I’ve been trying guys… I know it’s hard to tell but I really have. This blog is so much fun and I want to give it my all. To make it all it can possibly be. But this social media thing, it’s just not my jam (yet?).
These days, it seems like a strong social media presence is pretty much mandatory for anything that requires any amount of public interaction, even a free hobby blog. It’s become an expected part of everyday life. Traditional (ha) wisdom dictates that a fun and active twitter, instagram, Facebook… account, will naturally translate into views. But how?
I’ve never been a big user of social media. The celebrities whose thoughts I’m interested in don’t tend to use public platforms that much and the people I want to hear from know how to reach me. At least that was my stance before the blog. I’ve made a lot of great friends this past year who only exist as a virtual presence for me. It doesn’t happen often but once in a while I’ll stop what I’m doing just to tell one of you about it on twitter. What does often happen, is that I wish I was connected to a specific reader because that thing we were talking about in the comments just happened, or because they would love this pic.
This isn’t how social media is supposed to work mind you. It’s about numbers, you’re meant to be acquiring the largest *following* possible. Not to be chatting with specific people one on one like old friends. That’s not going to get you anywhere.
Besides, if we are using these platforms as publicity for our blogs, then our readers are supposed to start there first, not the other way around. Once again, I fail at simple concepts. In my defense, this is the deceptively simple sort of concept. The sort that’s really not that simple at all.
Social media (and this time I include the blog itself in the term) has a certain inertia. It’s also self feeding. An account with a huge following will grow regardless of content and that growth will help any connected accounts, to a certain extent. We’ve seen the model work before. Of course good content will encourage that growth and make the whole thing sustainable. However, it does get easier once you get bigger.
This is all theoretical. As far as I’m concerned, I can’t tell if I’ve gained a single reader through twitter. I know I’ve personally only discovered one blog that way but I am trying to be more active.
This said, if we assume that social media is an effective platform to advertise your blog, what is an effective social media presence anyway? If all you do is share your posts, it gets a little boring. Nowadays, you’re expected to share little bits of yourself, all raw and unvarnished. But see, that’s a touch unfair for someone like me.
Because I’m kinda boring. I’m just an average anime loving nerd. I don’t have any real drama going on. In fact I try to avoid it whenever possible. I don’t get outraged at the world and am not likely to go on spontaneous rants. I think I can hold up my end of a conversation but as far as self introductions go, I’m as bland as they come. And my sense of humor is extremely random. Guys, I’m a nightmare in twitter form. Follow me, teehee..
Besides you don’t want to get *too* personal on twitter. Recently(ish) Rose published a wonderful post that sums up a lot of the less enjoyable aspects of Twitter. I suspect we’ve all had similar experiences. Thankfully, I’ve not spent enough time on there to go through the worst of it yet, but I’ve already instaunfollowed some folks after getting unpleasant things spontaneously thrown at me in my timeline. And so so many clumsy out of the blue cybersex DMS. I’m flattered and all but also a little scared…
Aside from the time it takes, it’s those annoyances that make me wonder whether an investment in social media is worth it. Sure we want more readers. However, going through that without even knowing if it will yield anything at all is quite the hassle. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that seeing something a little gross on the internet is some type of hardship. However, if it’s avoidable…
On the other hand, Having a more immediate and direct contact with my readers (some of them at least) is something I want. So far I’ve avoided asking you guys questions about what you would like to see on this blog or projects we could do, on twitter, since only a few of you would get the chance to see it. I think will start trying that more though.
As with all things it’s about balance. Tweet too much and information gets buried in the deluge (brave new world), too little and people forget you exist. Make your tweets too fun and your account overshadows your blog. Too boring, it brings it down. You only get out of it a fraction of what you put in. It’s up to you to figure out if it’s worth the trouble.
Posting to social media a few times a day seems to be the way to go. There are several apps out there that will allow you to stack and schedule tweets or insta pics so you don’t have to be a slave to your phone. You can also find all sorts of media guides online that will suggest advertising strategies and give you tips for the most effective use of your time.
