Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness nudges us to explore our chosen social media tools for our next improvement quest.
"Week 6 for the Blog Improvement Project is going to be pretty simple: trying out a new social media tool.
1. Pick out a new social media tool, or reacquaint yourself with a social media tool you already use. If you’re new, sign up and create an account.
(Check! I joined Twitter.)
Make sure to include your blog URL in your new profile so you can connect across social media platforms.
(Thanks to Cathy at Kittling: Books for mentioning Twitterfeed. That gave me instructions to link my blog to my Twitter page.)
2. Update your blog to include your new social media contact information.
(Check! I've got my tweets in my sidebar with a link taking you to my Twitter page.)
3. Spend the next three weeks actively using your new social media. For example, set a goal of tweets per day or how many comments you’ll leave on GoodReads reviews to make sure you give it a good shot.
(Check! I've just learned how to use the @ feature, which allows me to respond directly to a tweet from someone I follow or one of my followers.)
4. Don’t be afraid to connect with other people. Find authors, publishers, famous people, or bloggers that are 'bigger' than you and connect with them via social media. Don’t be intimidated, just try it!
(Check! At the moment I'm following 50 people, and 26 people are following me. High profile people I'm following on Twitter:
Gerard Butler - he's got 7599 followers
Stephen Colbert - 114,159 followers
Jon Stewart - 6931 followers
Kevin Smith - 115,411 followers
Seth MacFarlane - 13,167 followers
Seth Rogen - 10,386 followers
Ellen DeGeneres - 12,041 followers
Quentin Tarantino - 364 followers)
5. At the end of your three weeks using more social media, write up a post about how it worked for you. I’ll do another Social Media Carnival post at the end of March wrapping up what everyone learned." - Kim
So far, so good. I'm enjoying Twitter far more than I thought I would. It will be interesting to see if I notice any more traffic here at A Piece of My Mind in a couple of months.
Friday, March 20, 2009
2009 Blog Improvement Project - 6 - Taking My New Social Media For a Test Drive
Posted by Julia Phillips Smith at 9:25 PM
Labels: 2009 Blog Improvement Project, Followers, Sophisticated Dorkiness, Twitter
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15 comments:
Apart from not quite getting it, I am very, very afraid of Twitter. It looks like the ultimate black hole, timewise. And I thought 'regular' internet was bad!
I've been twittering for almost a year, although at first there was about 9 months between my first tweet and my second. LOL. Now I try to tweet at least a couple of times a week, but when I get more time on my hands, I will use it more. But my tweets are already on my blog. I will search for some more people to follow now and also include my blog-address in my profile. I will also do more in Good Reads instead of just using them as a list-facility. Inspiring post, thanks, Julia.
Do you suppose high profile people are the ones who actually respond to these? Or do you imagine they have staff?
M - I resisted Twitter for quite awhile. I seriously thought it was only good for cell phone and Blackberry users. But I just go on it from the web and so far I'm having a ball with it. I've joined as part of the Social Media Carnival which is part of the Blog Improvement Project. Trying to increase my blog traffic.
Louise - I've been tweeting a few times a day. It's very immediate and it helped me get through to a writer I'm interviewing for my Thursday Thirteen this week (someone I already know, not a stranger.)
Travis - the high profilers seem to be the Real McCoy. Seth MacFarlane, for instance, has bursts of activity and it reads the way he speaks and writes. There are types of high profilers who are on Twitter and a ton who are not. And it figures when you see who is on. They seem to be the types to love tweeting.
Ive been on Twitter for a week or so and it's starting to bore me. Look at my FB wall to see a video that pretty much sums Twitter peeps up!
Those people you are following may not really be the people you think they are, though. There have just been a few articles written disproving a number of alleged celebs on there.
Hey! Just wanted to let you know there's an award waiting for you on my blog
Isabella - LOL on your Twitter boredom! I resisted it forever until doing this project. I'm having fun with it, though. The celeb Twitterers are easy to spot as opposed to the ones which are like official sites. When it's very likely the person, they interact with other Twitterers, sending back @replies to people. When its a promotional tool, there's still funny stuff on there and you get news updates, so I get what I need from those, too.
VaBookworm - what's going on?!? ...but don't stop...
How funny!!! Before starting From Inmates To Playdates, I blogged on MySpace and I called that blog "A piece of my mind!" It's nice to meet you. I'll be back on Tuesday when you get your party started. Oh, and I'm following you on Twitter now too!!! I'm "INMATES"
Julie - that's hilarious! I guess Julies and Julias have a lot on their minds that they're willing to share... LOL!
I have mixed feelings about twitter - if you get to the point where you are following soooo many people and sooo many people are following you - it's hard to keep up - and I wonder who actually keeps up with you - I scroll down the tweets on my page when I happen to log on - but I don't go through all of the tweets - i guess it's great if you're already a known entity - like a celebrity and people want to follow the minutiae of your life - or you can make a statement and then Access Hollywood will post it on their show - if you're a celebrity. I think facebook is better at building that feeling of community - and blogs of course. Maybe I just haven't really embraced Twitter - I do connect it with my FB status - so that's something. ;)
Haha sorry! I only read a few blogs regularly... I follow quite a few but in terms of regularly reading there's only about 5 or 6. So when it comes to blog awards, I tend to choose those who I really like and read the most often, of which yours is included :o)
I love twitter - I've found it to be really nice for chatting with friends I've met through blogging. Hope you enjoy it, too.
Oh, yay! I love twitter so much! I think everyone should twitter. :-D I'm following you now!
I love being on Plurk.com I find it a better way to have conversations and interact. Seth Godin says it's the interaction that increases awareness and marketability.
Eh... frankly I just like people and like to interact with them! :)
Happy Sunday dear Julia
thanks for the link to the blog improvement project. i'll definitely be checking it out.
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