I believe in all things in moderation… Including social media.
I’ve been feeling the urge to write this blog post for a while… And, I’ve put it off for a while. It could certainly make enemies for me. But, I feel that it’s something I need to write. So, here it is.
I’ve said it time and time again… I really enjoy blogging because I love the people. I love being a part of the community, and I have made many great new friends.
That said, I think it’s time we all had a chat… About social media and blog promotion. Of course, you should absolutely take my opinion with a grain of salt. Am I a huge, popular blogger? Nope! Am I qualified to write a blog post about how to be a successful blogger? Not really. But, I’ve been at this for a few years, so I will tell you what has worked (and more importantly, not worked) for me.
If you’re not interested, by all means, stop reading. I’m not offended. Really.
Spreading the Word…
I know the feeling… You’ve just spent days working on the perfect recipe. You’ve taken countless photos to get that glamour shot (as I like to call it) of your dish, you’ve written up a great blog post, and now you want to let everyone know about it. There’s nothing wrong with that. I think you should spread the word about your new posts.
But, don’t overdo it.
No one wants to see you tweeting your own post a hundred times. This is an area where less is more. Moderation is key!
How much is too much? That is something you need to decide for yourself… I tend to tweet about my posts once or twice (most times, I try to stick to once, very rarely more than twice!) and I do put my new blog posts up on the My Kitchen Addiction Facebook page (but not my personal page!). Is that too much? Perhaps you think so. I think it works for me.
Self-Promotion…
Much like spreading the word about your blog posts, this is another place where there is a thin line that I personally don’t think you should cross.
I understand the desire to promote your site, your blog posts, and your recipes on various social media sites. But, I also believe in using sites in the way they are meant to be used, abiding by the spirit of social media, if you will.
Ok, so I’ll stop beating around the bush. Do not under any circumstances stumble or pin your own posts. Or your site. Just. Don’t. Do. It. (Can you tell this is a pet peeve of mine?)
Both StumbleUpon and Pinterest have become a place for everyone to spam all of their followers (many of the same followers from Facebook and Twitter, I might add) with their own blog posts. Is it really wrong? Well, that seems to be a grey area.
But, I would argue that promoting your own stuff on either of those sites is not in the spirit of sharing that the sites are intended for. Plus, it doesn’t look good for you to post (stumble, pin, digg, etc…) your own stuff. The intention is to share things you enjoy and recommend with your friends. If you’re constantly recommending your own stuff, it isn’t becoming of you or your site. And, I probably don’t follow you anymore.
Along these same lines… Please don’t “share” your own blog posts on Stumble Upon so that it emails everyone that follows you. If I want to see every single one of your posts, I will subscribe to your RSS feed (and chances are, I do).
Stumble Groups and Promoting Your Friends…
Alright, we all agree on the fact that it’s bad to self-promote. So, why not get a group of your friends to promote all of your posts for you? Makes sense, right?
This is certainly another grey area. And, I would be lying if I said I haven’t been a part of it. I’ve been in and out of a few groups of friends who stumble each others posts, and, as long as you’re stumbling things that you honestly enjoy (and only those things), I guess it’s not such a bad thing. I can’t pass a blanket judgment on this one like I did on self-stumbling.
That said, I will tell you that it hasn’t worked for me. Again, I struggle with the fact that I don’t feel like it really fits the spirit of social media to like/stumble/pin every single post from the same group of people. Honestly… No one can write a great post every time (well, except for maybe a few people I know… But, they are rockstars!). Heck, I’m happy to have one or two “great” posts a month, if that. I don’t expect anyone to love everything I write, and I can’t personally agree to promote every single thing that anyone else writes, either.
For me, it’s about being authentic… I don’t think it looks authentic when I am re-tweeting and stumbling the same 5 (or 10, 15, 20… you get the point) blogs all of the time. I share the things I like when and where I want to… Because I honestly like them. Period.
And, the same thing goes for commenting.
You’re Not Smarter Than Google…
Or StumbleUpon, for that matter. It hurts, I know it. But, it’s true. Very few people are.
Don’t believe me? Just do a quick search for interview questions used by Google when screening their developers. As a former developer and math/computer science dual major, I am telling you that the questions are hard. So, it’s only natural to assume that their developers are smart. Really smart. So, do you honestly think you are going to outsmart them? I certainly can’t!
