Yesterday I was going through my old SL links/bookmarks and went to visit ASNers. Apparently the site no longer exists. Not a surprise, but then I became curious what other SLers are using for social media.
I used to have them all – Fakebook, Tweeter, ASN, Plurk, and a few others, but I don’t use them anymore. I suppose I have a love/hate relationship with social media. I love how connected it can make you, but I hate how most of the companies actually work.
I refuse to use Fakebook (see here and here) for SL or RL. I don’t agree with the policies and practices of the company, so I don’t use them. I kept using other sites for awhile, but I ultimately decided that it was too much of a time waster – not enough benefits for the returns I was getting.
I was curious, though, what everyone else is using. Fakebook, Tweeter, Plurk, and Flickr I know, but is there an alternative site out there? I did some searching and found Avatarbook and Onlinker – are there any others I missed?
I found this an interesting post, especially since a friend and I were just discussing this weekend how effective Twitter actually is at growing blog traffic.
SL blogs are niche, of course, but I personally haven’t found that using Twitter leads to much in the way of blog traffic.
I used to schedule tweets in advance, but haven’t done that for a while. Perhaps I should go back and try again using some of the tips in the article.
Which social media platform leads to the most blog traffic for you?
I love Twitter, though I’m not all that adept at using it yet.
I constantly forget to tag people (with their @ names), I can never think of a good hashtag for tweets, and I’m still trying to figure out lists.
I use TweetDeck to schedule tweets for my blog (is there a way to do that BEFORE the post is actually published?) and I follow quite a few SL hashtags.
Of all the social media I’m currently using, I think Twitter takes up the least of my time.
It’s easy to skim through and read what I find interesting and skip over the rest.
I can scroll through on my phone whenever I have a few spare minutes and I’m all caught up.
Facebook
I hate Facebook.
With a passion.
I get that it’s a nice tool to stay in touch with people.
But I just. Can’t. Even.
Nope.
I realize that I’m probably costing myself traffic by not having a FB linked to my blog.
I’ll deal.
It’s just not worth the hassle and the worry of getting deleted.
I could set up a page, I suppose, but then I would still have to use Facebook.
After reading these posts, I spend a lot of time on internal debates, on researching related things on the internet, and then the next thing you know, it’s 5 hours later, my butt is asleep, and I realize I forgot to eat lunch.
The other biggest time social media time suck for me is Plurk.
I avoided joining Plurk for a long time, because people told me it was elitist and full of snarky SL people.
I haven’t found that to be true at all.
There is some seriously hilarious shizz going on in Plurk. 😛
I’ve seen pictures of crazy, cannibalistic land-crabs (yet another reason to never go to Florida), watched others install Windows10 (their results were sadly, sometimes not as good as mine), and learned that texture thrashing makes people want to strangle LL.
A lot of the people on Plurk have been in SL forever, so I’m constantly learning something new.
Plus, some of them are just plain hysterical.
It’s like all the cute cat videos and funny memes and friends all rolled into one place.
It probably took me twice as long as usual to write this post, because I kept going back to Plurk to check on things.
Plus, everyone uses all these cute gifs, so I have become a gif collector.
Because who knows when you’ll need a good Phil Collins gif, amiright?
😀
If you are on any of these social networks, please add me – I promise not to stalk you. 😛
When I started blogging, I just knew that I wanted to write.
With sites like WordPress and Blogspot, it’s easy.
Create an account, log in, and start blogging!
Then, like everything else, it turns out there’s actually work involved. -.-
I don’t only have to worry about topics to write about and writing well, I have to worry about adding images, sizing images, page load times, increasing traffic, links, pingbacks, SEO, alt tags, descriptions, categories, tags, slugs – the list is endless.
It’s all a little overwhelming when you first start.
Thankfully, you don’t have to know everything. 😀
A few months ago, Becky over at SL Blogger Support started writing a series of articles aimed at helping bloggers to become better at blogging.
Many of the steps I already knew, but I had gotten lazy and wasn’t paying attention.
Niche
The first article was about finding a ‘niche’ for your blog.
There are literally millions of blogs, so finding that niche can help you find readers.