A lot of bloggers are much better than me at it. I won’t put them on the spot but I bet you know who they are.
For my part, I’m simply going to try to tweet more when I think something will amuse you guys but I think I will still mostly use it for personal connections. So if you ever feel like dming me (my autocorrect tried to change that for doing me…) Feel free. I’m bad at cybersex but we can chat about anime!
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I’ve spent too much time since 2012 on various twitter accounts, so making one for my blog felt natural i guess. Seriously i’ve used twitter so much that i cant imagine not having an account anymore. The other social media i use a lot for my blog is pinterest. I havent had any experience with it before the blog, but i actually quite enjoy the concept of it and its fun to spend time on it daily. Plus it can really bring a lot of views. Most recently i started to use reddit, and the few times i left my link there it resulted in new connections and clicks. Plus its also fun to use so.
Reddit is probably the one that brings in the most spikes in views (in my opinion) but I’m not sure how much engagement I got out of it. My posts are a bit longuish…
I’m so happy I stumbled across this blog! I love anime! Yes, social media is a valuable tool to reach more readers and gain followers! It’s a bit of a skill to use, but once you get the hang of it, it’s not too bad!
I’m still learning myself but I think I’m starting to get the hang of it
Sadly, I think you’re right. Pretty much the only social media I have is LinkedIn apart from the blog itself, so apart from wordpress and whatsapp, I don’t generate many views at all. 😦 I should probably check reddit out…
I only started a Twitter because some fellow bloggers (they know who they are) pushed me to do it. And now I have more Twitter followers than blog followers, so I definitely messed up somewhere down the line. Now I primarily use it to keep up with their posts and browse all the pretty artwork that comes my way.
Anyway, feel free to hit me up if you just wanna chat about the animoo!
Sweet!!!!
I don’t really put much emphasis on how I use my Twitter. One thing is for certain, I ain’t letting anyone else, buy me touch it. Last thing I want is an app to take over identity, and pretending to be me!
Before I decided to get back into blogging, I had to delete dozen of Tweets not related to anything I was planning to blog about. Other than posting what I’m watching, it’s how most people contact me if I’m not on Discord. It’s also keeps me in tact with friends, and random people regularly. So I use to keep it in touch more than I do promoting my stuff.
Sometimes at random a random tweet at me gets me some traffic to my blog. It’s never the intention, but always nice when it happens. One thing it does come in handy for though, is privately discussing things on DMs on Twitter over potential opportunities like appearing on a Podcast on a friend YouTube channel, or someone wanting me to work for a website. Although if I had a Facebook, I would have had beef with this one movie director I pissed off once because I gave his movie a negative review. The internet is a wild place.
Discord is fine too. You just don’t discover as much that way
I like to blog. It is thinking on screen and I enjoy thought. It organizes thoughts out of that vast swirling chaos that is my brain.
Tweets and FB and Instagram are OK for family and friends. Can’t say anything significant because the format is too short. The world is full of TLDR. I believe that is a large part of why we are falling apart. Intellectual laziness has set in. Wasn’t that long ago when 30 seconds was considered a sound bite. Today 30 seconds is a virtual dissertation. Today you’re lucky to get 5 whole seconds to make a statement.
The social media are also creating an unprecedented echo chamber. You can build up entire cyber-worlds of people who agree with you and soon you forget that most of the world does not agree with you. hate to grey-beard, but when I was as young as you, there were 4 networks. All of them had to steer their reportage to the middle because if they got too extreme they’d lose ratings. They had to keep it accurate because they were considered the communicators of truth. Today news get on the air without even thinking about multi-sourcing or vetting documents. And Dan Rather resigns in disgrace.
Not only does everyone now have a megaphone but everyone also has the ability to screen out voices that make them uncomfortable. Anti-XYZ people never have to deal with pro-XYZ people. You simply get blocked or unfriended for not being anti-XYZ and the anti-XYZ crowd stays comfortable, listening to their own opinions echoed back at them.
