About a month ago, I wrote a post about how to be a blog promoter. I said at the time that my methodology was to post a link to my blog once in Twitter, *maybe* twice, and then that would be it.
I’m going to write three words now that you don’t see very often in the Social Media world.
I was wrong.
I’m prepared to eat some crow, too.
What I’ve learned in the last month
I often say that time in Social Media moves quickly and slowly at the same time. We can communicate instantly, so we can get a lot of thoughts out there, but we’re also building a knowledge base and relationships, which can take time. I’m not sure if a month in this world is a long time or a short time, but I’ve learned quite a lot since I wrote that post. Namely:
• In Social Media, you have to be proactive. You can’t depend upon people to spread your tweets around or to build up your blog following. If you want people to read your stuff, you have to ask them. Nicely.
• Silence does not get rewarded. A month ago, I was noting that I didn’t promote my blog posts a lot because I’m not after blog traffic or a certain number of comments. That’s still true. However, there are reasons to send your work out there that extend beyond Klout or your “social influence number.” I am proud of some of the posts I write (I try to only hit publish when the post meets my own standards) and I think that what I am sharing could be of use to people whom I wish to help (at least that’s my hope). These reasons are enough to motivate me to spread the word a bit more about what I have going on here.
• People are around at different times. Around the time that I wrote the post, I had debated with Dan Perez (@danperezfilms) during a blogchat about the promotion issue. He said he tries to post links to his blog as often as possible. When Dawn Westerberg commented on the post, she noted that she also will tweet a post more than once. As I’ve gotten even a bit more familiar with Twitter (the learning never stops) I’ve come to realize that it’s really true – you start to see what times are good for posting links and what times are dead as door nails. And guess what? It varies day by day. There is no set, fast rule.
A symptom of not owning it
I am a pretty darned humble person when it comes right down to it. Maybe it’s my Midwestern sensibility. I feel awkward when someone’s opening a nice present I’ve given them. I don’t like to make a big deal out of good things that I’ve done or that happen to me. If you are like that, let me tell you that while you don’t need to be an egomaniacal jerk in Social Media, you have to come to a half-way point where you can at least invite people to judge your work for themselves.
I was not doing this.
I was meekly going over to Twitter and saying, “Um, if you happen to be around *right now* it would be kind of okay if you went and read my, well, I wrote something, and *shuffle shuffle*, er…uh..”
This was symptomatic of me not owning my mission. This was symptomatic of me thinking that maybe what I was saying was really just…not that important in the end.
You have to at least believe that your work – on your blog, in your business, in your Twitter stream – is worth talking about. Not bragging about. But talking about.
An even balance
That being said, there are still a lot of things I said a month ago that I stand by. I don’t schedule tweets that blast out 3-4 blog posts throughout the day. I want to converse with people and engage. Blasting out a broadcast isn’t the way to get there. I don’t tweet out my post every 7 seconds. Depending on when I write a post, I’ll probably not tweet it more than 4 times before I write my new post. That’s still not a lot. There are still a lot of people who won’t see it. But I’m careful about when I time things and I have certain goals to shoot for now in terms of blog performance (rather than feeling inexplicably happy or frustrated with each post I write).
I’m also trying to do a better job of promoting people who take the time to comment on my posts. I’m inviting people not just to talk with me, but also to talk with the people who are in the conversation. Talking to 1 person can get boring. Talking to lots of new people about lots of different topics seems a little better.
Don’t be shy
If you are investing time and effort into blogging and working and tweeting, make sure people see it. Own it. Show that you believe in what you are doing. If people smell that you are hesitant about promoting your own work, what will drive them to help you build your community? Nobody wants to help build a village in the bog of eternal stench, right? You can promote yourself without being a jerk about it. You can drive traffic to a blog post without being a braggart. It is not a black and white choice. It is not a this or that scenario. That was the mistake I made a month ago.
Does this help you?
Where do you stand on promoting your work? Do you find it hard, as I was finding it hard a month ago, to get out there and talk about what you are doing? Talk to me in the comments about how we can help you find your blog promotion balance.
