Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest – Social media strategy & Row80
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Working in Communications and being a writer and blogger, I’ve heard my fair share of theories on social media numbers and klout. I’ve been blogging for over two years now and I’ve been actively using Facebook and Twitter to engage with other bloggers and writers for over a year, and it’s time to look at growth opportunities.
My (new) strategies for gaining klout and a dedicated blog readership
I think Facebook Likes have more Klout than Twitter followers.
Facebook is personal. People can see what you like and what you do. There is less anonymity on Facebook because as soon as you hit the Like button, all your friends see that you like it in their news feed.
On Twitter, nobody will really know who you follow unless they take the time to scroll down through the hundreds (or thousands) accounts you follow or if you re-tweet someone perhaps.
I have a number of Twitter followers and I appreciate all of them, but there are probably only 200-300 that I have seen their tweets and probably only about 30-50 who I interact with regularly. On Facebook, I have interacted with every single person who has liked my Facebook page.
Image via wallpapers.com
The key to effective social media communications is making real connections. It is getting the “right” people (i.e. the one’s who are interested) to see what you’re communicating about. So I think the emphasis placed on the number of Facebook Likes and Twitter Followers for both businesses and writers is somewhat misplaced. Of course someone with thousands of Likes and Followers is more likely to have a bigger audience, but it doesn’t mean that the audience is more authentic and acting on the information they are receiving.
Using Twitter More Effectively
I’m a big fan of Twitter. I could spend a lot more time on it than I do and I want to start utilizing its power more. I think Twitter is a great way to connect with strangers. I’ve met so many people on Twitter and some of them have even migrated over to Facebook and we’ve become Friends. I would like to extend my reach on Twitter and hopefully that will translate to more people taking an interest in my blog as a place for information and to interact. I also hope it leads to more interaction on the Facebook page.
I’ve found as a writer, most of my referred blog visitors are coming from Twitter and pingpbacks (i.e. links to my blog from other blogs). The use of hashtags on Twitter and the various groups/niches of people create a strong community.
So in an effort to streamline my usage of Twitter, I have created my own personal lists by categorizing the people/organizations I follow. I have created columns in TweetDeck to follow the now categorized tweets. I hope that this will allow me to find useful information on each topic, find new accounts to follow and maybe I’ll want to unfollow some accounts. Another goal is to retweet more informative links because I will now be privy to organized lists of information.
So throughout the rest of ROW80, I will test out my new Twitter organization and see how it affects my “numbers” in terms of how many followers I have and how many accounts I follow.
Joining Pinterest
I’ve also been considering Pinterest a lot lately. I was hesitant to join when it first exploded in popularity because (a) I didn’t know how I would want to use it because I mostly saw photos of home decor, cooking and crafts (b) there were so many copyright issues surfacing with it (c) I thought I would spend too much time pinning.
BUT, I’ve seen so many photos of things I would re-pin and I think it might be a great way to organize ideas and “keep things” that I find on the internet. It would also be fun of course and it might result in tapping into a new niche and could also results in higher blog readership. So I’ve signed up to use this fun-filled visual social media. Now I just have to figure out what categories I want to start pinning in.
Website/blog traffic as a result of social media usage
Since I moved from WordPress.com to a self-hosted WordPress.org, I have seen a drop in the numbers of hits the blog gets. However, I don’t think that these hard statistics are all that discouraging because most of that traffic were just that: traffic. They found the blog mostly through Google searches for certain information or photos, they weren’t readers, which is who I’m looking for. Although, I still have the same community of regular readers and I hope more and more people will subscribe by email.
In terms of my other ROW80 writing goals, I’m trying to get myself back onto a regular blog schedule with at two posts per week.
How do you find your friends/followers to be different on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest? Are some relationships stronger than others because of the type of social media network? Which social media network do you find most effective to generate dedicated readers/followers?
Hi Nicole,
Interesting blog, and nicely written!
I find myself enjoying twitter far more than facebook.
For me, twitter is like attending a little convention. Via #twitter, I can see what people with shared interests are saying, real time. For instance, I “met” you via #ROW80. So I know you’re interested in writing. And I know you’re vested enough to contribute your time, support, and insight. In short, I know a chat with you has value.
With facebook, I feel like I’m attending a block party. Yes, there are many people. Yes, we know each other. Sort of. Usually.
But their core interests may not align with mine. We associate, but that doesn’t mean we’re sharing what’s important to us.