Because of the anonymity of social media, people get to say things they would never dare say in IRL. They get to start flame wars. They get to manufacture fake news. They get to be insulting, abrasive, sexually aggressive, even threatening. This is because there is no payback. Your account got canned? Just start a new one and start anew with fresh trolling.
I have some forums I follow. Pretty much the same subjects I follow WordPress blogs for. They are pretty tame, things like anime and snakes and spiders and photography and wilderness survival and naturism. They are good for exchanging experiences and photos among people of similar interests. I also follow blogs of people I find to be simply interesting people.
I guess I am just not interested enough in the “short form” social media to spend a lot of time there. I prefer “long-form” social media like blogging.
I can see where you’re coming from. I do believe you can state a thesis in a tweet but you won’t be able to explain it or defend it
Anitwitter’s kinda vicious, so if I were to enter the fray for anything aside from Boueibu Happy Kiss livestreams (which I normally do there, because Twitter’s more efficient for it), I don’t know if I’d be shredded to bits…I’ve also realised I’m too verbose for Twitter and often need two or three tweets per message, which is why I don’t do more there.
Come to think of it, the Library Archivist’s words remind me there was this one opinion piece I had to read a few years back about how social media makes one want to capture the moment for bragging rights rather than live in the moment. It kind of fascinated me because I’d never thought of that viewpoint before (but also scared me because I’m been the person people go to when it comes to most social media stuff), but now I’m seeing that more in people around me and even telling people off for being shallow like that…so it’s a cycle of hypocrisy in a way…
One of the issues I have with social media opinion pieces is that they are often not written by long term social media users. This said I don’t have enough first hand experience to tell but I do remember a very old essay saying similar things about photography when the Polaroid became widely accessible. (I wasn’t alive, i just read random stuff)…
Social Media? What’s that?
Can you eat that?
I think so. Ive been trying
I’m not on any social media, and I don’t have a blog. I’ve always been a forum-guy, but even then I’ve very rarely started threads. In a sense, my forum behaviour is a lot as if I was the spider in the Web. I’m waiting for interesting stuff to happen and then I react (rarely as predatorily as a spider would, though).
(Because James Sponsellor addressed it: Joining a forum to promote a blog only works if you’re actually interested in the forum and participate regardless of your traffic gain. If you’re going to make a thread and hope for discussion, it’s usually not a good idea to just post a link. Basically, summarise what you’re interested in talking about, and then give the link as an afterthought, or tell them up front that you’ve written a post, but still summarise the post and quote important sections. That usually goes not only for your own posts, but also if you link to others. Generally, don’t expect people to click through; that’s bad form on just about any forum I’ve been. Not that I think you’d have that sort of problem, but I’ve seen a lot of people not know this and crash and burn that way, so I thought I’d point this out for people who may be interested. [A lot of forums I’ve been too have a promotion sub-forum, or an elsewhere-they-say-this subforum, just to keep thread-opening posts that contain mainly a link out of the usual discussion forums.]
Also: fun selection of screenshots this time round:
? (I’m sure the penguine strap is a hint, but I don’t recognise it) – Space Dandy – Wakaba Girl – Nodame Cantabile (I have to watch seasons 2 and 3 some time!) – Seiren (only about 70 % sure) – Fanart (Three Free Monkeys?) – Wolfchildren – Noragami
I don’t think you’re boring at all. You are one of the loveliest of people, Irina. This post is an excellent representation of that. ♥
I originally started to get into social media, and I’m going to be blunt, because I wanted numbers when I first began blogging. I wanted to rise in the ranks so that I could one day land a job in publishing somewhere. Social media had been on the rise a few years ago and it seemed like the most logical way of complementing my personal experiences–to have a large numerical following, or “influence.” But every since I became a full-time blogger–about a year and a half ago–I have came to the understanding that having large numbers doesn’t mean shit if you don’t have people who follow you because they respect what you do; if they don’t have a genuine interest in the contributions that you make as an individual. Instead of looking at numbers, which I openly admit is difficult to ignore sometimes, I look at the individual *people* that I interact with now. I get SO much more pleasure and joy from being a blogger because it has introduced me to so many talented creators out there. I wouldn’t care if my numbers stay stagnant so long as I can have a conversation about things that I love (books, anime, cats, Sephiroth) with other folks.