If you are just trying to increase your traffic by adding tons of keywords to your posts (it’s the unnecessary keywords I’m talking about here), it’s probably not going to work. Sure, making you blog SEO friendly can help a bit. In the spirit of full disclosure, I will tell you that my blog theme does have built in SEO optimization. Fine. But, do I research keywords and re-write my post titles for Google traffic? Not a chance.
Again, I say it… You are not smarter than Google.
Same thing goes for StumbleUpon. If you stumble the same stuff over and over again, it probably isn’t going to make that much of a difference. You can’t really game the system because you probably don’t fully understand the system. And, that’s how it’s supposed to be.
Focus Your Efforts on Quality…
So, I’ve gone on and on (and on) about what not to do… So, if you can’t tweet 100 times about each post and shouldn’t stumble your own stuff, what should you do to develop a great blog?
I am a big believer in the fact that if you do good work, people will find your site. Channel your energy into perfecting your recipes, improving your photography, and developing your own writing style. Others will tweet, stumble, and pin your posts because they love them. And, in the end, isn’t that what you really want?
I write my blog because I love connecting with others. I love to share my love of food. I want to teach others that cooking and baking from scratch doesn’t have to be complicated. It’s about sharing… And, it’s about community.
In the end, for me, it’s all about making a connection… Sure, a high traffic day is great. Yes, I do track my site analytics, though I try to avoid looking at them more than once or twice a month. But, at the end of the day, it’s much more satisfying to get an email from a reader whose family enjoyed one of my recipes for dinner than to know that I had a 10% increase in traffic.
Jen…I love this. Great tips and practices.
Very good points Jen. And not at all controversial in my book ;)
Great post. I’d a few foodbuzz rules as well. Getting the same post in my inbox four or five times is just annoying, and I end up ignoring those bloggers.
I have been guilty of stumbling my own posts, but I’ve found if I just let it be someone else will almost always do it, and they tend to have more stumble power than I do.
I’ve worked hard to improve my photos and post good recipes, and I keep working at it. I believe that will eventually pay off.
Amen to all of it. I quit the stumbleupon & pinterest worlds for some of the reasons you called out. I like my readers. They may not be numerous, but they are quality, & they’ll find me no matter how many times I don’t spam the world with my “brilliance”.
Great post Jen! I have a new blog and struggled with promotion. I love blogging but even I didn’t like seeing my own posts two, three and four times.
I used to pin my own photos but deleted that board as well.
I blog because I love it. I work incredibly long hours at home and it’s a great outlet. That being said I feel better knowing I’m on the right track. I only post once a day on FB and Twitter (although it does go to my personal FB page and my Fan Page – oddly I have different followings on both as well as readers from both).
One email is sent in the morning and I never add SEO word tags.
I feel much better now and glad you posted lady!!! Never be afraid to say what you think. People don’t want to listen to a bit of wisdom…well….
☺
You definitely make some good points here…I would say my view on this differs a bit, but I have the same general sentiment as you that everyone has to find that line for themselves.
For instance, I think it’s fine to post one picture from a post to Pinterest – I add maybe 10-15 posts per day from other sources, and so I feel like having 1-2 pictures of my own in a whole week is just a way of sharing photos I took with my followers along with a bunch of other cool photos from other places. Furthermore, at least to my understanding, Pinterest doesn’t send out an email to folks every time I post (at least I hope not! I certainly don’t receive emails everytime there’s a post from someone I follow) – so it’s more like one picture on a wall along with many others. I would probably feel differently if someone were using the service *only* to post their own stuff…in that case, you can just go to their blog!
I think Google+ is an interesting new area…for me this is different from other forms of social media because I primarily only have friends on there that I know well and in real life. I’ve been adding links to my posts there mostly because many in this group don’t really read food blogs or even know that I blog but might be interested in seeing a post about a meal we shared or something similar.
Oh do I agree…so so so very much. My biggest pet peeve?
“When ASPARAGUS AND BRIE PANINI is so good, you have to try this ASPARAGUS AND BRIE PANINI. My recipe for ASPARAGUS AND BRIE PANINI is the best on the web, so why not try this ASPARAGUS AND BRIE PANINI today? All your friends will be begging you for your recipe for ASPARAGUS AND BRIE PANINI.”
OMG Stop it!
There…I said my piece…off to stumble!
What a great post Jen. If only we’d all written it. I’m an old school blogger, and I’ve always counted you as a Big blogger. Maybe it’s because your posts resonate with me. I like your style and I’m glad you’ve stepped up to the plate and reminded us all about common courtesy. It’s needed for certain.
