Here’s a not-secret confession: I moonlight as a blogger. I’ve been blogging for more than five years now. In fact, I met all of my friends IRL through my blog, or their blogs. What I’m trying to say is I spend a lot of time on blogs. CMD hired me, I think, because of all of this time I’ve spent on blogs…or maybe because they sensed in my interview that I make the best guacamole EVER and they just keep me around for the blog experience. Either way, as I reach out to bloggers on behalf of clients, I’ve been taking a look at community, my own and those I connect with. Every marketer wants to find that perfect blogger with a huge blogging community and equally active Twitter and Facebook accounts, but as I spend time researching bloggers, I find that person is rare.
One blogger may have an average of 50 comments on posts, uniques in the 20,000 range, 250 followers on Twitter, and a private Facebook account. Another may have just six comments on a post, and 400 uniques, but a robust Twitter community. Other people have Facebook communities that are flourishing and a rarely updated blog with no Twitter presence to speak of.
There are millions of people who call Yelp, GoodReads, or the knit and crochet site Ravelry home and have a rich, active community of friends on those networks. We even recently recommended Yahoo Groups as a viable place for a client to spend time.
The truth is, we have 24 hours in the day. And while social media is both engaging and addictive, we all have other things to do. Most of my social media time is spent on blogs and Twitter, followed by Ravelry– I could spend hours reading patterns and looking at the photos of the different ways a knitter tackled a particular sweater—but I have few friends there. Why don’t I add more Ravelry friends? After I’ve spent a few hours looking at patterns, I don’t really want to seek out new people.
I wonder why people stick with their particular social networking tools. Why Facebook and not Twitter? Is it because their friends are already there or because the tool itself is more intuitive to the individual? Or maybe they just love hearing about other people’s experience dining out, or talking books, or checking out endless handknit socks.
What about you? Where is your community? Why do you stick around to nurture it?
Tags: agency insight, blogging, cmd agency, communications, community, conversation, conversation starter, networking, social media
This is an interesting post. I like the way you’ve made me evaluate my own social media uses, and the different communities I belong to. As I think about it, I suppose that for me it really comes down to the fact that I use each community for different purposes.
For example…
My Facebook page is for people who I’ve previously met face-to-face. It’s how I share pictures and personal news with family members, as well as reconnecting with old friends and classmates.
My Twitter handle, @nitemayer17 started out just as a personal experiment (hence the use of a screen name I came up with when I was 16) but quickly evolved into the way that I stay connected with colleagues and current with important news. It’s also my best tool for finding out about webinars and events that involve PR.
My blog, http://funnycleanvideos.wordpress.com is for fun, but it’s also a personal challenge to see large I can grow my audience. It gives me a chance to experiment with other media, and measure what makes my audience grow.
I am on LinkedIn because I’m supposed to be. That’s really it. There’s not a lot interesting going on in that community, so I use it very little.
The flip side to all of this is that I use Facebook, blogs, and other social media in my Public Relations work for Rose Villa, and it is all completely different. The rules are different. My language is different. My goals are different.
So, to ask “What is your community?” is like asking “What shoes do you wear?” My answer will vary depending on my activity, and my goals.
And do you know? I’m pretty happy that social media is evolving that way.
Thanks for your comment, David. I like your shoe analogy. If you ever want to start knitting, maybe I’ll see you on Ravelry.