In case you haven’t heard…I’ll be on the radio, Friday at noon, CST. You can listen here or download the podcast here. I’m the one without the British accent. If you can't listen at noon and really want to hear me, go to the same
link, there’s a podcast. My portion of the interview starts about 15 minutes into the
show.
This week's sentence is:
You want to know what I think of social media? I think… for a blogger, social media is the easiest way to promote your blog
- if it doesn’t take over and consume your entire life. I’m working that out as
I type.
For everyone's enjoyment and information, I'm going to tell you about the social media tools I use.
For everyone's enjoyment and information, I'm going to tell you about the social media tools I use.
What is it? A network where you shoot out bursts of information to your followers in 140
characters or less. You can include links, pictures, and videos. And you can even have
conversations with other tweeps.
How I use it: I promote my blog posts, share my (sometimes
lame) jokes, “chat” with friends, and share other information I find
interesting around the web. I’ve found it easier to gain followers on Twitter
than any other social media tool. I get a fair amount of traffic to my blog
from Twitter.
In case you missed it yesterday, I shared the Top 10 Tweets of February 2013. They're funny, so check them out!
In case you missed it yesterday, I shared the Top 10 Tweets of February 2013. They're funny, so check them out!
What is it? For those of you living in that place I call "under a rock," it's a network that
connects you with family and friends and a place where you can check to see if that I guy you had a crush on in 9th grade that wouldn't give you the time of day is now fat and bald.
How I use it: I share photos and my blog posts with everyone
from family and close friends to friends I knew in grade school. I promote my
blog via my Fan page where I also share jokes and stories and other fun things
I find on other fan pages. This is also where I participate in my blogging support groups, most often on Bloppy Bloggers (anyone is welcome to join). Personally, I'm struggling to increase my followers on my fan page. I don't know how you people do it.
What is it? It is a giant pinboard with really cool pictures
of recipes, projects, jokes, websites and blog posts you bookmark or "pin".
How I use it: I primarily use this to replace my computer’s
bookmarking system. Anything I want to look at again, I put it on Pinterest. I’m
also learning to promote my blog on it as well. I recently started making
buttons to represent each of my posts.
What is it? I think it’s like Facebook, but I still don’t
get it. Here’s an infographic
that explains it. I’m going to check it out some day when I have time. I’ve
heard it’s the new up-and-coming tool in social media. So it’s probably a good
thing to use.
How I use it: I promote my blog posts on it. People are
following me on it, but I don’t understand any of it.
What is it? It is a “discovery engine” that finds and
recommends web content to its users. (I got that from Wikipedia.) You tell StumbleUpon what your interests are and they will “stumble” to different sites within that interest. You give a
thumbs-up or -down as to whether you like it or not. Then you continue stumbling.
How I use it: I’ve been posting some blog posts here because
I heard some people from my blog support group were getting hundreds of page views from it. I think you have to have followers though and I can’t figure out how
to use it. I have like six followers.
Click on this box if you want to know more...
Blog hops
What is it? You link your blog or blog post up with a group of other bloggers and then read some of the other blog links.
How I use it: Finish The Sentence Friday is a blog hop. I do a few blog hops every week. I run into the same bloggers a lot, so I've gotten to know quite a few bloggers from the blog hops. The hops I do regularly are listed in my left sidebar.
What is it? You link your blog or blog post up with a group of other bloggers and then read some of the other blog links.
How I use it: Finish The Sentence Friday is a blog hop. I do a few blog hops every week. I run into the same bloggers a lot, so I've gotten to know quite a few bloggers from the blog hops. The hops I do regularly are listed in my left sidebar.
Sverve
What is it? It's brand new, or at least it is to me. I heard somebody mention it somewhere, so I joined. I do know that it's specifically for bloggers, which is unique. You share your posts and your followers "endorse" you in your areas of influence. Humor is one of my areas of influence, so my followers come along, read my posts, and if they think I'm influential in humor, then they "endorse" me. Then Sverve ranks bloggers based on their areas of influence (if I understand it correctly).