Pinterest does have etiquette rules. And, one of them is to not self promote. I tweeted about it recently and will probably again. Everyone does neat “stuff” and to allow your “stuff” to be discovered by a world away is so much better than the “me, me, me” stuff. I live with my 84 year old mother-in-law. She has dementia, and everything is always about her. My husband is a therapist, he says dementia brings out those bad personality traits we have in life. I’m trying not to be so self involved these days. (this comment is not one of those times.) :-/ But following your rules will make it easier for it to be about someone else. Thank you!
great stuff Jen. I’ve stumbled some of my stuff before, but it did always feel weird. I think i’ve pinned two pictures of mine before but I just happened to really love those pics:)
so, i’m not smarter than Google? you totally burst my bubble ;)
I like it when you pin your own stuff, Ethan. I almost always skim Pinterest, but don’t always make the blog rounds, you know? So I don’t fell spammed when I see people pinning their own stuff.
I agree Aimee, I actually am more likely to use Stumble and Pinterest to keep up with blogs than my RSS reader. I don’t mind when people share with me their posts, if they didn’t I might miss them!
I think the key is being authentic like Jen was talking about. I think your authenticity comes through when you self-promote in any format.
Jen- I struggle myself with this entire social media when is does marketing crossover to rampant self-promotion. Most of times the answer is clear to enough, sometimes it’s not-therein lies the struggle.
I will say, I pin my own stuff, but that’s because I know I have followers who follow me on Pinterest, rather than through an RSS feed. I’ve stumbled maybe two or three of my own post BUT it they were posts where I contributed at, so it was more to promote their site. Another thing I also do is a key word search for my post then I add it to the tags. I DO NOT change my title or my content to try to outsmart Google. So I kinda seem to be breaking all the rules here. YIKES. But like you said, the key is authenticity. I think no matter what you do, or if you are a rule breaker or not, authenticity ultimately is like the long tail of blogging.
Great post and I love all the discussion around it!
I feel really out of the loop. I have an old cellphone so maybe this is part of the reason. I have been wanting to start my own blog once my businesstakes off, but i have no idea what pinning and stumbling even are! Tweeting I do know but don’t kill time doing it. I don’t want to know what everyone is doing every second of the day. Call me old fashioned at 39:)
Manette, your comment made me feel so much better! I have an old cell phone and don’t even know what stumbling and pinning even are (though I’ve been invited to Pinterest)! AND I am not on Facebook and never will be; how about you?
Amen to this, Jen! I am a big believer in the idea that less is more…I tweet about my posts exactly twice and I rarely use stumbleupon or pinterest (though I am always grateful when someone else stumbles upon or pins my posts) mainly because they are a time suck that I just don’t have time for. And google optimization…psshhhh. Again – I don’t have time. But I can only hope that as long as I do what I’m passionate about, none of this will really matter, as you said.
Jennifer Hess “Likes” this ;) Well said, lady.
I agree with much of what you have said Jen. It seems that instead of Social Media it’s become Promotional Media.
That being said…I’ve erred in some of these arenas. Stumble Upon is aptly named. You stumble a lot trying to figure it out. One person suggests you do stumble yourself, another says it’s a no no. But you hit the nail on the head. It really should be about showing the posts you really favor. Not those sent to you by a group, no matter the content. I love to stumble good posts but I left a group where the expectation was that you should stumble everything; that it was all about building traffic for the members of the group. I was pretty much dissed for saying that I would only stumble those posts that actually appealed to me. A Stumble snob as it were. Oh well…we sure were not a good fit!
I admit. I schedule tweets for my new posts. But I do that mostly because I constantly heard that someone had missed a post. When I requested that they sign up for my RSS feed, they said they didn’t like RSS and having notice come to their email box but preferred to see tweets. So I have a tweet go out 3 times a day for 2 days hoping that dispersing the information in different times will catch those readers who have become readers by virtue of Twitter. I worry about that annoying my tweetstream though but have not had complaints. Yet.
I did actually Laugh Out Loud at Elizabeth’s comment. Even though my profession includes assisting clients with SEO; that practice of constantly repeating is just one more form of spam and very bad advice. Do one too many and Google will penalize you so anyone taking that method on risks not getting listed at all! I certainly advocate being descriptive when writing a post if search engine traffic is important, but that? Nope.
I applaud you for speaking out Jen and looking for commentary on this subject. It’s needed.
