Monday Metrics

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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 16 week Review!  and the steps I’m taking are on 6 Steps for Twitter.

Twitter Analytics

I’ve been active on Twitter for 126 days. In the last 28 days I’ve had 256 posts, 720 profile visits, 89 mentions, and 112 new follows.  

Conversion based on profile views is 15%.
  
My engagement is 3.7%. 

I post about 9 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.  I received 153 eyes per post last week.  I haven‘t used hashtags often and I‘ve been straight retweeting, instead of adding comments.  Work is grueling this time of year, but I plan to do better.

Blog Stats


I got 37 views last week spread across 8 posts and 3 pages.  I can’t infer much from these numbers because the holiday times may either help boost or hinder my numbers regardless of content.

The North Alabama Writers’ Group blog has 22 views this past week.  The detail break out suggests shows people may be searchingauthors pages this week.

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 Dec 17th, Dec 11th,  Dec 3rd, Nov 12th, Nov 5th, Oct 22nd, Oct 9th, Oct 1st Sept 24th, Sept17th, or Sept 10th.  

Monday Metrics

image from openclipart.org by cactus cowboy

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 16 week Review!  and the steps I’m taking are on 6 Steps for Twitter.

Twitter Analytics

I’ve been active on Twitter for 119 days. In the last 28 days I’ve had 255 posts, 788 profile visits, 104 mentions, and 114 new follows.  

Conversion based on profile views is 14%.
  
My engagement is 3.9%. 

I post about 9 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.  I received 164 eyes last week.  This week, I got into the weeds in a conversation about other’s favorite flowers.  A lot of engagements but not a lot of eyes.

Blog Stats


I got 71 views last week spread across 6 post.  An improvement from last week, but I’m uncertain if it relates to content or promotion of my posts.  I posted three times this week, and plan to post three times this week too.  I hope to replicate the results.

The North Alabama Writers’ Group blog has 26 views this past week.  The detail break out suggests that all my back links are kicking in.  Someone goes to the December Call for Submissions and ends up clicking on our Ongoing Call For Submissions. 

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 Dec 11th,  Dec 3rd, Nov 12th, Nov 5th, Oct 22nd, Oct 9th, Oct 1st Sept 24th, Sept17th, or Sept 10th.  

16 Week Update

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It’s been sixteen weeks since I started my: “Jess Donegan is Here” Campaign.  Time to see where I hit the mark and where I need to adjust.  Check out my weekly updates starting with 12/10 numbers, 12/3 numbers,  11/19 numbers, 11/12 numbers, 11/5 numbers, 10/22 numbers, 10/15 numbers, 10/9 numbers, 10/1 numbers,  9/24 numbers, 9/17 numbers, 9/10 numbers, 9/4 numbers/evaluation, 8/29 numbers/evaluation, and 8/21 numbers/evaluation.

I enjoy my Monday Metrics post.  The format is a copy/paste each week where I update numbers and the “featured posts."  One thing I have to do now that my day job is busier, is I will have to prepare “Monday Metrics” in advance.  The numbers won‘t be as accurate, but I won’t miss a week as I have in the past.  

This December I’m going to run a test on #TellAllTuesday.  This is a blog/twitter idea I had that fizzled early.  I want to bring back a featured post each Tuesday with this # that either shares an element of my plans in detail or reveals something I’m not moving on.

Overall growth on Twitter is good.  I wrote an updated 6 step plan that more aligns with my actions.  I’m experimenting with audience building through less intense work on the platform.  In October I had 358 Tweets with 70K views and 102 new follows.  In November I had 248 Tweets with 54.9K views, and 88 new follows.  While my views and follows dropped, it wasn‘t proportional.  For every October post I had 195 views and “earned” .28 of a follow.  In November each post recieved 221 views and “earned” .35 of a follower.  I’m spending less time on the platform and increasing views.  Now, I might have needed the rapid heavy involvement in the first two-and-a-half months to bring my “following” high enough I can step back.  Now my goal is to have 3-5 meaningful conversations in the Twitter world every two days (about 9-15 convos a week), to stick to my current post schedule and include one blog link a day, to follow about 5-15 new interesting people a week, and to earn about 20 new follows a week.  I want to do this while only putting in only 25min a day.