How I use it: I have no idea what I'm doing. I've posted three blog posts on it so far. I've received three endorsements. I just joined this week.
How do I manage all this?
I use HootSuite, specifically for scheduling my tweets on Twitter and updates on Facebook. It can be used for a few other social media tools, but I haven't used it for those yet. It helps to have a schedule or spreadsheet to make sure you're covering all your social media marketing bases. Then you also need to consider the best time for sharing your blog posts on that particular form of social media. That's a whole different post that doesn't fall under humor, so I'm not going to cover that. Ever. Well, maybe...if I got paid. Visit and follow my blogging support group's blog/social media Pinterest board for more information on social media and blogging.
How do I manage all this?
I use HootSuite, specifically for scheduling my tweets on Twitter and updates on Facebook. It can be used for a few other social media tools, but I haven't used it for those yet. It helps to have a schedule or spreadsheet to make sure you're covering all your social media marketing bases. Then you also need to consider the best time for sharing your blog posts on that particular form of social media. That's a whole different post that doesn't fall under humor, so I'm not going to cover that. Ever. Well, maybe...if I got paid. Visit and follow my blogging support group's blog/social media Pinterest board for more information on social media and blogging.
Is there anything you'd like to add (or correct)? What's your favorite form of social media? Tell me in the comments.
Next week's sentence: I tried to cook...
Your FTSF Hosts:
Read and comment on the two posts before yours, then if you want to share your favorites on Facebook or Twitter use the hashtag #FTSF.
Sverve, huh? I will have to check it out. I don't think I promote myself too much or probably enough, but writing is hard to find time for, let alone promotion.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy Twitter more than I thought I would, but I can see how that could get out of hand. It is perfect for my moments of creative snark.
Google+ is very difficult to get a handle on.
I tried hootsuite, perhaps I need to try it again.
Thanks Kate for the invite and the informative post, see ya on sverve.
WG
Can you StumbleUpon your own stuff. I keep hearing you shouldn't and they can ban you. So I haven't, but have you and had any success, would love to know :)
ReplyDeleteYes, you can stumble your own stuff. You just have to stumble while you're on there too, like 3-5 other stumbles. Gina Adams seems to know a lot about it.
ReplyDeleteTotally good to know and will have to keep that in mind. Thanks Kate!! :)
ReplyDeleteI stumble myself all the time. Never had a problem. You just can't use it to ONLY Stumble yourself.
ReplyDeleteI love this topic. I am pretty well spread across all platforms now.
ReplyDeleteI also just started using Stumbleupon - there are so many interesting things out there! And Pinterest....I could spend the entire day on there. In fact, I think that's what I'll be doing this afternoon. Crazy how much Social Media there is around these days. Six years ago it was just Facebook!
ReplyDeleteI pretty much only use Twitter and Facebook. I use Pinterest strictly for bookmarking, I probably should promote my blog on there somehow... but meh. And the others I ignore completely. This is why I'll never be a "big" blogger I guess.
ReplyDeleteNever heard of swerve, but just got a google + account yesterday. It's just sitting there right now. Honestly, when I visit blogs who have 30 "connect with me" icons, I wonder how they have time to write and live. I'm stopping at FB, Twitter and Google+. If people still can't find me then I'll stay lost. Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteThanks Brett for answering that and will try this more often now!! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the explanations!
ReplyDeleteActually, I don't get all the blog hops. I'm trying to figure it all out. The rules - that's what gets me. Sometimes, I want to participate, but I feel like I don't fully understand the rules.
This blogging thing is so big. I think somebody just has to sit down with me and explain it - like I was a child. HRUMPF.
I loathe, do you hear me LOATHE G+. Mainly because when I combined my blogger profile with it no one could email me in response to comments I made or even email me at all. So I had to make a separate blogger id just to get my darn mail. Really???
ReplyDeleteOK, I've got to get this Pinterest thing started, so then I can move on to Sverve or whatever the heck it is. Thanks for always being the person I can ask what I am supposed to be doing to stay up on things! Oh hey, since I had to call in sick today, now I can listen to your radio show! Woot!