I Stumbled this! ;)
I’ll stumble this too! Awesome information – and I have been guilty of a few of those things too. The more I learn, the more I realise that sadly, content is not always king though, at least in the eyes of some PR people who look at numbers and hits without looking where they came from. I know there are people out there eclipsing me in terms of hits and pageviews but if many of them come from Stumble or the food photo sites, is that quality? I always preface my lowly numbers with the fact that I have a loyal readership, many of whom have been reading since the start. For me, I am learning that THIS is what’s important. And I am learning to come to terms with that. But it’s a slow process. Is there a 12 step program for weaning one off of Analytics? ;)
“Like”
Well said :)
Girl, you said it. I’m not even sure I could love a post more. I don’t find this controversial – but almost as something that I wish all bloggers could read. I am definitely guilty of the stumbleupon one – I’ve always shared my own posts, but because I guess I thought I was supposed to? Actually, that’s how another blogger taught me to use stumble! But truly, I think if all bloggers, especially new, could read something like this it would help. I find a lot of things like this – such as stumble or even leaving comments, is a “learn as you go” type thing. I’ve stumbled my own posts because I didn’t really know any better, up until recently when I felt like a jerk off. It’s very similar to being a new blogger and leaving your URL or a link in the comments – most bloggers don’t know any better and aren’t aware that it’s bad etiquette. At least that’s how I was as a new blogger 2 years ago. As for SEO stuff…haha I’m lucky that I know how to send an email so SEO just makes my head spin. I don’t know the first thing about that. But you are spot on about quality. I just want readers and a sense of community on my site. I’m about to share this a million times over!
I’d like to repeat almost everything Jessica said here! Jen, this really isn’t controversial, it’s just really good advice. :-)
I had the same Stumble Upon experience! I did it a few times because I wasn’t entirely sure what it was. I’ve never pinned myself, because that’s lame.
I just love this post because I don’t really break any of the Blog Code Of Conduct rules. Which is a huge relief to me, being a new blogger.
Thanks for the post, I love it.
And, I agree: If you are as brilliant as you think you are, people will visit. If you aren’t, excessive self promotion will only hurt your cause.
I agree it’s all such a “learn as you go” thing when it comes to blogging and social media. We all come into this at different times, some of us have been doing one or the other longer than others…in the end I truly believe its about being genuine in whatever you do. We all learn what works for us. And I think we should also be forgiving of others…doesn’t mean we have to always stumble/read/follow/RT every thing…but we should be forgiving and empathetic in order to preserve the beauty of the “community”.
Excellent post Jen, very well said! The amount of credible knowledge I have about social media would have a tough time filling a 1/4 cup measuring cup. I don’t stumble or pin (only had time to peek at that). I tend to agree with Barb’s comment in that it is all becoming a bit like *Promotional Media and somewhat self-promotional at that, not to mention a little cliquish. What I do feel and truly believe however it that while one may have many *acquaintances* in this arena, a few close and intimate *friendships* are valued beyond any measure.
Thank you for this tips! I have a few months on this amazing blogging thing, and I found this blog post very helpful! :)
LOL — is it crazy that I never thought of people pinning their own stuff? That seems so unethical to me. One of the reasons I completely stopped using twitter is that I couldn’t stand the crazy retweeting and promotion happening there. I decided I’d rather just let me blog grow naturally through my connections with people than go to the trouble of “marketing” my “brand.” People are way too serious about this stuff nowadays and it ruins the spirit of community that blogging originally had locked down.
Thank you so much for sharing your opinion about this. Everything you said resonated with me, and I’ve often felt in the minority in regards to my opinions on social media. I actually was so disgusted with the amount of shares and self-Stumbles on SU that I quit using it completely. I found myself unfollowing so many people due to their abuse of it. I hope more bloggers will read this post and actually follow (at least some of) the advice you gave.
I don’t think it’s controversial to write about this sort of stuff. I like hearing tips from other people. I will admit I am guilty of one of those things. I totally pin my own stuff. However, I keep my stuff in a “my food” and “my photography” board. I’m not doing it for self promotion as much as I’m just proud of my food…haha.
I think this is a great and very thoughtful post Jen. Good for you for getting out there and saying it! I have to admit, I don’t get most of the social media stuff. I use Facebook for my own personal friends and I use Twitter, but I don’t understand Stumbling or Pinterest and honestly, I don’t have any more time to devote to my blog than I already do. Sometimes I feel like I should be keeping up with the Jones’ but really I’ve just got too much going on. I think some ground rules should be in place and it takes someone like you, who has been doing this successfully for a while, to put something out there. Bravo!
