Monday Metics

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If you are new, today is all about the numbers, not about my plans.   See the action plans I’m using to earn these numbers in previous posts.  My plan and reflects are on 6 week Review!  and the steps I’m taking are on 6 Steps for Twitter.

Twitter Analytics
I’ve been active on Twitter for 112 days. In the last 28 days I’ve had 236 posts, 517 profile visits, 83 mentions, and 129 new follows.  

Conversion based on profile views is 25%. I got included in a Follow Friday post by one of my Twitter friends and this saw a HUUUGE boost in follows.  We’ll have tosee if I can keep these follows in the upcoming days.
  
My engagement is 3.9%. My change in strategy: tweet less and respond/interact more, should continue to see increases in engagement.  It was a huge surprise to go from 2.1% to 3.9%, dropping off the weeks with a different style of interaction makes a huge different.

I post about 8 times a day.  My goal is to sit between 6-10 posts a day, so success!


My daily view count has lowered to just under 2,000 views a day.  Proportionately I receive 210 eyes per post.  Slight dip from the 216 eyes last week, but I held prolongedconversation on some tweets, the longer you go back and forth, the lesspeople see your tweets, but the higher your engagement is and the more you’re getting to know one or two people, instead of introducing yourself to a group of people.  This is a balance I’m working on.

Blog Stats

I got 41 views last week spread across 8 posts and 1 pages.  I’m trying to stay the course in overall blog promotion.  I’m noticing that I’m heavy in visits on the front half of the week and fall flat in the back half.  That ties back to general exhaustion from work and me quitting to promote my posts.  I don’t know if I can improve weekly consistency, but it‘sgood to know

The North Alabama Writers’ Group blog has 5 views this past week.  The last week of November I tried my hand at writing a more critical work called “Why I Stopped Reading Daily Science Fiction” and it seems that there is no interest from the community for why I might not enjoy the writing on the site. I am trying to evaluatewhether critical feedback has a place in my style.  It‘sa personal issue I’m touching onmore in a later post. 

  My December Open Calls for Submissions didn‘t bring in interested writers, but it may pick up as the month goes on.  Most open calls are for the end of the month.  

I’m hoping my second post on “How to pick a publisher” may have more traction.   I have some great topics scheduled for the NAWG blog and I’m hoping to see an increase as more discussion and interesting topics pop up.  

So talkto me!  What are your numbers?  What’s your social media strategy?  Are you counting anything else in your life and what does success look like?

Still need a number fix?  Compare this week to last week Dec 3rd, Nov 12th, Nov 5th, Oct 22nd, Oct 9th, Oct 1st Sept 24th, Sept17th, or Sept 10th.  

6 Steps To a Twitter Success: Altered Plans

image from openclipart.org by Luen

After 15 weeks on Twitter, I thought I’d update my Twitter routine.  There are little tweaks here and there.  It turns out I only continue to use six of the eight original points in my plan and the steps I keep, I‘ve altered.  Want to compare? Check out the old 8 step plan

1. Create and Share Interesting and Unique Content

This is the foundation of my Twitter process.  In the past week, I‘ve done more straight Retweets because I haven‘t had time to share my own thoughts, but even then I share what I like.

2. Schedule Posts. 

Post scheduling makes everything else in my writing plan work.  Without Hootsuite, I wouldn’t be able to maintain a presence on Twitter.  My style of interacting is less constant than some of my more outgoing peers.  Post planning allows me to use that time and spread it out across the day so I can look outgoing while I’m sitting cozy with my dog or at work going through the motions.  Plus, when I have the “bright” idea to share blog content, I can spread it out across days instead of dropping too much self promotion all at once.  

3. Create More Personal Connections on the Medium

This happened/ is happening in unexpected ways, but yes.  I have a sense of “regulars” whom I Retweet or are most likely to respond to my posts/comments.  I’m getting more comfortable and can maintain a conversation for longer.  Sometimes I worry I talk about the same thing too much or my Tweets might bore, but then I remember that almost no one consumes my Twitter content all at once.  Their feed shows it intermittently and people go days without even seeing anything from me (when they have larger followings).

Building this Twitter empire has been eye opening.  No matter what a person does with the algorithms, nothing seems as important as connecting with other people. Granted, I got into this to find an audience so people would always be the focus, but somehow I thought I’d learn more about maneuvering around them and using software tools to get in front of the right eyes.  It’s far more organic than that, and I think with no other tools than these three, a person could find their audience on Twitter.


4. Use of Hashtags

While I’ve used hashtags to my benefit, I am a lot more relaxed about it than I expected.  Some Tweets blow up and others don’t.  Same hashtags, same time of day, but different results.  What’s more important is getting noticed and shared by someone with a large following that‘s different from yours.  