Promoting your blog through social media most definitely requires balance. I’ve seen far too many people who endlessly self-promote, but never hold normal conversations with people. On the other hand, there are those who feel they must share every little detail about themselves.
I’m still relatively new to social media, but I have found the most success with my blog promotion efforts by sharing not only my work, but also the work of others I find truly valuable. The golden rule still very much applies online as well as off.
Exactly. A lot of my approach is based around something I learned from Chris Brogan pretty early on – the 12:1 ratio. The more I’m promoting my work, the more I’m going to promote other people, whether it’s supporting a project of theirs or tweeting out their post.
You can definitely overdo it on the “I’m not promoting” side as well. Good point there!
+1 on what Terez says.
Just like anything else, there’s a fine balance that must be met (just like you said Margie).
James Bond never had to tell people twice who he was, but if he blogged, he’d have to promote a tweet 3 or 4 times. The key is to do so, and everyone still wanting to buy him that Martini. Gotta have suave, rapport and a be willing to be heard.
Great post, as usual, Margie.
Thanks, friend!
I like the thought of James Bond blogging. Someone should mock that up 🙂
Yes this helps!
What I notice is that in sharing my last couple posts, they gained more purpose in my own mind.
But for reading your point of view, I would have missed that.
Margie,
Great stuff, including the sense of learning. I suspect contrasting reasonable promotion to inform and reach audiences in different time zones and geographies and undesireable promotion leaving a bad taste in people’s mouths is like art and obscenity. Hard to define, but moderately obvious to the viewer. The good news is (with those “Midwestern sensibilities”), I suspect the people I like will weigh the options and STILL never approach crossing the line.
Cheers, Ken
http://www.PerformanceTalks.com
Well thanks, Ken. I would agree – people who are worried about being offensive are probably the ones who would most easily avoid it. And of course the people who aren’t worried about it – they probably aren’t reading this post. Oh well.
Thanks for stopping over and sharing your thoughts!
In addition to the knowledge and experience, I simply like the attitude behind the post. As much as I like to learn, I also value what other people learn, too. Call it “an indirect education.”
My hesitation has been (up until I threw myself into the #usguys stream) that I didn’t want to push too hard or too often to my “original” group of followers on what I wanted to share. I took the meek approach. Now, I’m finding so much stuff that I want to share… with an ever-growing number of people… that I just share with abandon. Almost in a “to hell with the consequences” sort of disposition. Hopefully, my “original” list of followers are okay with my constant Twitter-badger. If not – well, they’re still considered friends – post-Twitter.
It was insightful to read what you found out from researching what it takes to promote your work, Margie. This is a great post; thanks for sharing.
Thank you very much!!
I thought it would be nice for people to know that sometimes, even if you blog about something you’re really sure about, you might learn something new that changes your mind. And that’s okay. So, people were telling me some truthful things a month ago that I hadn’t figured out for myself yet, and now I see exactly where they were coming from.
Hopefully I have saved other folks from that journey 🙂
Great to meet you. Thanks again!
Hi Margie,
Back when I read your initial post, and then presented the minority opinion, I clicked out and was toying with the idea of a blog post called “I didn’t come here to be obnoxious, but I didn’t come here to be ignored either” and then never wrote it. But I think you’ve struck on what the core of the unwritten blog post would have suggested.
I think we all write to provide some sort of help, to give some sort of insight, to provide some sort of education or entertainment, to encourage others to learn from our mistakes or successes.
The fact that a blog post was created a week ago, a month ago, six months ago – really doesn’t matter to the reader who is seeing it for the first time – and hopefully gaining something from it.
Have I lost followers because I have re-tweeted a link back to my blog – certainly. But, when you look at the new followers who could be helped by the content who entered the time line later – why shouldn’t they be alerted to the fact that it’s there?
Your posts are very helpful and valuable, and, IMO, don’t have an expiration date. They deserve to be promoted. They are no less true today, than on the original post date. 🙂
Thanks, Dawn!