I’m still in the process of defining and refining my niche – just asking some very basic questions about my blog made me realize that I had wandered from my original purpose.
My blog is like me – it changes and grows.
As I learn about new things, I want to share what I learn.
So although my original audience was people interested in dance, I have expanded to include photography, art, and sometimes fashion.
(Maybe ‘style’ is a better word than fashion – I’m not always on top of the latest trends, but I know what I like. 😀 )
SEO
The next article was about SEO – what it is and how to use it for good. 😛
This one made me a bit angry with myself – some of these were very simple things that I knew and should have been doing, but wasn’t.
Grrr.
I made a few changes to my blog – I changed my tagline to reflect the added topics, and I changed my theme to one that offered better formatting/readability options than my previous one.
I am still debating whether it’s worth it to me to pay for a domain name or if I should just continue with the free WordPress option.
I know a fellow blogger had issues when changing over from the free WP site to a paid domain, and I don’t want to make extra headaches for myself.
While my dream is to someday get paid to write, I’m not there yet.
With only one income and lots of expenses (college tuition, anyone?), sometimes it’s hard to justify any extra spent on ‘frivolous’ purchases. 😦
Sometimes it’s hard to know if you’re making the right decisions.
It’s nice to see that I’m not the only one who’s trying to figure it all out. 🙂
I did take Becky’s advice and I signed up for Google’s Webmaster Tools.
However, I don’t find using said tools to be intuitive in any way whatsoever, so I’ve decided to ignore them for now, and concentrate on things I do understand.
My SEO Changes
I have been paying attention to my post titles and changing the slugs to help with searches.
My LOTD posts are numbered, but since they are not my primary focus for the blog, I’m not too concerned with them.
When I started the LOTD posts, I was taking the photos in-world and saving them as .png files to preserve details.
However, .png files load more slowly.
Slow loading times can kill your traffic – because it needs to be instant on the internet. 😛
So I have begun resizing my images when I edit them and I save them as .jpegs rather than .pngs.
There is some loss in quality, but the faster load times are worth it.
What I wasn’t doing was giving my images (LOTD and others) meaningful titles.
Nor was I filling in the alt tags.
I make sure that I am doing both of those now.
Buffer has a great post on how to optimize images for blogs and social media.
I also have begun breaking up text-heavy posts (like this one!) with subheadings to help with readability.
Growing Your Blog
One of the things Becky mentioned is feeds and that if you are on feeds, search engines may see your blog as ‘duplicate content,’ which can hurt your search rankings.
For many SL fashion bloggers, being on feeds is a must.
You can, as Becky suggests, set it up so that your posts only show as excerpts so that readers have to click through to your blog to read the entire post.
However, some feeds specifically say that you must not show excerpts only – so what to do?
You would think that being on feeds would get you more traffic, but it turns out that isn’t always the case.
Becky’s latest post was one that really got me thinking.
I actually printed it out and made notes on it as I read through it. (Nerd? Me? Noooo!)
Again, much of what she writes are things I knew, but wasn’t using to my advantage.
Having taught journalism, I knew about headlines, subheads, pull quotes, etc.
(Side note: Pull quotes and other cool options are sometimes only available with WordPress.org. Rather frustrating when you are using WordPress.com – another item to weigh when deciding whether to pay or use the free version of WP.)
When you teach literature, however, the writing style rules are different.
Some things are too ingrained for me to change (like double spacing after a period), but I certainly need to be more aware of my writing style if I want my blog to grow.
It also made me go back through my blog and look at what people were actually reading, not what I thought they were. 😀
Social Media
In addition to your blog itself, tying into social media is almost a must these days.
But with so many platforms available, which one(s) do you choose?
For me, it’s been trial and error.
I loathe Facebook, so even though I could probably benefit from using it, I won’t.
I have found a nice alternative on Avatar Social Network, and I am having a good time using it.
I joined Twitter and found that I really like it.
I have started using TweetDeck and following various topics of interest – I’ve found it extremely useful.
I also learned about Twitter Cards – if you don’t have one, get one!
I’m on Google+, but I don’t have a page as yet.