Such a great and well-said post, Jen!
I love this. All good advice! I’ll admit up front that I have, in the past, stumbled a few posts of mine. But I stopped doing it because I just felt like I shouldn’t. Pinning my own stuff? That never even crossed my mind!
Lately, I’ve been getting frustrated, annoyed, overwhelmed–you name it–with all of the self promoting. Especially on Twitter. There are some bloggers that I really like, a lot. But you see the initial tweet, “New Post: blah blah blah…” Then, you see that blogger RT’ing the RT’s that their buddies have RT’ed for them. ALL of them. Next comes the “See my photo for such and such post accepted at Tastespotting,” followed up with “See my photo for such and such post accepted at Foodgawker,” both with links.
All of these tweets also magically show up in your Facebook timeline, as well. If you’re lucky enough to be online for the next round, later in the day, you’ll see it all again.
It’s an endless cycle. I’m all for getting the word out, but it gets so old after a while. Really old.
Not much I can do about it except just ignore the tweets, but as it happens, I’ve pretty much gotten in the habit of automatically ignoring those tweets altogether. Sad, isn’t it? All of that self promoting really backfired!
Good post Jen! I’ve been guilty of sharing my own posts on SU in the past, but as Jessica mentioned, I thought it was how it was used. Oops. I actually cut way down on my use of Pinterest because of all the self-promotion I was seeing – it drove me crazy! Thank you for putting this out there – I hope many bloggers find it and follow some of your advice :)
Hi Jen! Love your post! I deplore social media, but also understand that it’s a necessary evil for some. The jury is still out as to whether I will jump onboard or not. So, no I don’t Twitter, Stumble or whatever. I personally follow the blogs that I relate to and that interest me, like yours! Thanks again for a great post!
Great post Jen! I’m with jessica and tracey – I thought it was normal to share your own posts on stumble upon! I always figured if people didn’t want to see my posts, they wouldn’t follow me. I actually love it when people send me stumble shares of their own posts – saves me trouble trying to get to all the blogs I like to see if there is anything stumble worthy if that makes sense. I certainly don’t want to annoy people or come off as self promotional, however, so you’ve definitely given me something to think about!
I kind of agree with you on that…I like getting shares from people! Its how I keep up with most people’s posts that I might not have read otherwise. I’ve never thought of it as self promotional at all. I guess that is the whole purpose of the button that says “don’t accept shares from this stumbler” or opting out of the email notifications. I think there are stumble friendly groups of bloggers…I’m one of them, but I don’t think badly of the bloggers that don’t like stumble. To each his own.
Great post! Lots to think about!
This post expresses many views that have been weighing heavily on me for some time. Though the food blogging world is full of creative and talented people, it is apparently also filled with attention-mongers. I truly don’t understand the purpose of these types of false promotion. If your traffic increases because you stumbled or tweeted your own post, does that really make you feel better about that post?
I view social media as a way to connect on a more personal level with my readers, and it has been great for that. I only use Facebook with my blog, and have not shared my Pinterest account with readers. I don’t pin my own things (tacky!) and am unlikely to follow others who do.
Bravo for saying what so many of us are thinking. Not that many of the offenders will listen but still, I’m glad you said it :)
Well said, Jen! I feel like blogging has turned into one big self promo fest. Where is the engagement?
What I do love about those groups is you do become engaged with the people that you are in them with… on a more intimate scale than you might if they were followers or commenters. But I agree… it is important to use your best judgement and to be authentic!
Great post Jen! and I agree with most all of it.
funny little story – I’m like you and only tweet and fb my post 1-2x most often.
So I recently co-hosted a local bloggers bowling party….I tweeted it several times, FB it a time or 2 and mentioned it in a post.
The 3 local bloggers that I actually KNOW……none of the 3 showed up! They ALL 3 said, “I wish I’d known about it” lol…….I was like “hello” I was afraid to email them for the sake of over kill…..that they would say, “I KNOW I saw all of your tweets, FB and post about it!” lol so just goes to show you, maybe it’s not always too much.
Pinterest, I’ve only pinned a few of my own, but I can see where it might be nice to have a folder of all your own recipes/crafts…I think I would love to browse mine that way, so the pinning doesn’t bother me. But I DO like to leave pinning to what I want to pin – so it’s organic.
and stumble…….I give up……who can figure it out, there’s so much you can’t control with it and I agree, stumbling your own stuff is not very becoming, I have done that on a few occasions, but rarely.
