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Running the Numbers – Indies Saturate the Water with Over Promotion by Dana Sitar
As quickly as I discovered them, I realized that I do not support those follow-me-I’ll-follow-you-back cabals that exist among authors online.
The idea behind them is fine: we’re all independent authors, and we need the support of like-minded folks. However, from what I’ve seen, these groups don’t add much support; they just add numbers.
With the availability of analytics tools online, numbers have become the center of attention for bloggers, avid tweeters, and others who do their work mainly online — like indie Kindle authors. We think that padding our numbers will prove our credentials to potential readers, and maybe even agents.
Our potential audience is not stupid, though — or, at least, we shouldn’t act as if they’re stupid. If they look at your Twitter feed and it’s nothing but blatant self-promotion with a few cat references sprinkled in, they’ll know you didn’t get 1,457 followers based on the value you add.
My numbers are small — before you jump to “You’re just upset because you don’t have a lot of followers” — and they should be. I’ve been blogging for just over 6 months, and I just published my first ebook a couple of months ago. I’m still building my tribe. But, I’m building it naturally. I am proud and appreciative as hell of every single follower, subscriber, and comment that I’ve gotten, because they have all come from a genuine interest in the work that I’m doing.
When it comes to selling a book, growing a newsletter list, booking speaking gigs, or gaining clients, these are the people who will matter. They will read my books, follow my work, hire me to help them.
People who follow just to follow aren’t going to pay attention to what you’re sharing. They’re only following you because they wanted you to follow them, and you’re only following them because you wanted them to follow you, and you’re not going to pay attention to what they’re sharing.
If an indie author tweets into a forest of other indie authors, will she really make a sound?
Author Bio
Dana Sitar is a freelance journalist and author of the ongoing memoir series This Artists’ Life. She shares writing tips and anecdotes at her blog by.dana.sitar. Follow Dana on Twitter.
When I first started on twitter I followed everyone I could find in the same area of interest in the hope they’d follow back but I quickly found I had a feed full of self promotional posts that held no value or interest to me and I missed out on some stuff I would have been interested in from tweeters that wouldn’t post the same thing over and over and over so I’ve had to modify my usage and have unfollowed hundreds to leave a small core of people with informative and fun posts, yes I lost a lot of followers myself doing that but then as you say would they have even noticed my posts anyways..
Social Media is wonderful and can really make you feel a part of things but I do think we still need to understand the value of it and how best to share information online.
Interesting points – but I’ll still going to tweet it!
True enough! I have been participating in the “karmic Friday” thing (organized by Novel Publicity on Facebook) for a couple of weeks now. I have tried, however, to do it with some discrimination. Before clicking LIKE, I try to take time to read about people, visit their blogs if they provide links, and figure out if what they’re doing is truly of interest to me. In fact, that’s what led me here, and it has led me to discover a number of interesting blogs. I try not to post on other people’s walls unless they are writing in a somewhat related genre.
Of course, now that I’m participating, I can’t control how OTHER people respond, so perhaps I am guilty of racking up the numbers on Facebook. I do agree that building a blog following (which I look at as different than a Facebook following) is a long-term prospect that takes patience.
Here here.
I think that author chains are good if you need to boost your numbers, but I agree that the “mindlessness” of them can be counterproductive. The reason I joined the Author Karma group was to find fellow *readers*, not just fellow authors. My hope was that we could swap books and write honest reviews for each other, since reviews are very important and can be hard to come by. I don’t mind giving away free copies, but I’d definitely like to get a review out of it if I can, so I figure what better way than to do a fellow author a favor to nudge a little reciprocation? (And no, I’m not looking for fake, 5-star reviews; just some honest feedback.)
Hi!
I want to comment. I don’t participate in ALL ‘follow me I’ll follow you’s', but I DO do some IF I like their blog! I DO take the time to check out their blog. I think what you wrote that people ‘don’t’ take the time to look around, etc., is wrong.
I DO look around. Generally, if it is a fellow book blogger, I know I am going to like them, as long as they do not post erotica. That is ONE genre I do NOT like whatsoever.
Generally, though, if someone follows me on Twitter or Google+ I WILL check their site out and follow back. I’ve met WONDERFUL PEOPLE!!! I LOVE when that happens!
I ‘do’ get a LOT of men following me and generally, if I cannot tell what they do or what their Google+ page is about, I WON’T follow back because you NEVER know what is in store for you when you allow them into your account. I HAVE had some pornographic images posted to my Google+ page and quickly deleted them AND the poster! So I have been VERY selective.
I think generally when someone does start to follow you on ANY social media page, they ‘do’ expect a ‘follow back’, but I don’t always do so after checking them out. My Blog is a BOOK Blog, and if THEIR blog is ALL about advertising, I have NO NEED to follow that blog and I don’t. I don’t want advertising blogs on my pages, via FB, Twitter OR Google+.
Sometimes there are ‘Follow me, I’ll follow you’ campaigns that go on and it can be FUN to meet such NEW people! AFTER you check out ‘their’ page and find out WHY they want to follow you or vice-versa.
Please try to keep an open mind about it. Try it out sometime! It CAN be a great way to find NEW people who are right up your alley!
Thanks!
Laurie Carlson