This week's topic is less of my opinion and more of a discussion (hence the short post) that I hope you can get involved in, because I think the majority you will know a lot more about this than me! This week's topic was inspired by Jasmine who runs Sweetaholic Beauty, after she left her comment on last week's "What do you think?" Wednesday about the influence followers and comments have on your blogging presence. When I first decided to make a blog I couldn't have dreamed about what it might lead to and the way in which it could turn out. As my blog developed and I began to follow other people's blogs I discovered that for some people their blog was more like a business! With their blog to run, PR interest, emails to respond to and a twitter/facebook/youtube account to run it almost became a part time job for them!
The way my blog is now takes up a significant portion of my life to run it to my satisfaction, and that is solely the reason that I haven't made a twitter or facebook account. I am very much aware that with other social media sites come more followers, which of course would be nice, but I don't think I have the time and energy to keep up with another platform!
There are of course, other perks associated with these sites, not just an increase in followers and traffic. As far as I am aware, please correct me if I am mistaken, twitter allows for bloggers to discuss things as a large group. Of course this can be done on someone's blog, but I imagine it would be so much easier to find these discussions on twitter in the first place, and so much easier to participate in. Not only that, but twitter and facebook are just different environments for discussion and interaction that I think some people find less intimidating and easier to be a part of.
My question, for all of those who have a blog in addition to another account like twitter/facebook etc, is are those accounts worth having? For someone like me, who feels like that haven't much additional time to spare, would you recommend me signing up for other social media sites? What are some of the benefits that I am not aware of and are they worth the time and effort you might put into keeping up with it all?
Interesting topic! For a long time I had no interest in creating any social media account for my blog as I just didn't want to expend the effort. I do now have a Twitter but I honestly am not active on it. I wouldn't say that it has brought more followers - it's really more a means for others to contact me and I guess another way for people to discover facets of your personality/life/interests through what you write, separate to my blog which is more organised and only related to beauty. I think like everything else, you get what you put in - any kind of success or attention will be more likely if you're really active and network :)
ReplyDeleteGood point, my blog rarely touches on my personal life whereas I imagined a lot more would be revealed on another social media site! Good to hear your thoughts, I'm not sure it would be worth getting a twitter account because I can't see myself putting much into it!
Deletexx
Oh yay! I'm happy you decided to ask this, because you are going to have a good response! (And hehe thanks for mentioning me!)
ReplyDeleteShort answer: yes, at least a twitter account!
Long answer: (Get ready for my rambling!)
Twitter is not just about getting people to notice your blog more or getting more followers, it's also about engaging with your followers! I have so many beautiful bloggers I consider my friends now because I've chatted with them on twitter, and not just about beauty, about lots of different things! It kind of reminds me that behind the blog is a real person, and it's so lovely to get to know them better! Especially when they are Australian like us! :D
If you have a smart phone, twitter isn't as much a hassle as you think and it's pretty easy to manage!
Another big perk of Twitter is that you can actually speak with companies and such, which can be really great! For example I'll tweet that my new Bellabox post is up, and Bellabox will actually reply and say "looks great!" or they will retweet it for me to their followers, meaning I get more followers! It's a lovely feeling getting some recognicion from a company! They're also pretty good at answering questions or complaints you might have about them, which can be a lot easier than emailing the company (and they are usually a lot nicer since it's such an open platform, all of their fans can see their response to you!)
Plus there are lots of twitter competitions you have the chance of winning, hosted by companies directly! It's fantastic!
If you're a real social media buff, then twitter can take up a lot of your time! But, if you're just in it for hoping to get more followers and just chatting with the ones you already have, it's pretty easy going and won't take up too much of your time!
As for facebook, I don't bother with it overly to be honest. I only place the link for my most recent post and that's pretty much it. I find most people don't really want to talk much of Facebook and such, which is understandable.
So final answer? Get a twitter so you can chat with us all! :D
xx
Oh wow, thank you so much for your response. You are the person whose opinions I take into real consideration because you are so knowledgeable and good at what you do! Thank you so much!
DeleteIt is so easy to forget the fact that bloggers are real people and that they have lives, haha! But in all honesty, I think it is so cool that Twitter is able to serve as a platform for more connections.
I don't have a smartphone (little bit behind there, I know) so I don't imagine my updates would be terribly exciting considering they would all be written as I'm at home on the computer. Still, the social site of it is very appealing.
As for speaking to companies, I hadn't thought of that at all. It's amazing how bloggers and companies all work together on Twitter!
It's good to know that facebook isn't terribly exciting. I kind of felt that Twitter was more useful for a blog but I wasn't really sure.
Thanks so much Jasmine, I'll really look into this and think about it, I promise!
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I always forget to check back here until the next Wednesday haha! Aw thanks so much for your kind words! I really love this little segment on your blog because it makes us all think and keeps us grounded! :D
Deletexx
That's my main problem with commenting on a blog - it doesn't alert you when you get a response which is a real pain!
DeleteI've enjoyed this segment so much - I am always looking out for interesting post topics so that I can keep this going for as long as possible. It wouldn't be nearly as fun and effective if it wasn't for everyone who spent the time to comment - thank you all!
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I love twitter, even though it hasn't brought me many followers. I really like to see what other bloggers & youtubers I follow are up to and it allows you to interact on a more personal level, which is great. As others have said you get what you put into it...so if you network like crazy you will have a lot of success with followers and companies etc. but it can also just be another way to connect with the people who already enjoy your blog. I will tweet whenever I have a new post or video up or when I get really excited about something.
ReplyDeleteI have a personal facebook & I barely use it, so I've never bothered making one for my blog. It's something I might look into if I ever have 1000's of followers but for now I think it's unnecessary.
If you really don't have any extra time to put into other forms of social media then don't bother with it...it's only really worth starting if you have time to devote to it :)
Thanks a bunch for commenting! I do really like the idea of the more personal interactions, I think that would be really lovely.
DeleteI do think Twitter would be really useful but then again I have visions of starting an account and having it sit there completely dead for weeks in a row.
Good to know your thoughts about facebook, I've kind of written it off, I won't bother making one.
Thanks so much!
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