how will it affect your…
work…
school…
family…
church…
sport…
ministry…
“other”…

(youtube link)

i saw this today. and i consider myself pretty “connected” to the social media scene. but there’s still a lot i haven’t been a part of, or simply don’t “get”.

and then i started thinking how i’ve kinda been neglecting my social media “skillz” because of how busy we are with MPD* and family. and then i started to wonder, “can we really afford to let our social media presence take a back burner if it’s turning out to be such an important aspect of the culture we live in?”

what are people saying about YOU?

- – - – - – - – - -
*MPD = Ministry Partner Development – that’s the name given to the process of us raising a team of supporters so we can report to Little Rock as fully funded staff missionaries with FamilyLife

i also technically get emailed whenever a comment is left in facebook, or a direct message is sent via twitter.

so i still get some twitter/facebook interaction via email, but i am not reading, posting personally, nor going to the sites at all this week.

sorry for the confusion this may have caused everyone.

———-

ps. oh, and yes, this post count’s toward the 120-club. :)

How do I get my blog more action i.e. visits?

simple answer: let people know you have one and keep them coming back by having content they want to read about.

what that means is include your blog site address in your email signature as seen below. when you write a new blog post, let people who follow you on twitter or facebook know about it. (and so you may also want to get more people to follow you on twitter and/or facebook, including people you don’t know but seem to have similar interests.by posting that on twitter or facebook they know as soon after you’ve written it and it isn’t based on when they “happen to get around to checking” your site again. and then also don’t be afraid to re-promote your blog post maybe a day or two later. in case people missed your initial tweet or facebook update.
talk about it with people in person; “yeah, i wrote about that in my blog the other day …” or “that’d be a great topic for me to write about on my blog…” or even mention it either in person, or via a slide when speaking in church or otherwise.
personally, i try to keep my blog posts to under 600 words. on occasion it’ll be longer, but i try not to make a habit of it. the reason is if i go to other people’s blogs and see a huge long blog post i don’t take the time to read it unless i really find that person or topic engaging. so i try to keep mine short.

oh and then finally, post often and choose your voice. posting often will get people who like your writing to keep coming back to check for more. (i’m not very good at the posting often part)  and by choosing your voice means to stick to a topic or theme overall for your blog. there aren’t very many blogs that are popular where the author is simply giving family updates, or other random topics. and it’s for this reason that i know my blog most likely won’t ever become hugely popular. i tend to skip around in my writing topics.

it’s the blogs that stay on one topic whether it’s tech, ministry, running, fatherhood, or (fill in the blank here) that are able to gain a following of people beyond just the people who personally know the author.

oh, one last thing. encourage dialogue between you and the readers by asking a question in your blog which they can answer in the comments, or by simply writing about interesting or controversial subjects.

i hope you like my ideas. let me know if they’ve helped you out, or if you have more questions.

cya,