Hashtags help me find other people with like minds that I haven‘t seen yet.  They also help my posts get noticed by different but similar groups.  To that end, they are important, but again, it comes back to people taking the next step and sharing you with the audience they’ve built.  

I don’t hunt in the Hashtags as much as I should, but so many new people come to my attention in an organic method, it‘s hard to follow them and anything happening in the Hashtag game.  When I have to choose, I choose the people.

5. Check in 

So I try to “Check in” every three-ish days.  What this means is that I pick a few new followers profiles and a few profiles of people who liked or retweeted something and I look through their feed.  If I like their content or their bio, I friend them.  Doing this once a week was way too overwhelming.  Committing to look at everyone who had eyes on me was also overwhelming.  I’m sorry if I overlooked you through this process.  I can promise that if you continue to interact with me, I check out your profile and feed, eventually.  And I follow—it takes over one interaction to get my attention these days.

6.  Use Twitter Analytics:

Still do this weekly.  My updates lack my desired consistency.  I will rectify that by drafting on Sunday.  The metrics won‘t be as accurate but at least the blog will come out.  Knowing where you stand is the only way to know if what you are doing is helping or hurting your goals, but also, I love numbers.  It fascinates me.  I learn more about what is important on the platform every day.  What interests me most (that I don‘t share with you guys) is the “Audiences” tab.  The most common interest for my followers is dogs and science news.  The male to female split is 50/50.  Most of my audience is American and they prefer to use laptops/desktops.  What does this stuff tell me: I don’t know, but I like having this information.  It makes me feel closer to the random voices I stumble across on Twitter.

Talk to me.  Do you use Twitter and if so for what?  Are you building a following and if so how?  Do you have tips or tricks to help find others with shared interests?  Do you like Twitter or do you prefer a different social media?  

Looking for the numbers? Check out my Monday Metrics Posts on:  11/19, 11/12,  11/5, 10/22, 10/15 10/9, 10/1, 9/24,  9/17, and  9/10

Monday Metrics

image from openclipart.org by firkin

If you are new, today is all about the numbers, not about my plans.   See the action plans I’m using to earn these numbers in previous posts.  Last Week’s 6 week Review!  and 8 Steps I’m Taking on Twitter.   

Twitter Analytics
I’ve been active on Twitter for 86 days. In the last 28 days I’ve had 245 posts, 405 profile visits, 101 mentions, and 79 new follows.  

Conversion based on profile views is 19%. I’m getting fewer over all views (not a stat I record here b/c I don’t know the value of possible eyes on a post) 54k vs 62k last week.  Still, the people who do see my Tweets seem to want to follow.  I think fewer views for actual follows a reasonable tradeoff.
  
My engagement is 2.5%. Three recorded weeks in a row at 2.5 (four if you count the one week I didn’t post).  My interactions have leveled out and going forward I expect 2.5%. 

I post about 9 times a day.  Clear success for me in spending less time on Twitter.

Blog Stats

I got 31 views last week spread across 13 posts.  I changed my “Featured Post” at the top of the page and created a list of links to my posts across both blogs organized by topic.  If I use these as reminders of all the work I linked to I can build traffic.  This blog is a little sleepy right now.  I’m looking at adding a couple of pages/resources, but there isn’t a lot to drive traffic. 

The North Alabama Writers’ Group blog has 18 views this past week.  Important for fellow writers: November Call for Submissions is out on the NAWG blog and if you ever wonder where I get all those calls for submissions check out my page here Bloggers and Groups I Follow for Submissions.  Also, I updated NAWG’s Ongoing Call for Submissions page to eliminate dead links.  If you‘re looking for better organization categories divide the informationand only includes calls that pay $.01 a word on my personal blog‘s page.


So talk to me!  What are your numbers?  What’s your social media strategy?  Are you counting anything else in your life and what does success look like?

Still need a number fix?  Compare this week to last week Nov 5th, or go back further to reports on: Oct 22nd, Oct 9th, Oct 1st Sept 24th, Sept17th, or Sept 10th.  

Batching Projects for Efficiency

image from open clipart.org provided by J4p4n

I read "How Can I build My Platform and Still Have Time to Freelance Write?" bt Elna Cain.  If her article had been "and Still Have Time to Creatively Write?" she'd have written a post just for me.  As it is, I found one insight interesting.

Cain  batches her tasks to maximize efficiency.  Batching, according to Cane is about putting similar tasks together to save time.  Like she writers all her articles for her clients and her own blogs, then after that's done she goes ahead and finds the graphics for those posts.

On reflection, when I retroactively added pictures to older posts, instead of adding photos as I went, it was faster.  So right away, I'm stoked to try batching to improve efficiency!   The next obvious question: what can I batch?

Like Cain, I can write blog posts for my personal blog and The North Alabama Writers' Group together and then go look for pictures.  I could also throw in my book reviews for Goodreads (long backlog).  I've already written a list of all the posts I need to write and a tentative schedule for them.