This Blog 

Wins:
1. Added a featured post to highlight what showcases the blog.  This way when people land on my blog during a Metrics Post or an experimental post, they can see other “guaranteed” quality content.
2. Added a “Best of” page at the top of the page and organized all my posts across the blogs into categories from the most interesting to least interesting and I keep it up to date.  This helps viewers find posts on topics that interest them but it also helps me find posts to retweet more.

3. Created an "Ongoing Submissions" page organized by the kind of submission the venue is looking for.

4. Created a "Resources" page it currently links to a list of other writing/publishing bloggers I follow.  In the future there will be more resources.

5. Started a few series in this blog and at NAWG that interest me and I feel will generate conversation long term.
6. I’m more curious and have more ideas than ever to explore and expand blog traffic.

7. I have consistent traffic and it’s a larger audience than I expected

Needs Improvement:
1. Traffic.  Seeing the increase in traffic lets me know I could further push my traffic.  I read an article that suggests “rapid growth” daily bloggers see comes from their ability to reach 100 posts quickly.  I can‘t increase my post rate and I can’t merge my two blogging homes to one, but I can know it will take at least 100 posts with sources, links, pics, and promotion before I see my full growth potential.  We are speaking of   another 60-ish posts to this blog and  60 to my other blog.  I have a year before I see true gains.
2. Self promotion.  I headed in the right direction by increasing links to Twitter, posting to Google+, and sharing on Facebook, but I need to do this more AND I need to interact on some Facebook Groups and Google+ groups.  This will be a slow process.  Twitter time has to come down and then I can explore one of these outlets.
3.  Actual writing.  I have a HUGE list of blog topics.  This update for example, is about 6 weeks overdue I wanted a 10 week update, but ideas and scheduling just keep getting the way.  On one side, it‘s comforting to know I have a mountain of content to cover.  On the other side, it‘s discouraging I have more stuff to pile on and write than I know what to do with.

What I’m Doing:
1. Going through my list of blogging topics and writing them. Special focus on keeping my series alive this includes “Best of Kindle Unlimited”, “Bells and Whistles”, “Be Bold”(only has three installments, two are written and scheduled), “Monday Metrics”, “Tell All Tuesday”,  and “Let’s Get Organized” (Series I haven‘t even started).  I’m looking to touch base with each of these projects once a month until the series reach their natural conclusion.  

2. I’m mapping a series called “Writing Cliches” or “Writing Sins” I want to look at it both from a writing and reading perspective.  Why do these things exist, when do they work, when they don’t work, and what to do instead?  The series would tie in with #writetip and #HorribleWriteTip on Twitter.  

3. Playing with a “Story Time” or “Reflections" style post where I write about different writing tools, phases, and so on I went through.  My Niche Blogging post falls into this category and I wrote a “what softwares I‘ve used to write a novel” that fits here too.  I’m just considering what else I‘d share in this series/title and if it has cross over potential to the NAWG blog.

3. Have shorter posts.  Blogs should be 300-1,000 words.  I fail at this and need to break posts up.  

The North Alabama Writer’s Group blog 

Wins:

1. Our October flashes were huge successes. please see "The Ghost Strikes at Midnight" and "Halloween Spirit"

2. Getting Chris to take part more on the blog is going well, and he‘s sharing our work. His audience appears more interactive than mine so we‘re gaining more views.

3. My goal with the blog this year was to post once a week.  I managed this goal for 8 of 12 months.  If I can post on my own through December (and I have posts stacked through the 22nd) then I can write all next year.

4. Our audience is more consistent.  Where we would go days without views, most days the blog gets 3ish views.  That’s huge from where it started.

Needs Improvement:

1. More group stories.  Oct’s flash success shows me we need more group writing exercises on our page.  Imagine what a bi-weekly group story could do for our traffic.  Or even imagine if I’d had one more Halloween Flash to share?