Yeah, I wanted to let you and Dan know in particular that I had come around. I think I still don’t tweet out my posts as often as Dan was saying he does, and I still don’t tend to go back and tweet to older posts – of course, I’ve undergone a fair amount of mission changes here at this blog, so now that I have something “sticky” it might be easier to bring up older posts. Persona crises are so darned inconvenient 🙂
Anyway, thank you for your patience and for that advice you offered a month ago. Sometimes I’m just a month behind 🙂
Hi Margie,
Thank you for an excellent post that addresses the “to promote or not to promote” issue. This challenge is very familiar to me. I’ve spent years testing it. While it varies from person to person, my conclusion is to push the limits as long as you’re providing good value with your offerings.
My Twitter presence is a combination of live and scheduled. Most of my content sharing is scheduled, but I’m rarely MIA. I have my notifications turned on, so I receive a test message when some one responds. If possible, I pop in to answer. If I’m in a meeting, on the phone, or with someone in person, I wait until I’m done to respond.
Sometimes, I’m criticized for this, but it doesn’t bother me because I give much and rarely take, I’m up front about what I do and how, and figure that if it upsets someone they can always unfollow me. (I love the ones who don’t!)
Debra (@wilsonellis)
I think that’s where I’m ending up as well (I told you you’re my mentor!). I haven’t started scheduling things yet – I still like the touch and feel of posting and seeing if it lights a fire right away. I like being there right away to see who a post touches. I find it all very fun and interesting.
I also agree that the goal is to give a lot more than you take. What people forget is that every time you tweet out a post, you are making an ask. You’re asking people to click and read, and probably, you’re asking them to comment, or share, or subscribe. We do a lot of asking without realizing it. That’s been part of my hesitation as well – it’s such a gift when someone responds to a blog post, knowing how busy everyone is. But I feel that as long as I let the people in my community know that I appreciate their efforts, and if it’s helping people, then hey, everybody wins, right? 🙂
Right!
Love it.
There is, I agree, a distinct difference between being a promoter (in the bad way) and sharing out your work (and that of others) in a positive, proactive way.
Well articulated, M!
Margie,
Excellent post and some great advice. I’ve had a ton of trouble getting my numbers back up to where they were before I moved my blog to a self hosted account. Back about 6 months ago, I tried what you talked about – posting multiple tweets about my posts. Guess what, it worked and after your astute reminder, perhaps it is time to start up the Twitter engine again.
You rock!
Jason
well, your thanks should go to Dawn and Dan. If I had listened to them a month ago, we both might have been on track sooner 🙂
Margie,
Sorry for the late reply – obviously, I’m in full agreement. As much as many people want to imply otherwise, there are no rules when it comes to social media. I’m not a daily or weekly blogger nor do I have 10,000 or more subscribers (one day, perhaps?) – I write when I feel compelled to share an opinion, view, or story – usually monthly and it takes me sometimes two weeks or more from the time I begin to write it to the time I feel comfortable enough to publish it. So when I do publish a post, I want it to be seen by as many people as possible. I tweet links to my blog posts often (for a week at a time) and sometimes I’ll get a reply from someone who I regularly chat with more than a week later(!). Tweets don’t have a very long shelf life so you’re only cheating yourself (and your work) when you put it out there 2-4 times only.
Now, I also RT a lot of other people’s posts as well (usually up to 4 times in a 24 hour period) and I “engage” a fair amount as well on twitter. This should give people a pretty good idea about who I am and what I’m all about. So if you maintain a good balance on social media, you won’t annoy too many people with repeatedly tweeting your blog posts…and you’ll get more people to RT your post as you do theirs. And at the end of the day, why are we here? To make friends? Perhaps. To chat? Some. But whether people admit to it or not, we’re here primarily to drive traffic to our sites…period. That’s what @problogger, @ChrisBrogan, @BrianSolis and all the other “elite” bloggers are here for – traffic. It’s OK. If we make a few friends along the way (as I have) it’s all gravy.
Hug.
Thanks, Dan. Glad I came around…better late than never is my motto 🙂