Plus (no pun intended), Google has been making some changes, so I’m waiting to see what happens there for a bit before I jump in.
I joined Reddit, but I haven’t found it particularly useful or busy.
I was told the SL Universe Forums were another popular place – I joined, and for now I’m lurking while I figure it out. 😛
I joined Plurk a few days ago, and I must say, I like it a lot.
I’ve always heard it was full of drama, but I haven’t found that to be true (yet).
There was a hilarious thread about someone squatting on someone else’s sim (I’m still laughing), so while I feel like a complete noob using it, I’m having a good time!
I’m also on Ello, but the last time I checked, it wasn’t very active, so I’m holding off on that one for a while as well.
Photography
Since I’ve fallen in love with taking photos in-world, I’ve joined KoinUp and Flickr.
The KoinUp interface is kind of ‘old-school,’ but there are a lot of great artists there, and I’m slowly learning my way around.
I’m still trying to figure out how to add a widget for my KoinUp photos, so if you know how – help a girl out!
KoinUp also lets you cross-post to Flickr and you can email snapshots directly to your KoinUp if you want.
I haven’t done either of those yet, but options are always nice. 🙂
Flickr, I’m finding, is an entirely different ball of wax.
I found some terrific artists and photographers to follow and I started uploading my own photos.
Then I had to learn about licensing, groups, tags, etc.
Just when I thought I had a handle on how folks use Flickr, I came across a post about Flickr advice.
I realized I wasn’t adding enough tags to my photos and that I should be adding my photos to more groups if I want more views (and hopefully more readers).
I’d been adding my photos to 5-10 groups and feeling slightly guilty for adding them to so many.
The guilt evaporated after learning that many people are adding their photos to 200+ groups – no wonder they were getting so many views!
In one of my in-world blogger groups, there was a discussion about people ‘reposting’ pictures on Flickr as a way to get more views.
(A certain number of views per photo on Flickr are required on some blogger applications for SL creators.)
I didn’t even know you could ‘repost’ a photo. 😛
Summary
There’s a wealth of information out there about how to grow your blog.
Use it!
Know who you’re writing for.
Learn to write better headlines.
Format your content for easier reading and optimize your images for faster loading.
Use social media to interact with others and gain followers/readers.
Have you ever stopped to think about why you are on social media? For me, it has always been about connecting with people, learning from my community, and contributing to that community. Page views, subscribers, followers and fans were never a stand alone goal. They were a means to an end — the promise of a potential connection.
Annie at Ethical Thinkerpublished an interesting read last month on why, after seven years of growing a popular parenting blog and social media presence, she abandoned her following, which…
I’ve posted several times about how overwhelming managing multiple social media accounts can be.
Apparently I’m a glutton for punishment. -.-
I went and signed myself up for some new networks.
If you belong to any of these networks, look me up – I’m always happy to meet new friends. 🙂
KoinUp
KoinUp is a site I found after watching an episode of Designing Worlds on photography.
My first impression is that it’s sort of like Flickr (which you can apparently cross-post to from KoinUp).
I joined a few groups and I’m giving it a few days to see how I like it.
I added KoinUp to my Feedly reader a month or so ago, and I like being able to just scan through some of the art when I have a few free moments.
I tried adding Flickr to Feedly, but they refuse to play nice together. 😦
Reddit
On the recommendation of Ever Afterr (check out her blog here), I decided to check out Reddit.
After reading through the FAQs and their posting rules, I decided to go ahead and join.
It’s kind of overwhelming at first, but I removed a bunch of subreddits and pared it down to a usable amount.
I found a book subreddit, so I’m already having fun reading everyone’s comments.
(Just FYI – I hated Anna Karenina and my favorite book of all time is a tie – To Kill a Mockingbird/Jane Eyre.)
I couldn’t find a mobile app for Reddit that wasn’t 3rd party, so I’ll have to see how useful/engaging I find it if I’m only using it when on my PC. (If you have any suggestions that work well for you, let me know.)
Ello
I signed up for Ello when it first came out, because I hate Facebook.
I haven’t been on in months, and decided to go back a few days ago to check it out.