I like having Twitter because it also allows me to engage in some controversial discourse, which allows me to help other people understand marginalised voices from a better perspective, or helps me open my mind to perspectives I never would have otherwise been able to picture or empathise with. I have a personal IG for family and friends and a bookish one where I can hone my photography skills. Again, it was originally started because I wanted to be a bookstagrammer, but now I just wanna learn to take professional photos because it is a genuine hobby of mine. I don’t care about the fame or stuff. Tumblr and Litsy are my personal spaces where I can just go to escape the world and far less about networking at all. It’s my personal corner that I just visit when I need to check-out from life.
While I do understand this obsessions for social media, as I’ve gone through it myself, I also know that as a content creator there is no real joy like the ones you get from chatting about something you love with other people, even if they don’t necessarily share your same viewpoints. I’ve met people like you, Scott, Michel, Rose, Arthifis, Mindy, and a bunch others with whom I connect with via conversation and that is far more fulfilling than numbers on a social platform could ever be.
Sorry I totally fucking prattled.
You are such a fr**kin hero. Seriously, your empathy just shines through the screen. Anyone not following you is missing out big time.
Thank you, Irina. Thank you so much. ♥♥
“I have came to the understanding that having large numbers doesn’t mean shit if you don’t have people who follow you because they respect what you do… Instead of looking at numbers, which I openly admit is difficult to ignore sometimes, I look at the individual *people* that I interact with now.”
I think that’s as close to an absolute truth as I’m likely to see.
It’s not the quantity. It’s the quality. 10 interested and supportive followers on Twitter are worth 10 times what 10,000 random followers are worth.
And really, I think the core of it all should be your blog. Social platforms come and go; and each has its own agenda. But your blog is yours, and if it’s the center of your on-line presence, then you’re in control of the conversation.
That’s my take, anyway. FWIW!
Indeed, I agree with it all! ♥
There you go. That’s a fantastic takeaway. And it’s thanks to a wonderful reader!
Thank you for sharing my post on Twitter issues! I appreciate it. 🙂
I really agree with what you said about balance. That is very true – it is a little boring if all one does is post their blog post without any sort of interaction or personal tweets. I only started to share my blog posts on Twitter recently – before it was only for social purposes. Now I see the benefit of sharing posts on Twitter and I think I’m doing it right!
Oh you definetly are. You have such a great mix of fun personal tweets and posts.
Why thank you! 😄
Wow, I’m surprised so many people hate social media. I started using Twitter to promote my blog, but ended up staying there mostly to keep up to date with blogger friends. Cuz let’s face it, it’s not like my non-blogger Twitter followers really read my stuff. I only make a Tweet every few days myself, but scrolling through my feed and dropping comments and gifs is an enjoyable activity.
“I started using Twitter to promote my blog, but ended up staying there mostly to keep up to date with blogger friends.”
This… To me Twitter is kinda like a bar where all the newspaper writers hang out. It’s a more personal space and a place for conversations difficult to have on or inappropriate for my blog.
That sounds like fun
I occasionally get some pretty random..less fun stuff on my feed but for the most part it can be fun. There’s just a lot of it.
…like lewd art? And bigoted tweets. Hmm…I guess it’s there, but I’ve gotten used to ignoring it. Just as long as I remember not to check Twitter in class!
Images of torture both people and animals and treats against gender. That type of stuff. Like I said not devistating but it’s not a big plus to my day.