ReplyDeleteVery well thought out post! Congrats! I'm going to explore hootsuite, and I want to agree about Stumbleupon, I post a lot of things there, mine and others, never had a problem! And Pinterest is not just "women" there are lots of masculine Pinners too (at least I suppose they are!) I love that site, and I joined not so long ago because a fellow Hubber (male) opened up a group board for his followers. I was so lost and confused when I started this adventre, but it's incredible how I get around now! If I can do it, everybody can! So have a good day and enjoy!
ReplyDeleteYes...social media..as Clark over at the Wakefield Doctrine said: it's the best and worst thing to happen to us - all at once. :P Great FTSF post. :)
ReplyDeleteNever heard of 'the Sverve' but I am trying to sign up, having trouble with the multiple passwrds and such, ( to paraphrase the Talking Heads: "I've changed my password so many times, I don't know what it is now.")
ReplyDelete'cellent hop!
HA! Kate, you made me LOL on Google. You took the words right out of my mouth. I post my link there. While I'm there, I take a look around, see if anyone has followed me, follow them back if we have some people in common, and plus one something i like (whatever that means). I hope nothing else big comes out that I have to get on anytime soon until I get established on these others. Do you ever go to a FB fan page and say, "Humph you don't need anymore fans."
ReplyDeleteI laughed out loud at Facebook being "where you can check to see if that I guy you had a crush on in 9th grade that wouldn't give you the time of day is now fat and bald." -- oh yeah, every now and then I go through a spurt of looking up old crushes to see if they're on FB and what they're up to. The thing I don't like about that... running into their privacy settings. Darn FB, getting in the way of my web stalking! ;)
ReplyDeleteVery informative! Sverve?? I've never heard of that and now I want to cry...yet another social media outlet that I have to learn. I still don't get google + either...
ReplyDeleteI think I started out on Xanga. Then I did MySpace. Then FB. I don't thinking I joined FB until 2009, maybe 2008. I can't even remember. It is crazy how much new stuff there is.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering if it's even worth my time to post. My blog on Pinterest. It's not like I have anything useful to post - nothing anyone would come back and say, oh, I need to read that again. But I'll at least give it a try...for a while.
ReplyDeleteFor anyone who has questions about blogging, I always suggest joining Bloppy Bloggers.
ReplyDeleteThe rules for every blog hop are different. Just see what they list, then do it. Ifthey list no rules, do whatever you feel is best.
Ugh. That would make me hate it too. I had that issue with Shelfari (kind of like Goodreads). They got taken over by Amazon and it messed up everything for me because...I can't even remember, it was so bad. I just gave up and went to Goodreads.
ReplyDeleteIt was so fun listening "together" today! I'll let you know how Sverve goes.
ReplyDeleteI go to FB fan pages and say, how in the heck did they get all those followers??? I don't know what I'm doing wrong. And your doing way more on G+ than I am. I don't even know how to "look around".
ReplyDeleteI think Sverve is pretty new. I couldn't even find it when I googled it. It kept changing the word to Swerve.
ReplyDeleteI think Google+ will be more like Facebook once more people are on it. When it comes to all of these things, I'm a super-early adopter (like I sign up for an account right away) but then if I don't get sucked in right away, I sort of forget about it. I still haven't used HootSuite...if I don't plan anything in advance, would it help me? You mentioned a spreadsheet. I'm more a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants gal.
ReplyDeleteSuch forward-looking statements include, but are much smaller as
ReplyDeleteopposed to taking up the Paleo after hearing from my dietician I could go into a comatose state.
There is a lot of good information. Believers say that
only by returning to a diet that consisted of meat, vegetables and nuts,
while omitting all grains, sugar, pasta, grains and sodium salt.
Feel free to surf to my homepage - palio diet
Good information here. I may have to try a blog hop, or is it a bunch of mommies?
ReplyDelete