With time being what it is, I tend to spend mine where there’s a meaningful return on investment–be it through craft chat, word sprints, or comfort taken in weathering the long journey with people on the same path.
Thanks for the post. And thanks for contributing to #ROW80. I appreciate it.
Hi Joe,
I agree. I use Twitter way more and I connect with a lot more people. I like your analogy that Facebook is like a block party. I’d say Twitter is like travelling the world, chances are you’ll meet someone new! Thanks so much for commenting!
I have never completely wrapped my mind around Twitter’s usefulness. If there is a trending topic in which I am interested, I find that if I go to that #topic, I can’t keep up with the posts. I may read a few, and suddenly at the top of the page it will read, “20 more tweets available” and so on. So my problem is not knowing how to properly mine Twitter to make it useful without having to scroll down endlessly on one page.
Facebook, often reveals information to me about which I may otherwise never know. Example: yesterday I saw a post on FB about a forthcoming Buffalo Tom music show in Cambridge MA in May. Now I’m thinking about booking time to go to Cambridge to see this show.
To manage Facebook, one thing I have done at the risk of not offending certain Friends is to hide them so that I don’t see their posts, and add them to a Restricted List so that they can’t post to my page. That may sound a bit lame, but it saves me the potential fallout from dropping them as Friends from my page. That said, I have dropped quite a few people in the past few months. Facebook, however, keeps me in touch with many people, including a number of relatives living in other cities, with whom I would otherwise be out of contact.
All of this, however, has little to do with driving traffic to my site, which is what you’re looking at as a writer and communicator. As a musician, if I ever create my own page or a blog other than the one I have now (and to which I seldom post anymore), then I might need to revisit strategies to increase traffic to my site(s).
Good column, as always. 🙂
I use Twitter and Facebook totally differently. Facebook is where I see my friends (people I used to work with, people I went to school with, etc.) and family. I use Twitter as a newsfeed (I follow local TV news, sports and weather) and as a way to follow other bloggers and authors. I don’t use it as much because I can’t use Tweetdeck on my primary computer (it runs 64-bit, and I can only do 32-bit), and I find the process of splitting people into lists through the browser interface to be tedious and prone to errors. Does Tweetdeck make the list-building process any easier?
Hello fello ROWer and Canadian! Always cool to find another Canadian ROWer (I don’t think they’re many of us). And that being said I actually live in LA at the moment but I’ll always be a Canadian at heat. We have another thing in common too! I also write travel — mostly travel trade. I’m freelance now but worked for Travelweek (www.travelweek.ca) in Toronto for five years and still do a lot of work for them even though I’m in LA. Just thought I’d share our common interests!
Now to your blog post…to be perfectly honest, try as I might, I haven’t really found a way to engage on Twitter yet. I have a hard time reading my feed and caring all that much about what people are saying — even when many of them are tweeting about interests the same as mine. And I have an even harder time finding a way to express myself on Twitter often without feeling like unauthentic. I do see Twitter’s value though and am going to keep learning more and trying different things until I can figure out something that works for me.
For sure I get many more blog readers from Facebook than from Twitter, but like John said, my Facebook is really just where I connect with friends and family and so the majority of my blog readers from FB are friends and family etc. as well.
Really great post Nicole! I appreciate all your thoughts and advice and look forward to reading more from you 🙂
Hi Candace! Yes the Canadian ROWers are a minority. haha. Must be sooo nice to live in LA. I’m in Edmonton so yeah, it’s gonna be winter for another month or so. It’s interesting to hear other people’s take on the two big social media networks. Thanks for commenting!
Yes, I do not miss the Canadian winters, but there are still lots of other things I miss about Canada. It is interesting to hear people’s takes on social media, when everything is so varied. Have a great day!
Nicole,
Facebook is intuitive for me. I can’t say why, but it feels natural. maybe that has something to do with my ADD -type husband, who has literally been known to finish a sentence he started 3 years before – with no warning! And our son seems to take after him, that way, so I get lots of practice!
I am learning Twitter, slowly, and enjoying it.
I use Pinterest and LinkedIn in spurts, and am settling into my sweet new WANATribe page…
As for the rest, not so much. With three active blogs and plans to launch a website in the next year, novels, poetry, and flash fiction…(not to mention the homeschooling and rest of life!), I feel like I have enough going on.
I’ve found that doing the bulk of my social networking on my Kindle and reserving my laptop for more “serious” writing helps….
It seems as though you are getting a handle on what you need and where you want to go, and that is very useful!
May your week be joyful, productive – and just social enough! =)
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