I am not good with social media. And I never have been good with it either. I have Facebook, only to stay in touch with some people I would otherwise never talk too anymore. I also have Instagram, but I seriously have no idea how to even use that most of the time. And then of course there is twitter. Well I don’t think I have to explain to you of how bad I am at Twitter. (I was totally scared to be the host of the Jon Creator Showcase this month…because I hardly know any of the features of Twitter 😅😅). I don’t think I will ever be good at it though. So…Guess I will stick to blogging and placing comments. Which of course is also a kind of social media: well…at least it’s social 😊😊 Great post! 😊😊
I actually used twitter to stay randomly in touch with this one guy a few months ago. I was really grateful to have it then!
Aww, yes….and this one guy was very grateful for that, that’s for sure 😊😊 Things like that this one guy doesn’t easily forget 😊
I’ve been intimidated by the idea of starting a Twitter account for my blog I only use social media to chat with friends, and I’m not good at rapid-fire conversations – I prefer to take my time over posts. Multiple 140-character snippets per day isn’t for me.
I’m still deciding how much effort to put into social media (if at all), but I’ll definitely come back to this post in the future. It’s great to hear your thoughts on Twitter – and as always, it’s fun to read. Thanks for the insight! ^_^
I’d love to know where you land. I’m very curious on how different people use their platforms
It’ll probably take a few months to settle into a routine, but I’ll get back to you when I do 🙂
Glad to hear it! It took me a while too. Mind you I’m still figuring it out
While most of my views are still from the reader or internet searches, a couple of hundred visits to my blog are generated through twitter or facebook each month. Given I only use either one when I’m actually sitting at the computer and they just run in the background while I watch anime or draft, neither one feels like a time drain or an energy drain. I’m not really into drama but enjoy it when a conversation gets going. Otherwise, I do tend to pick up on posts from a few people where there posts don’t show up in the reader via their twitter. I also find new anime content to read through other people’s retweets. So mostly I’ve had a pretty positive experience even though I am not the most active on social media.
I’m not active enough yet to reap those benefits… I’ve been thinking for a while that this habit of sleeping every day is a luxury I don’t need anyways.
Please keep sleeping. It is important (not looking at my sleep tracker from the last month).
I’ve recently come to despise social media in a lot of ways because it’s become such a negative, drama filled place that, unfortunately, has sucked me into it’s negative side more times than I’d like it to.
I tend to use it mostly as a means to promote my posts, other people’s posts, and sometimes keep my readers/online friends updated on what’s going on with me and what I’m watching (because I don’t post as often as I should). But I won’t deny that sometimes I’ll say something that I regret or that I’ll end up getting dragged into a dumb, pointless argument with someone who disagrees with me and decides to call me a nasty name because they hate my guts over my opinion about an Anime. I’ve even lost a few friends over pointless Twitter drama, which is really sad and just goes to show how toxic these kinds of platforms can be when things are taken to the worst level.
I’ve actually been trying to limit my social media presence recently, mostly because I’ve been away travelling with the wife, and it’s honestly been for the better. It’s a real time sink, and not in a good way, and getting away from the drama and “hot take” culture has been great for my mental health in a lot of ways.
Of course, there’s plenty of positives to social media as well, such as the potential for more exposure for your blog and keeping in touch with fellow creators and friends (like you and the other Innominate Cast members! :D), so I can’t say it’s all bad. There’s a lot of good in there!
Really solid post Irina. Keep doing what works for you and avoid the drama, weirdos and creeps if you can. You’ll be better off for it!
I actually always adimred your social savy Leth. You seem to start a lot of meaningful and actually intresting conversations (as opposed to flame wars). I never pegged you as negative at all
That’s a relief!
I’m always worried that I can come across as a bit of a negative nancy online, especially considering all the drama stuff that I sometimes end up a part of.
I also find it hilarious that you think I have social savyness, as in the real world I have absolutely no social skills whatsoever… Funny that! 😛
Nope Im right your vision of yourself is wrong
Maybe!
Or maybe not!