2. Group participation.  While I’ve got Chris on board, I want to reel in two more group members.  

3. Sharing, I want to see if I can get our members to send out our blog on their media and in real life when it applies.  I’ve taken first steps (which I am enhancing) but I need more group support/consistency.  

What I’m Doing: 

1. Nagging the group and doing my best to remember what they do is outside my immediate sphere of influence.

2. Posting more on social media

3. Continuing to pump out quality content.  A lot of it evergreen in nature. 

Creative Writing

 I am working on edits to my novel “Follow Me: Tattered Veils”.  I am frustrated because I would like more feedback as I go through this process and no one seems to want to help me.  In pursuit of this feedback, I took a writing class, but it didn‘t work.  

At my writing group‘s request, I’ve posted Chapters 1-3 but only Ashley reads.  Ashley has been thoughtful and intentional in her feedback, but I am looking to poll the audience and there‘s no audience to poll.  Feeling a little jilted here both with where the editing process stands and with the response I’m getting from my writing resources.  I want to consider a beta reader, even if I have to pay for the service, but I’m not far enough along in edits for me to feel like I could produce as fast as they would read.

I’m discouarged because I feel more like a blogger than a creative writer right now.  The need to balance the two kinds of writing is strong, but I don’t see how I can stop writing the blogs and remain consistent.  Maybe as I write more posts, my speed will increase and I’ll be able to make room for both?


Talk to me.  Tell me about your own plans, how are they going?  Is there something key I’ve forgotten or HAVE to try?  What’s the most important part of your routine?  Do you have success on a social media platform I’m not using/considering right now?

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

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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 GDJ

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.   Full disclosure: to make certain these posts happen while I'm busy with work, I had to post plan them.  The numbers where pulled 24hrs ahead of this post date.  

Twitter Analytics
I’ve been active on Twitter for 105 days. In the last 28 days I’ve had 233 posts, 464 profile visits, 101 mentions, and 78 new follows.  

Conversion based on profile views is 16%. The past month was NANO.  For me, it seems it had a negative impact on conversion.  Could be because all my fellow writers were writing or it could be because I didn’t NANO this year.
  
My engagement is 2.3%. On my daily goals is the “interact with 3 people on Twitter” but it depends on what‘s going on that day.  Plus, I can add a comment to a conversation and not be acknowledged in the flood of feedback some posts get.

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.  Fewer posts = fewer eyes, but the proportions are better per post.  This past 28 days I got 216 eyes a post.  On Oct 22nd I had 330 posts with 52,400 views or only 158 eyes a view.  Less time but an increase in views per post.

Blog Stats

I got 55 views last week spread across 10 posts and 2 pages.  I updated my list of links to my posts across both blogs organized by topic. I’ve also spent a lot of time working on my recommended writing bloggers.  Some of my December plans begin this week with the launch of my “Be Bold Blogging” series where I talk about the pros and cons of sharing site metrics and how a person achieves these.  I also brought out an introspective piece on all the blog niches I’ve explored.

The North Alabama Writers’ Group blog has 6 views this past week.  It’s a shame I didn’t get to a Monday Metric last week because the blog had 11 views then. Of Note: because work ran away with me these past 10 days, there were no promotions for the blog and I think it sunk my traffic.

 Important for fellow writers: December Round Up of Calls for Submission is out on the NAWG blog.  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 check out my list of Ongoing Submissions organized by genre and length requirements.  

 I’m experimenting with adding critical content to both blogs check out my first step in “6 Reasons I Stopped Reading Daily Science Fiction."  I’m told “spilling the tea” brings the views, but so far that‘s not what I’m experiencing.  Then again, I don‘t want a ton of draining drama, I want to discuss things that work or do not work in our writing community openly.  Daily Science Fiction doesn‘t work for me.

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 older updates on Nov 19th, Nov 12th, Nov 5th, Oct 22nd, Oct 9th, Oct 1st Sept 24th, Sept17th, or Sept 10th.  