It doesn’t seem that active for SLers – or am I missing something?
If you’re on Ello, tell me – I would love to have some active people to follow!
I also read (I think) that they are working on a mobile app, which would let me be more active.
I spend most of my time on social networks via my phone, not my PC.
Other Projects
Becky recently wrote a blog post about SEO and blogging.
In it, she mentioned Google’s Webmaster Tools.
I had tried using them months ago, but got lost in all the technicalities and just abandoned it.
I went back and tried to get back into it.
I’m still floundering. 😦
I’m also debating whether it is worth the work to get a Google+ Page in addition to my profile.
I’m also investigating some other apps that would help me manage all the social media streams.
If you have a Google+ Page or use a service like HootSuite, I’d love to hear your feedback.
This weekend, among other things, I decided to start digging a little deeper into my social media platforms.
I’ve been asking questions, but no one seems to know the answers, so – research it is!
There are only 24 hours in a day, and while I’d like to be as active as I can on social media, I don’t want to spend gobs of time doing it.
Automated Sharing
When I started blogging with WordPress, I knew there was an option for ‘sharing’ your posts on various platforms.
(It’s under Settings>Sharing, if you’re interested.)
As I am on WordPress.com (the free WordPress) and not WordPress.org (their CMS for self-hosted websites), I often don’t have as many options as I might otherwise.
In this instance, my options for sharing are limited.
I can set up my blog to automatically send my posts to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.
I don’t have a Facebook or a LinkedIn account, so those are not options.
I do have Google+ and Twitter accounts, so I set those up.
It’s been working okay.
Twitter
I’ve been paying a bit more attention to Twitter and I decided that I needed to look into how to attach photos to my tweets.
My posts always have some sort of image – it might be a LOTD pic or just an image I think is relevant to my post topic.
And since everything you read says people pay more attention when an image is included, I wanted to include them in my tweets.
Easy enough, since I see pics all over my Twitter feed and Twitter gives you the option to add a pic when tweeting.
I couldn’t find anything under the sharing options that would enable me to tell WP to add a pic to my tweets.
So, I did a bit of digging online.
In order to include pics in your automatic tweets, you have to have ‘Twitter Cards’ enabled.
What?
More research – what is a Twitter Card and how do I get/enable one?
Twitter Cards enable you to include photos in your tweets.
There are seven different types of Twitter Cards.
For my purposes, the only ones I needed to be concerned with were the Summary Card and the Summary Card with Large Image.
The Summary Card basically adds your pic to your tweets.
Great!
So then you have to go to the card validator, enter a post URL (as far as I can tell, it doesn’t matter which one), and wait for it to ‘validate’ your blog.
Then, you’re all set!
Their example page shows what your tweet should look like with the card.
It Worked – Almost
After validating my Twitter Card, I waited to see what would happen when my tweets posted (tweeted?).
My tweets didn’t look any different.
Instead of looking like the example card, it looked like this:
Where’s the image?
This is what my automatic tweets all looked like before I set up the Twitter Cards.
What gives?
Did I do something wrong?
Nope.
If you clicked on the tweet to see the details, it actually looked like this:
Great!
There’s my picture, along with an excerpt from the post.
Just click on the link, go straight to my blog, and read.
Easy peasy, right?
Except that hardly anyone clicks on a tweet to see the details.
What they see on their Twitter feed is the first image.
Which defeats the purpose of having the Twitter Card so that it includes the image in the tweet.
More research – how can I make the auto tweet look like this, instead of as it does above?
The short answer is – you can’t.
Not using the automatic sharing built-in to WordPress, anyway.
TweetDeck
I thought the answer would be that I needed to change my Twitter Card type from Summary Card to Summary Card with Large Image.
That way, my tweet would show a large image on the tweet, rather than just a small square as above.
However, I can’t.
For whatever reason (which involves computer know-how that is above my pay grade), the WordPress automatic sharing only uses the Summary Card.
It also does not use the expanded version, so the whole process of setting up the Twitter Cards ended up being kind of pointless for me.
What someone else recommended (unless/until the WP automatic sharing changes), is using a third-party app like Buffer.