You have 1020 followers. How many of those are people and not just robots? Half of my 44 followers are robots. I was forced to use Twitter for a class in Librarian school for a summer semester. When the assignment was over I cancelled the account and got Gab instead, because Twitter is full of trolls and racists, and the platform is best at insulting people while drunk, and then the evidence is left behind so they can fire you in 20 years for what you responded with. Gab is full of trolls and racists and bots too, but they don’t censor you so its a more honest way to post comments on alt-news stories. You won’t be banned for it like on Twitter or Facebook.
I think some of that bias is Silicon Valley is downstream from about 6 million toilets, gold mines (with mercury leaks), arsenic and tin runoff, millions of acres of farmland, and reuses the water a couple dozen times before it reaches them. SF Bay is full of millions of years of heavy metals, and the navy ports made that worse. That’s a lot of kidneys and drugs which aren’t filtered out, so they’re getting drugged while making these decisions. San Francisco is the very end of this mess of poison water supply so they get the worst of it. LA too, same source of bad water. It explains a lot.
Most teens are on Pinterest or Snapchat, and most of them don’t write or think. They take a picture of the party you missed so they can brag about it. That’s the depth of most social media posts, and what most of Facebook is about too. WordPress has the best platform for actual content, since its not censored like Blogspot. And keep in mind that as long as your content is good, you’ll gain legitimate followers among all the bots. Trolls too, unfortunately. I’ve said before you should only write when you feel inspired, and your followers aren’t going to purge you if you’re quiet for a week.
I think all my followers are bots. I know I am
That says a lot about your feelings about your current job. Maybe it is necessary, but I’m sorry that’s how things have to be. I’ve been in a similar situation too. I’ve almost recovered from the trauma after only 6 years.
It was a joke. I like my career.
Oh, well that’s a relief. I wasn’t joking about my work experience, however.
I’m totally uninterested in everything social media has to offer…
Cause I’m edgy. (and the time wasted trying to pull in numbers could be used to write about actually interesting anime)
Strictly smoke signals huh? I can respect that
Yep yep. And psychic powers to use this blog…
*wait, did I just suddenly become a chuuni*
Yeah …*just*…
Irina~
No jugement…we’re all here for the same reasons…
I really like your blog, though I’m not sure how you manage to blog so much.
Promoting a blog is like promoting a business, especially away from WordPress.com. While I’m no grand master, I do earn my living online, and promotion is a big part of that.
For this blog (freedom2try), I rely heavily on the best source of free traffic on the internet: Pinterest.
One key reason is that there is no social interaction. I find some social platforms … fake and tiresome.
In my view, bloggers and small business owners would benefit from a presence on Pinterest.
The only caveat I offer is that you should ensure you can use your images on Pinterest.
Finally, it does take time, so having an eye towards business would make it worthwhile.
There’s a link to my Pinterest account from my blog. Feel free to take a look.
I also have a link to my Pinterest but I don’t exactly use it for promotion. I just like fanart. I would think Instagram is pretty powerful too
I’m actually surprised at throughout the time I’ve known you, your blog has only grown gradually rather than quickly. Even if your following isn’t the biggest on either here or Twitter, I’m sure we all appreciate your posts as much as you’d like us to (alot is what I’m saying). And even if you still struggle to grow in the future, at least you’ve made some friends along the way – I know I have haha wink wink, nudge nudge.
P.s Last line cracked me up
Oh dude – I have the best readres – it’s all about quality here….
Ah, social media. Honestly, it really is a requirement if you’re trying to make a living from your site. Finding a balance is hard, but there you go. I try to balance out the fun with promo posts as best I can myself.
Oh I could never make a living from my site… I really admire people who try
I am sure it’s different for everyone but I ambjust not active enough in social media for any benefit to translate to my blog. Like many people, I simply don’t have the time to make it work. Seems like you’ve been doing pretty well here though and rightfully so! Also, other web forums for anime and such might be just as good for discussing articles you’ve written here and acquiring morevregular visitors. Good luck and keep it up. Very enjoyable blog 🙂
That’s a great tip and thank you so much for the encouragement!
