Social media. I am starting to learn, if only a little bit, how to use social media, thanks to Chris Pirillo and his band of Gnomies at Lockergnome.com. I joined the Gnomies about three weeks ago, and I have picked up a couple of tips which I am actually using in my blogging, postings, and re-tweets. It is both something and amazing to see these tips actual work. How about that. They know what they are talking about.
There is more to blogging than actually writing the blog. Before I added ads to my blog (so far I have made nothing by having ads on my blog), I would send out emails to my friends and relatives with a link to my latest posting of my blog. We are not talking about a lot of friends and relatives, but still, I was not getting a lot of reads of the postings. I did not start blogging to get rich or famous. I started it as a way to express my thoughts and feelings. If anyone read it, great. If not, that was okay, too. However after a while, I began to think it would be nice if more people read my stuff. That is just human nature.
Since I now have ads on my blogs (I actually have two blogs, one for Geeks and one for non-Geeks), I can't send out links to my blogs via email since that is self-servicing (because of the ads), and the blog postings may be unwanted, like spam. I send out links to my postings via Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. If a person wants to read my blog, that person just has to click on the link. Otherwise, the link can be ignored. I would send out the links after hitting the publish button, and again wait for the "pageviews" to climb in number. Guess what, the number of pageviews was about the same.
Then I noticed on Twitter that I would see tweets from Chris Pirillo about a blog posting or a Lockergnome article more than once in a day and on different days. Then I saw a Lockergnome article that talked about posting more than once on Facebook, maybe once every other day, and maybe on certain times of the day. When you think about it, with all the postings that are on social media, it is very easy to miss postings from people even if you are looking for them. Therefore it makes sense to post your links more than once. You don't want to do it too often however. The research in the Lockergnome article indicates the more postings you send out, the fewer likes, and the fewer pageviews, you get. As a result of my posting my links more than once, my pageviews are up. Granted, the number of pageviews are also going up because I have a larger audience now, the Gnomies. However yesterday, I sent out the link to a posting that was a week old. Not only did I get a bigger spike in my pageviews, but one person left a comment on that posting. I sent her a comment back, and that provided me with an opportunity to engage with that person, something any writer enjoys doing. Can't beat that.
Another tip I have received from Chris Pirillo is to add a comment to the posting when you send it out. It is like a tease to a newscast. I have started to do that not only when I send out the links to my postings, but also when I send out a link to an article I have just read and liked. I am starting to see that people are more inclined to read and comment about an article if you give them another reason for them to read the article than just the title of the article itself. If they do comment on the article, I will comment back if appropriate. It is another chance to engage with someone.
As you can see, this old dog can learn new tricks. I am learning a lot from the Gnomies, and I am looking forward to learning more. I am even starting in a small way to offer my own opinion to the group. Even Chris Pirillo knows who I am (I am the person who is always asking for help). It is great fun to learn, to teach my GED students, and to write.
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