Thank You!

A WriteOn Joliet member and I emailed back and forth the other day about the possibility of WriteOn starting its own blog.

WriteOn Joliet does have a blog page.

We currently have two years of our "Writers Are Readers" blog that was my co-leader Tom Hernandez's passion project.

And we point to WriteOn member James Pressler's longtime and very excellent craft blog: "Writing and the Process."

So this member and I discussed possibilities and he hopes to talk "blog" at tonight's meeting.

That led me to check the BryonySeries' blog's all-time statistics.

I used to check those weekly but fell off that habit sometime between the COVID-19 pandemic and the fall of Twitter.

Now, I do keep an eye on the daily, weekly, and monthly statistics. But all-time, no.

Perhaps that's because getting writing seen is so challenging these days, whether it's my journalism writing or my blog writing.

At any rate, I looked.  And I was pleasantly surprised.

Granted, the first blog was still on Aug. 1, 2010. 

And I blog daily.

And some of those views might be bots (I'm pretty sure some of those views are bots).

But I took the screenshot at the bottom of this post approximately ten minutes ago. So these are my most recent numbers.

Yes, I'm not hitting a million anytime soon. However, I will quietly (or maybe not so quietly) celebrate that number when I reach it.

What helps is that I have so much evergreen content, that some really old blog posts still get views each day. So that helps a lot.

Now, this is a free blog. I'm not monetizing it or will ever monetize it.

Nor does the blog drive book sales.

So it really doesn't matter to me if I get three views a day or three hundred.

Because to me, the blog is part of social media. And social media, to me - still - is about connection.

Nevertheless, I really was humbled to see those all-time numbers. Most of them represent people who clicked through to watch a video, listen to a song, or read something I wrote.

Thank you so very much for connecting with me in this way. I am so very grateful.

The Blessing of Social Media

More people seem to complain about social media than praise it.

But social media is really a communications, too. And like any good tool, its benefits depend on the people using it - and how they use it.

The outpouring of well wishes for my calico Faith were so numerous last week, I'll need most of this week to respond to them all.

The cheerful or funny comments to one positive "good morning" post can also take me a couple days to respond to them if I wind up with an extremely busy day.

But the great part about social media is that the responses will be waiting until I can get to them.

Look, I grew up at a time where one didn't leave home if you were expecting a phone call.

I grew up in a time that, if several people were expecting a phone call, you'd see a racing and jostling to that phone once it did ring.

We can talk to dozens of people at once simply by switching screens or pages.

You can stay connected to the world if you are ill and homebound.

You can find listening ears if you are grieving.

Where else can you receive multiple "happy birthdays" or an outpouring of "congratulations" when you have good news to share? Or a variety of suggestions when you have a problem to solve?

I personally have a favorite page with hilarious memes that I consistently follow, memes that never fail to elicit real laugh-out-loud- laughs.

Now I love in-person gatherings, too. And so do Uncle Barty and Bertrand the Mouse, pictured here visiting some mouse friends.

But I love social media, too.

Have a marvelous Monday!

Algorithms

Merrium-Webstersays defines algorithm as such: "The current term of choice for a problem-solving procedure, algorithm, is commonly used nowadays for the set of rules a machine (and especially a computer) follows to achieve a particular goal."

In social media, algorithims determine how posted content is sorted and what will appear in news feeds. This ranking system is necessary, based on the sheer amount of content that's delivered and the millions of people using social media.

Businesses pay attention to algorithims to allow readers to see their content and encourage engagement. 

Authors are encouraged to do likewise, to gain a following, so people read their posts, and (hopefully) buy their books. 

Again, I understand why this is necessary. 

Here's my big "however."

I'm probably in a minority when I say social media should be, in its very essence, very social. Even though I'm a fledgling author, my related social media pages are meant to be, again, very social. This means the content I post is meant to enhance the reader's experiences with my books.

So my posts on my BryonySeries acounts have an assumption that you either are familiar with my books and want to see additional, related content or that you are interested in the content and might discover I have some books to go along with it.

My personal social media accounts assume you simply want to interact with me. And like any good hostess, I like to provide a safe, fun, positive, uplifting experience. 

I don't "drive traffic" to my pages as if the people interacting with them were a herd of sheep. People deserve more respect than being a means to my end.

Last week, while catching up with some social media friends (and going directly and intentionally to their pages), I read one post by an author friend who's battled a bad case of COVID for more than a week, was feeling pretty miserable, and -get this - feared no one would even read her outcry because she was too sick to post regularly - which would affect the ranking of that post, allowing few to none to see it.

Reading those few words saddened me on a level I can't fully describe.

Obviously, we can't catch up every day with every person who follows us.

But every now and again, check in with someone that you follow ON PURPOSE, especially if you haven't read any posts in your feed in some time.

Don't be part of the social media noise. 

Be a real social media friend - and not a collector of followers.

Be someone who understands that real connection and engagement isn't possible when the conversation is only proceeding from your words and the number of comments the clever tweaking of your words received.

Be a real person in the void.

Keeping Social Media Social

How to make money using (insert any social media site here).

Yes, we've all seen them.

To me, the fun of social media dissipates once sales banners enter the arena.

Yes, I write books. Yes, those books are for sale. But pushing for those sales isn't the point of social media.

Social media, the way I see it, is the opportunity to connect with like-minded people. To me, social media is a virtual water cooler, cocktail party, or coffee shop. It's chatting about interesting, inspiring, or informative topics.

And the person introducing or commenting on the topics just so happens to write and sell books.

That doesn't mean social media can't be used for updating readers about current projects or items for sale as long as it's part of the conversation. I think it's okay to ask readers to review a book or serve as a beta reader, since it can start a conversation.

With this perspective, social media is a useful part of marketing.

Because "marketing" simply means letting the universe know you do this stuff and are selling this stuff. It's not a hard push for sales, which I find obnoxious.

I think good books are meant to be discovered. I think good marketing allows that discovery to happen.

It's definitely a slower, softer approach with no guarantee of sales. But being annoyingly in-your-face doesn't guarantee sales either. Even if it did, such an approach doesn't guarantee readers loyal to one's brand.

For me, this is the goal of marketing: finding those readers who love to read what I write. I'm really not interested in sales for the sake of sales.

And thus my the marketing journey continues...