I read once that 50,000 new blogs are started every day.
Most languish on the vine after a few months. People get an idea that the world is just aching to hang on their every word, only to learn later that they are a speck in an infinitesimal sea of people just wanting to be ‘liked’. Garrison Keillor once said: “In the future, everyone will have a blog with 6 readers- 4 of them family members.” I may not have the quote correct, but I doubt GK will dispute this as he’s quite busy contesting his recent sexual assault allegations.
This is my fourth blog. My third, “Teaching Ahead of the Curve“, was an Edtech blog that once was in the top 500 educational blogs in the world and in its heyday, provided 4-6 posts a month. It tapered off after 5 years of trying to keep up with ever-changing trends and ed-tech tools that were saturating the market and becoming obsolete in a matter of years, sometimes months. It was like trying to shovel the driveway while it was still snowing.
Still, it begs the question- Why do some people have so many followers and others have so few?
A Great Customized Logo
Two days ago, my wife and I bought ‘Nomadic Edventures’ for a two-year premium subscription on ‘WordPress’ for $180. The name was catchy, but we decided to buoy the name with a custom logo which we bought for $19 on ‘Logo Crisp‘ which we could use for our site’s favicon (Little icon on browser tab), our site’s logo next to the header, and also for our profile pictures on Instagram and youtube. A logo might seem like an innocuous detail, but the logo brings recognition as users navigate to your content.
Grab Handles on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook
We’re seeing a shift in social media use. Many younger users seem to be moving to Instagram and Snapchat and leaving Facebook and Twitter. With so many overlapping features, here is some of their highlights:
- Instagram has an emphasis on quality images and less on the text. Posting, be sure to add half a dozen hashtags to share beyond just your followers. I use Instagram for my ‘edgy’ personal life and follow tattoo junkies and fitness freaks, like me.
- Twitter has more of an emphasis on the text, less on the images. Like above, add half a dozen hashtags to your tweet to reach new followers. I use Twitter primarily for my professional learning community. Google + is also a great one for this.
- Facebook posts can be public or private to friends. I use Facebook with my friends and family and is primarily used for personal posts.
Sharing, and Re-sharing is Full-Time Work
The above is meant to sound redundant because all the great content in the world will get lost in that sea unless you make it stand out. Just because you have spent hours making a video or blogging, if you publish content to the web, share it often. Re-share it when you have a not-posting day and re-share it over and over. Just when you start to get sick of it, someone is learning about it for the first time.
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