Now excuse me, while I’m off to SU and tweet your post!
You are so honest and real! :)
I love this post! I am not good on Social Media, but it does bother me when I go on Facebook or Tweeter and I see some people posting over and over their own post just because they are full of sponsors who are paying for their recipe ingredients or home repairs!
{Oh the shame…} I have to admit I’ve been guilty of “spamming” my friends via my personal Facebook page, if they were truly interested in my blog they would follow it on their own. Thanks for this great post, I’m off to revise my sharing strategy. ;)
Agreed for the most part…I try not to overtweet…but I’ve done that before. And I never stumble myself, but I have one pinboard of things I am particularly proud of. This is actually helpful to people like me, because as social media, I GET it…as Promotional media, I DON’T. Its overwhelming to me. That’s SO much info to keep up with. SO, when I get frustrated, I just think, I am going to try to make cool stuff and have a good time, and hope that people will come. Thanks for this post =)
I understand a lot of the viewpoints outlined here, but it seems like a lot of us misunderstood what Stumble was all about. Like many others, I thought until recently that this was how it was supposed to be used. Mind you, I didn’t just share and stumble my own stuff, I shared and stumbled anything I came across that I really loved. Anything I thought was worthy of a lot of notice and attention.
And my stumbling and sharing and tweeting my own stuff was not necessarily about self-promotion. I don’t subscribe to RSS feeds, I find it overwhelming to sift through all the blog posts. So I rather assume I am not the only one who keeps up with various blogs by other means. I love the shares I get on Stumble, I appreciate other people sharing their posts with me there. That and Foodbuzz is really how I stay on top of what I want to read. Twitter moves too D*** fast for me to keep up there.
But I do tweet my own stuff, a few times for each post. Why? Because I cater to specific community (low carb and gluten free) and they may keep up with me there. I know several who do. Really, I am trying to cater to my readers and their preferred way of keeping up with my blog. Since I can’t necessarily pinpoint what ways they each do it, I feel I have to avail myself of the various resources.
All of that said, there is always a sense with me of trying not to over-promote.
I have, though, over-sent on Foodbuzz a few times…meant to click the twitter button and instead sent round to FB friends. Oops!
Jen, I think the best thing about this post is that regardless of how others may feel, you are being true to yourself. I know that your readers value that, and that is a awesome quality in a blogger.
As far as the Stumbles, Groups, Pinning, etc….I know that this is just your opinion so no one should have their feelings hurt. But I def agree that there is a fine line between supporting fellow bloggers and being inauthentic. I have done the stumble thing, but I think that Pin Groups are really going too far. My boards represent ME, and I am not going to be shown as someone I’m not so a person can get traffic. If you want your work to be on Pinterest, make stuff that people want to pin. The End.
Also, I am guilty of pinning a few of my own things…I have a board with a very small number of things I am most proud of. But that is for my own record, not meant to promote myself in any way. Although now all I can think is “crap carp carp…delete delete delete!!” ;)
Jen – well thought out, well written post. It’s all sensible advice and I happen to agree with all you’ve shared. Also, I think it’s easy to get caught up in the social media buzz. It’s relatively new, being added to all the time, and frankly a bit confusing. We (bloggers) are connected to each other and our audiences mostly by the internet–our blogs and social networking. It’s easy to see how over and misuse of the tools we have can proliferate. I think you are the first of many who will re-evaluate the best use of the media available to us as we try to find a balance between doing what we love and reaching as many of those people out there who would like to share a connection. Thank you for speaking up!
I found the post and comments (yes, I read all of them) very engaging. I am a new blogger and have seen much of what was mentioned. Personally, I prefer to subscribe to the blogs I enjoy. I can read them at my convience. Can anyone keep up with all the feeds from Twitter, FB, ect? I think not! Without subscribing, I miss posts. But everyone has to find their own way with so much new information. It’s still the wild wild west, in so many ways.
I love all of the confessions going on here! Lol! Truly though I think you can get the feel of a blogger after awhile. If it is organic and authentic then tell me how excited you are about your post. If you are “all me all the time” I will politely (probably) unfollow you.
Also I like to give grace because I know I sure need it sometimes! In a specific example I was seeing the same blogger complain about people not following her/sighning up for her feed/liking her etc. It was pretty negative a lot of the time. I tolerated it for awhile. Then quietly started unfollowing her in various ways. I shouldn’t feel afraid of being slandered if I don’t want to comment on one of your posts!