not want to remove the GFC widget, I’d focus on building your RSS feed subscribers, Facebook fans and email list (if you have one).

2. Now Make that Bad Boy Obvious.

Okay, so you’ve got your RSS feed in tip-top shape (or whatever else you want to direct people to), make it obvious to subscribe! What does that mean?

For starters, the way to subscribe should be ABOVE the fold. (that’s the part of the website you can see without scrolling down). Keep those social media buttons towards the top of your page too in your sidebar or your header.

If you’re on WordPress.org, I like the plugins What Would Seth Godin Do or WP Greet Box. It lets you customize a message to go either at the top or bottom of your posts. Use it to tell people GFC is going away and ask them to subscribe another way. You could even use Hello Bar, which I love to use for special occasions. The point is… make that way to subscribe stand out!

3. Remove Google Friend Connect now.

Yes, I know that you probably want to keep your Google Friend Connect widget up as long as possible. But just remember that not everyone probably knows about GFC going away.

What if someone comes to your site and only follows you that way? Then you’ll just have to convert them later so why make them subscribe twice. Once you have everything from Step 1 in place, let people know you’ll be taking Google Friend Connect down and ditch it. Your current GFC subscribers will still receive your latest posts until Google officially pulls the plug (there’s still debate as to what happens AFTER they pull the plug).

Optional: Send a newsletter message (but only once maybe twice)

Personally, I never liked the idea of using Google Friend Connect to send out newsletters. As a marketer, I take permission marketing pretty seriously and I never felt like GFC made it obvious to someone that they were opting into a newsletter when they subscribed to your blog.

That being said, since you have the capability to send a newsletter out with GFC (while not obvious, a reader technically opts-in), I don’t see the harm in using the newsletter feature a couple of times to let subscribers know they need to subscribe to you another way. Perhaps one message right away and then one a few days before GFC shuts down. Most people who read your blog will appreciate the reminder.

If you did have a newsletter you sent out through GFC, then switch over to using an Email Service Provider like Mailchimp. It’s free for up to 2,000 subscribers! Just know that there’s no way to export your list.

Alrighty, so that’s just one workflow for moving people away from Google Friend Connect. I’d love to hear what you’re doing!

Non-Blogger bloggers: Have you been moving people away from Google Friend Connect yet? Any tips for your fellow bloggers?

Blogger bloggers: Are you keeping GFC on your blog? Are you planning to transition away from it at all?