Monday Metrics

image from openclipart.org by gnokii

Sorry, I missed last week.  I was at work until 7pm, but I’m starting this up in the morning to be certain it posts!

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 79 days. In the last 28 days I’ve had 281 posts, 458 profile visits, 96 mentions, and 89 new follows.  

Conversion based on profile views is 19%. My new followers list seems to have jumped, even as I post less and receive fewer retweets.  Does consistency, time on the platform, or something else tie in to this increased growth?
  
My engagement is 2.5%. I am seeing a steady decrease in interaction on Twitter.  I haven’t converted Twitter followers to blog readers, and it has me wondering, what is the end goal on this platform?  It’s only been 79 days, and I’m not giving up, but Twitter presence and friends/interactions with other writers/editors/bloggers/agents doesn’t seem to transform to a blog or book following.  

I post about 10 times a day.  I plan five posts and the others of responses or impromptu promotions.  What’s most interesting with this stat is I’m posting less per day and still increasing my views.  September I had 371 tweets and 41.1k views, October I had 358 tweets and 70k views.

Blog Stats

I got 38 views last week spread across 11 posts.  My consistency fell last week, and it‘s affected my posts.  Instead of writing anything new, I added a “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. 

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.


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 Oct 22nd, or go back further to reports on: Oct 9th, Oct 1st Sept 24th, Sept17th, or Sept 10th.  

Metric Monday!

from openclipart.org by j4p4n

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 59 days. In the last 28 days I’ve had 343 posts, 510 profile visits, 123 mentions, and 69 new follows.  

Conversion based on profile views is 13%.  Same as last week and I’m expecting this to be my steady growth rate, barring a new strategy to increase engagement or attention.
  
My engagement is 2.8%. I post plan, and I am trying to spend less time on Twitter while maintaining a sense of presence.  I kind of think my “engagement” can’t go up when I’m not in there making the connections. Days of high engagement involve a lot of personal real time responses and conversations happening on Twitter.  I think might be too much for me to manage regularly.  While I’ll always respond to people who talk with me, my social level and my time constrain me from reaching out more and hosting more conversations.

I post about 12 times a day.  I plan five posts and the others of responses or impromptu promotions.  Planning posts is work, and it’s hard to balance what I see on my feed with what I want to share/promote/say.  I’m not great with a single line, but I wonder if I should try a few original tweets anyhow.

I broke 4,000 views on Sat.  My views for the week are good overall, high 2,000 two days and mid 3,000 one day, which I thought would be my new all-time high view rate.  

I have a single tweet that has 3,362 views.  This tweet picked up conversation, and I heard about other writers’ processes and what they like about writing.  It was cool.  


Blog Stats

I got 100 views last week spread across 9 posts.  Sitting at week 3 with about 100 views.  This blog is for recording my writing process and giving personal feedback about the process of writing and self promoting on social media.  While it’s an interesting individual study or work, it doesn‘t lend itself to easy “evergreen” re-usable content.  Thank you guys for being interested and checking out the blog every week.

The North Alabama Writers’ Group blog has 13 views this past week.  Officially I can not take credit for our numbers.  I dropped “Halloween Spirit”, my own spooky October flash fiction story for our writers group challenge, and it did not catch like wildfire.  What did I learn?  Objectively, Chris has a more engaged personal network than I do, more friends, family, and acquaintances than I have.  Some of his friends came out and read my story to support our blog and I’m confident no one (except Lionel) I know read my story.

  Also, if we’re being honest, Chris has the better story. Seriously, “The Ghost Strikes at Midnight.”, is a more traditional and engaging ghost story than my off brand pagan summoning ritual.  He’s character focused where I’m event focused, and his story is better for it. 

I want to recommend to fellow writers our October Open Calls for Submission.  

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 Oct 9th, or go back further to reports on Oct 1st Sept 24th, Sept17th, or Sept 10th.  

Weekly Metrics

from openclipart.org by oksmith

Sorry this is late, my job has a new policy that I “can’t” leave until the work “is done”, a policy that was sprung on me Monday.  Blindsided, I ended up forced to work until 6:30 due to poor staffing and high sales traffic.

