Between my blog (right here), my coffee website and my radio-tech-geek site, I have upwards of 100K readers per month.
100 thousand. Unique readers.
And the stats to back it up.
But I consistently ignore the bigger audience (you folks out there in blog land)
in favor of spending my free time quipping on Twitter and posting the periodic axiom on Facebook.
But why? Why? WHY?
Well. I have been thinking about it.
Part of having 1800 twitter followers – which is a small number in the big scheme of things, is that I can attach a face to so many of these good people. It is, in fact, a conversation – a back and forth if you would. A kind of interaction that does not really happen as effectively on the Blogosphere. Unless of course the occasional blog reader chooses to comment on something – which is great. I LOVE comments.
Twitter is great. No question. But it can be frustrating at the same time. Every one of the 1800 followers is a sentient personality, with fabric, substance and real edges. Twitter is blog-3D. And a twitter writer needs to put substantially more energy into the 140 character snippets because you are trying to convey a focused thought and be aware that potentially several thousand sets of eyes might take a peek at your thought… and react to it… good or bad… in near real time.
So. I love twitter and my following readers.
And if twitter is fun (and not effortless) then Facebook is even more challenging and more frustrating… because you are preaching to a largely converted choir, who are going to be less tolerant to the spectrum of your (my) muse.
Meaning, as over the top as I can be on Twitter – as funny or unfunny as I can be – or as cynical or jaded, my thoughts are quickly lost in the conversation as other funnier quips move up the feed chain.
Not so much on Facebook. Things are moving a little slower – and I find it way easier to become impatient with my FB friends and likely they are experiencing the same thing about me. I am challenging at the best of times – and not always in a good way.
So. My big audience gets nixed more than occasionally. I guess it is about balance and managing all the social media tasks. I will most certainly talk more about this – because the discussion has merit and it’s an opportunity for me to dial it down a bit… and who in my social media circle would not want that!