I’ve come to despise social media in all its forms. For me, it unfortunately feeds the most negative aspects of my mental health, as I’ve always been someone who has a hard time focusing on positive things when even the smallest piece of negativity is thrown his way.
Twitter over the last couple of years in particular (actually most of this decade if we look back far enough) has overwhelmingly focused on the negative side of things. There’s always some new drama, someone who said something offensive, some company “censoring” something, some boycott… I dunno. Maybe I’m following the “wrong” people, but it’s just an environment that I don’t really care to spend time in any more.
It’s kind of sad, because there are positive aspects to it as you describe here, and I’ve had positive things that have happened on there specifically to me, too. Hell, I technically met my wife on Twitter.
But in my case among other things, it’s also an unfortunate reminder of my former career and how I’ve basically been ostracised from that particular part of the community after I was laid off without warning several years back. There are people I used to count as close friends who don’t even speak to me any more — not because I’ve done anything wrong, but because I’m no longer in the “approved” clique.
I’ve not been very active on Twitter over the past month or so — I just auto-post my articles and videos and occasionally schedule tweets when I remember. (I recommend “Buffer” for this — it’s free and easy, and works with several platforms.) My traffic numbers haven’t changed significantly. So it doesn’t feel worthwhile putting myself through that wringer if I don’t “need” to. I have much more fun interacting with people here in the WordPress comments, and over on my Discord. (Which you, and anyone else reading this that I previously sent an invite to, should drop by more often! :D)
I dunno. It’s probably different for everyone. But social media, for me, is a pretty toxic environment that does my mental wellbeing no good whatsoever, so these days I try to avoid it whenever possible.
Oh definetly. There’s been a lot of research that shows the negative effects of social media and most people recommend stepping away from it regularly.
I have the emotional range of styrofoam (the most sensitive packing material…) and even I get drained by it occasionally.
It’s kind of a bummer that I feel this way, to be honest, as there are people I know and like who don’t seem to be contactable by any means other than, say, Facebook these days. I don’t even have a Facebook account any more!
I miss just texting my friends drunkenly. Remember texts? They were great.
I loved texts – mine made no sense…
My favourites were where I’d had enough to drink of an evening I just stopped caring about correcting the predictive text when it predicted the wrong thing. My worst ever left a friend believing I was being attacked by wasps at three o’clock in the morning, when in fact I was just expressing my enjoyment of my intoxicated state and finding the number of prostitutes soliciting business outside the nightclub we had been in rather amusing.
A post from 2010 where I celebrated the lost art of the drunken text: https://angryjedi.wordpress.com/2010/05/08/oneaday-day-111-post-mortem/
I need to read that when I get home
I know exactly how you feel!! It’s like wtf I have a lot of twitter followers but how do I translate that to my blog? It seems people don’t have the attention span to read a phew paragraphs so an attention grabbing statement is the new norm.
There is that. Maybe I should make my posts 150 characters top….
I may not get followers, but I hundreds of views from posting on reddit from time to time!
Of course, I also happen to be active on reddit as well, so it’s not just a way to shill my blog, more like a pleasant bonus.
Reddit has the advantage of being much less personal than Twitter and Facebook. The fact that people can see your posts while having no idea who you are, and yet they discuss and upvote it is a great experience. Makes me feel like I did something good with my own writing.
I have mostly been ignoring Reddit. Some corners are a bit less friendly. I should probably venture more into it though.
Depends on the community. Some real nasty people from time to time, but r/manga has been pretty friendly, as well as the communities around specific shows and manga, such as r/watamote. I actually got my first actually helpful critique on my writing on r/watamote as well.
cool
r/anime is a bit of a wild wild west though, they tend to only like very in-depth posts on niche things, or fanart for blogs.
I actually have had some readers share my posts on redit so I do get traffic from there regulary (Don’t know who but thank you to them!)