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 42 days. In the last 28 days I’ve had 336 posts, 505 profile visits, 128 mentions, and 68 new follows.  

Conversion based on profile views is 13%.  It seems like my new growth rate is stabilizing.  Last week I spoke of losing 5 followers, but this week I went up a little over 20 followers in just the week.  I have done nothing different, so maybe the first week of a month is slow?
  
My engagement is 3.0%.  It wobbles, but I don’t know I’ll break 3ish. I post plan, and I am trying to spend less time on Twitter while maintaining a sense of presence.  I kind of think my “engagement” can’t go up when I’m not in there making the connections. 

I post about 12 times a day.  I plan five posts and the others of responses or impromptu promotions.  Planning posts is can feel like pulling teeth.  Sometimes my Twitter feed is just not that interesting. 

I broke 2,000 views for the second time on Thurs and Sun.  My views on the rest of the days remain strong, well over 1,000 view mark.    


Blog Stats

I got 97 views last week spread across 5 posts.  Sitting at week 2 with about 100 views, so I’m seeing something cool.  It’s no secret, this blog is for recording my writing process and giving personal feedback about the process of writing and self promoting on social media.  I don’t know if that kind of content is helpful or engaging to others, but I sensed there was a niche for it and it’s rewarding to see growth here.

The North Alabama Writers’ Group blog has 62 views this past week.  I would love to take the credit, but I believe Christopher M. Palmer kicked off our October success with his flash fiction “The Ghost Strikes at Midnight."  I‘m trying to capture that lightening in a bottle with my own flash story scheduled to drop Oct 10th!  I still want to recommend to fellow writers our October Open Calls for Submission.  And I still want other writers to share how they choose a genre.  


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 Oct 1st, or go back further to reports on Sept 24th, Sept17th, or Sept 10th.  

Monday Metrics: Pour Those Numbers on Me!

image from openclipart.org by Scout

My week review posts are too long, so I’m breaking it up into straight numbers and progress updates/plan adjustments.  Today is all about the results.   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 45 days. In the last 28 days I’ve had 340 posts, 600 profile visits, 108 mentions, and 75 new follows.

Conversion based on profile views is 12%.  This is a 7% drop in follow (I saw that 6 people had unfollowed me went from 525 total follows to 519).  What does this mean?  I’m not sure.  Could be that I’ve grown as far as my audience/interest allows.  Could be I had a lousy week on Twitterverse.  It’s something I must check in the long term.
  
My engagement is 3.2%.  It wobbles, but I don’t know I’ll break 3ish.  

I post about 12 times a day.  I plan five posts and the others of responses or impromptu promotions.  Planning posts is still tricky.  Feels like I have little to “say” or I keep censoring responses.  Maybe I need to get back to being off the cuff?  

I broke 2,000 views for the second time on Thursday, but my following Friday, Saturday, and Sunday views were  under 1,000 (which I’m considering bad).  I wonder if people staid off Twitter because of the Judicial Court Trials or if my Tweets were subpar? I have 4 Tweets with over 1,000 views.  My engagement stats are all over the place. I can’t make sense yet over what people like and what they pass on.


Blog Stats

This blog continues to put in work.  I got 94 views last week spread across 10 posts.  It’s not brag worthy, but this is a personal blog with more impressions, personal plans, and results.  I don’t expect it to be a traffic generator.  There’s value and casual interest in how a fellow blogger/aspiring writer is doing, but I don’t think there’s much interest when I don’t have name recognition.

The North Alabama Writers’ Group blog has 18 views this past week.  We have 15 hits on my latest collection of Open Calls for Submission in Oct.  I’m pleased it’s gathered attention but disappointed my post asking how writers choose a genre for their book didn’t garner more attention, even though I’ve promoted it a few times.  

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 Sept 24, or go back further to reports on Sept 17th, or Sept 10th.  