Also like Cain I could find the pictures AFTER I write all the posts.

In my creative writing, I can batch edit complete stories.  Likewise, the research for my creative writing, my social media links, and my blogs could all happen together.

I'm always trying to batch my social media presence.  First, I check the North Alabama Writers' Blog and tackle the comments waiting approval, then I swing here and see if there are comments, then I go to twitter and check on my notifications, see if I need to do anything with those.  Afterward I jump to Hootsuite and post schedule.  Then I go to Commun.it and see if there's anything popular I need to respond to and then I jump to ManageFlitter and unfollow about 50 people. After that, I try not to look at social media again at all until the evening because while it's a powerful tool to reach an audience it's also a notorious time waster--mixed results there.  I',m going to have a ton of difficulty batching Social Media when I expand out to something beyond Twitter, and Goodreads.  For my sanity I will wait at least a month and hope some "check now" compulsion goes away.


Does anyone else batch tasks?  If so, what do you throw together?  Is there anything else I could combine to help my efficiency?

Tuesday Tell All: A Day Late so Wednesday Writers? Analytics Deep Dive

image from open clipart.org provided by J4p4n

Blog Update:

NAWG member Christopher M. Palmer created a delightful post on "Creating Aliens" and comment wise it seems to be taking off.

Traffic wise our most trafficked day is still only 19 views, but we are getting steady 10-15 views a day and we are receiving many comments.  I don't know how it works that there doesn't seem to be page views but there are comments, I would think you couldn't comment without viewing.  *Shrug*.  

I haven't written anymore posts for the North Alabama Writers' Group but my post "What's in a Name?" dropped on Aug 26th.  All the credit for the idea and structure goes to Rick Polad.  This was a fun response/ add on post and I'd like to write more posts along these lines.

I added a little more content to my "September Call for Submissions Roundup" Post which will drop Sept first on North Alabama Writers' Group, so keep your eyes peeled!  I also added more content to another post regarding writers' tools.

On this blog, I posted my Twitter Plan (sitting at 5 views with no Twitter promotion).  It's worth reviewing because you can compare what I'm doing with the results I post each week.

I also posted a page on Bloggers and Groups I follow to stay up to date with calls for submission.  It should a a great resource for authors who want to keep update with the markets.

In the to be posted file:  I wrote a post on batching that will drop on Sunday.  Basic stuff, but it made me interested in exploring my process and increasing productivity.  I've started a post that's reviewing a book on publishing and promotion, but it's not finished.

I changed the layout, the book shelf look felt old, so I went pink watercolors.  What do you think?

Thank you all for viewing and Retweeting posts around this blog.  Last week's update got an impressive 57 views.  It's cool so many people stopped in to look at my projects and plans!  

Twitter Update: 

I've been active on Twitter for 12 days in in that time I've posted 120 times (10 times a day—too much to be sustainable long term), received 9,953 views, 377 profile views, 26 mentions, and I've gained 58 followers.   per Twitter Analytics.

That's 38 more followers than this time last week!  If I average 25 new followers a week (and can keep them), that's 100 new eyes every month.  Combined with my current following I could have 1k followers in 6 months.  That's steady growth I could sustain long term.

If I'd posted this update yesterday, my most popular tweet would have been my tweet with last weeks update.  467 views and 16 retweets!  You guys rock!  I hope you had fun/ could gather something from the number analysis.  However, as of this morning my most viewed tweet is a reply to @oceanviibes.  He/She has so many following, it shouldn't surprise me this of hand response to first place with 501 views and 8 engagements.

Using Hootsuite, I have posts scheduled until Monday.  It is becoming more difficult to find things to RT or tweet.  I think some of Twitter's repetition is hitting me.  To fight this, I'm playing more in Hashtag convos and hoping this will give me more fresh content to post.  

I've continued to delete inactive accounts from my following feed.  Brought the number of following to 653 and with a following of 406 I'm close to "reasonable" range, whatever that's worth.

Writing Updates: 

I completed editing all but two of my short stories, so I have 5 stories ready to go.  One of my stories is a "novella" length so I will wait until I'm back from Vegas to dive into that.  The other two will also need a lot of love, so I'm on hold in working them.

I wrote a new short story on the flight here.  Current title "Comes in Threes" and it's a horror fantasy genre.  This was a 100% original idea that wasn't on the list.

I've also gone back in through my novel.  Chapters 1-3 are complete.  Chapters 4 &5 need a complete rewrite but I have plans to work on that later today.  

Other projects are likely to be touched: the writer's group round robin.  I played with it in July and came across an editor's ethical quandary.  Since then I've decided I can do what I want to my part of the writing and I should create two separate endings for the work and post all up on North Alabama Writers' Group.  