I already had TweetDeck, so I decided to try that.
TweetDeck lets you use your Twitter account to sign in, and you can schedule your tweets.
I know there are other options, like HootSuite, but I used TweetDeck since I already had it.
I scheduled my post to tweet again several hours later.
When I checked my feed – voilá!
This is what I saw:
Woot!
That’s what I wanted it to look like.
My post title, a large pic from my post, and a link to my post.
(I was going to share the pic of my other scheduled tweet, but I was so focused on including the pic that I forgot to include my blog link – doh!)
For now, I will be using TweetDeck to schedule my tweets. 🙂
I am going to let WP continue the automatic sharing, because the Twitter Cards offer you the ability to look at some analytics.
After a few weeks, I’ll check the analytics and see if there is a difference in stats between the automatic tweets and the ones I schedule with TweetDeck.
Other Platforms
I chose to delve into Twitter first, because it seemed like the simplest platform.
That said, it still took a bit of digging to find what I needed to know.
I plan to do the same thing with the other platforms I’m using, but it may take a while, if this exercise was any indication. 😛
I spent most of the last three days taking a Photoshop class, and I learned enough to make my head spin.
I took a ton of notes and saved a bunch of examples of techniques that I hope to incorporate into my Photoshop repertoire.
But WOW was it a lot of information!
I’ve been experimenting with masks and filters on my own; however, the class gave me much better (and faster) tools for working in Photoshop.
I can’t wait to try out some of the cool things I learned.
Shifting Focus
I’ve been spending more and more time with photography and learning everything I can.
I started out with the LOTD posts for fun (and to clean up my crazy inventory!), but it’s become something I really love doing.
I get stuck sometimes, though, because there is a fine line between showing an outfit to you ‘as is’ so you know what it looks like, versus some of the heavy ‘post-processing’ I want to do on some of the photos.
So, I’ve decided to kind of shift some of my focus to photography.
I want to spend some more time taking ‘travel’ photos in SL.
I spend way too much time alone on my platform – it’ll be good for me to get out and about and explore and work on my photography skills at the same time. 😀
I will still be doing the LOTD posts – I do enjoy them, and I’m getting a kick out of coming up with little stories to tell with them.
Always Learning
As I said before, I am always learning.
Yesterday Becky published a post on SEO and blogging.
I’ve used both WordPress.org and WordPress.com, and I’m familiar with many of the concepts she mentions.
However, I have been kind of lax about paying attention to that sort of thing with my blog, so it was a good reminder.
I knew I could change the slugs on my posts, but I wasn’t really paying much attention to them before.
I will be making some small changes here and there to see if I can increase my traffic.
(I don’t want to say what changes I’ll be making, since I read an article the other day that said if you share your goals/intentions with others, you’re less likely to accomplish them.)
It’s another area where there is a lot of information to digest, so I’ll be referring back to the article, I’m sure.
Social Media
Along with the changes here on the blog, I am trying to educate myself further about social media.
I often am reluctant to share what little I know (mostly because I assume everyone knows it), but after doing some research, many of my questions have yet to yield any easy answers.
When using social media, I am usually left with the feeling that I don’t know enough about the platform to make good use of it.
I decided to do some research on the various platforms I use to see what I could learn.
I started with Twitter, since that seemed like the simplest platform.
As I learn and I discover, I hope to share with you any helpful tips and tricks I come across.
If you have any, feel free to send them my way! 😛
I think ‘networking’ is one of those topics that everyone would like to know more about.
Finding Inspiration
Over the last month or so, I was debating whether I wanted (or needed) to take a hiatus from SL and blogging to recharge my batteries.
I found myself struggling with writer’s block and despairing over finding my ‘muse’ again.
And then – serendipity. 🙂
Ailsa announced her weekly ‘theme’ exhibitions, I took a few classes, read a few blog posts, and now I am feeling energized and inspired.
It could also just be that school is out next week and my children’s joy is infectious. 😛
Either way, I’m looking forward to learning and creating.
I found this an interesting post, especially since a friend and I were just discussing this weekend how effective Twitter actually is at growing blog traffic.
A Kat and A Mouse 