6 Week Review

from openclipart.org by j4p4n

It’s been six weeks since I started my: “Jess Donegan is Here” Campaign.  Time to see where I hit the mark and were I need to adjust.  Check out my weekly updates starting most recently with 9/24 numbers, 9/17 numbers, 9/10 numbers, 9/4 numbers/evaluation, 8/29 numbers/evaluation, and 8/21 numbers/evaluation.

First thing I’ve changed is how I report.  I started by reporting numbers and making plane each week. Right away, I saw these reports were too long and very little changed.  Instead, I report my numbers once a week and will talk in depth about those results every other month or once a month.

Overall growth on Twitter is good.  Need to Maintain the course (check out my 8 steps here).  No course change needed.  The plan works for me because it’s flexible.  Some days I don’t even have to look at Twitter and other days I can swing by and make one on one mentions.  I am slipping out into political water, and I must watch out for that going forward in my campaign.  I’m undecided on if politics has a place in my Twitter persona.

This blog and the North Alabama Writer's Group blog exist.  Go me?

Wins:
1. Creating content
2. Posting across both blogs
3. Sticking to the niche identified
4. Our Writers’ Group is talking about self promotion and considering what we could do to reach out to other creators around us.  I’ve captured Chris and am recruiting Ashley.

Needs Improvement:
1. Traffic
2. Self promotion
3.  Time.  It’s only been six weeks since I’ve been pushing the blogs
4. Cross platform promotion

What I’m Doing:
1. Made a list of all the posts I have and the categories they fit in and I plan to schedule 1 Tweet a day to promote my writing.
2. I will suck it up and go to Facebook.  My original plan was to start that aft 30 days of blogging but I backed out because it overwhelmed me.  Then I thought “who needs Facebook” but the thing is I might.  So I will make a general “hello” post and from then on post when an article first drops.  
3. Going through older posts and creating back links.  I have a lot of series posts, and I’m not maximizing people’s love of crawling relevant threads.
4. I’ve had a lot of luck on Google+, maybe it’s time I pursued that again? Will test after Facebook campaign is part of the routine
5. Working on a guest blog post for @arimehglen. With luck this may lead to more guest posts? Will keep an eye out.
6. An Oct scary set of shorts
7.A “Creatives we are Thankful for” article for NAWG where ere acknowledge local talent and reconnect ourselves to local writers and publishers
8. Dec Merch launch.  Need to push this even if the audience is not there yet.

Creative Writing

My time management has been shitty.  I’ve needed to turn a lot of my resources inward because I need help with my day job.  Speaking of which: are you looking to hire a writer because I WANT to work with you!

I’ve been telling the writers’ group I’m not writing.  That’s not 100% honest.  I’ve written a couple of pieces about women choosing a brutal death over life.  Since I noticed the theme in my writing, I’ve stopped all new works until I’m in a better head space.

 I am also working on edits to my novel “Follow Me: Tattered Veils” but the group doesn’t seem interested in reading it and I don’t want to talk with them about the same things repeatedly (which is the editing process, going over it until it’s memorized).

I am hoping I’ll have more time for my book now I have a resume out in the world and I’m hoping my writers’ workshop will take on beta-ing draft #2 of my novel.  We had our first meeting this past Sunday and the group leader, Megan Beam, seemed interested in the premise, so I hope she’ll have feedback for me.

I’ve been enviously reading other writers’ posts on creating a calendar for their projects.  I don’t have enough time to break it down the way they do.  But I am still reading different time management techniques.  I enjoy batching similar tasks.  In a world where I could find 3-5hrs a day, I’d enjoy blocking my time.  I’m still trying it on a small scale but results will be slow in coming.

Reviewing

In the next few months I plan to further integrate my reading/reviewing with my writing.  I have a few pieces coming out to link the two.  I think my GoodReads presence is a waste staying separate as it is now, bit I haven’t found the right plan to rope the two in....yet.

Talk to me.  Tell me about your own plans, how are they going?  Is there something key I’ve forgotten or HAVE to try?  What’s the most important part of your routine?  Do you have success on a social media platform I’m not using/considering right now?