I want to look at Cress Legacy because I think I could bring it to a close this week.  Also, I have a short story called "1000 Words" that I think I could cross off my list.

Got into the writing class and it starts Sept 3.  Blog posts on that are sure to follow.

Goodreads Update :

-All my reviews on Goodreads.com are up to date.  I was about 10 books behind and now I'm caught up.  Goodreads is part of my organic social media promotion campaign.  Since I already read a lot and often review, keeping up to date with it felt like a natural minimal effort add on.  More to come on the part Goodreads may play in my future social media chasing.

Two weeks away from trying to engage Facebook.  I don't want to, but I feel like it's the obvious next part establishing my blogs and writing in the larger world.  We'll see, maybe it won't be so bad or maybe it will drive traffic so wildly I'll wonder why I never bothered with it before.

My Twitter Plan in 8 Steps

image from openclipart.org by GDJ

1. Create and Share Interesting and Unique Content

- retweets of stuff that grabbed my attention: quotes, articles, funnies, unique perspective/advice, books I plan to read or have read
-sharing my personality
-sharing personal efforts vs results.  This differs from the other generic "how to get views bro" because it's about what I'm doing and what results I'm getting, but it's also different cause I'm not really doing as they suggest

2. Schedule Posts.

-Some days I'm super into Twitter and some days I'm low on social mojo.  An obvious solution is to use a Scheduling site to plan out posts.  My goal is to have 4-5 posts a day with only 10 posts in one day for consistency’s sake.  I'm using free versions of Hootsuite, Commun.it and Buffer to achieve these goals.
-Side benefit to my feed, when I Retweet your posts a week later is won't show up in anyone's following both of us as spam.  Instead, it will breathe a second life into great content.  I want to showcase stuff so it doesn't feel like an echo chamber all the time For reals, I want to help other people while helping myself because I believe we can win together.


3. Create More Personal Connections on the Medium

-following hashtag conversations and replying to people/holding a conversation
-replying to questions, following up with others
-thanking people for helpful content, posting reviews and otherwise interacting beyond the like button
-I want to get into #sixwordstories and some other creative hashtags.  Meet other creators, contest holders, and stretch my own creative muscles more
-trying to be a friend to people by offering advice and support instead of "on and bubbly" or "sharp and snarky". Looking for a whole person approach
-@ people with content I think they'll like or that makes me think of them. Right now that's real life people but a goal is to build relationships with people online that I "know" well enough I can tag them
-checking in once a week with people's feeds whom I connect to.  I've got a short list of ten names where I make a personal check in.

4. Using Commun.it's "Popular Tweets of Your Feed" Section to See What is Trending and What People are Interested in.

-When possible, I make a relevant RT, like, or reply, scheduled out to give a second surge to something already popular (fashionably late and not just behind the times, I hope)
-Also so I can test what's popular on my feed and better style my Tweets to fit--this is limited for me because I want to find my audience for my writing and if I mimic someone else too much, I'll just find their audience

5. Use of Hashtags

-I have about four related lists I'm working with.  I also have days of the week plans, and I schedule.
-Also I'm interesting in cultivating my audience for writing, so I peek in to hashtags that match my book so see what people are saying and who's out to play

6. Once a Week Check in 

-This is part a batching thing and part a community builder
-I will look at everyone's feed on who has followed me over the week on Friday to see if we have common interests and then I may follow them back.
-I am also once a week checking in on some people who have consistent content I enjoy that might get swept away in my feed

7.Checking in to Twitter Analytics:

-By looking at my success and failures at least twice a week, I can see what works and doesn't work in my post records.  I can tell if it's content or time that may have garnered attention.  I can figure out if the hashtag communities I am drawn to are working for me.  And, as a little of a numbers geek, I can find endless entertainment in my ranking.  What worked, what didn't work, and theorizing why.

8.Unfollowing More People.

-I started unfollowing people on Tuesday. I thought it would only take one purge to get rid of everyone who is not relevant. Sooooooo wrong.  I've been dropping about 50 people a day.  When I got back to my Twitter, I was following 900-ish people and now I'm following 676 people.  This is cool becasue it means soon I'll be able to pick up more groups that interest me.  Agents, publishing companies, asuthors, and finding a few more of those dreaded content marketers.  I have a love hate relationship with content marketing.

- I am cleaning up contacts inactive for over a month or people whose account appears to have shifted away from my interests during my time off Twitter.  Of my Twitter plans this is my least favorite part of the work load, and I hope it's least important.

And these are hopefully my 8 steps to a successful Twitter Campaign.  Am I missing anything?  Do you have a cool sight you use that I should sheck out?  Tell me in the comments below.

Want to see how this plan is going? Check out:

August 21st Progress Report
August 29th Progress Report
September 4 Numbers