Announcing Social Media Mondays

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   Lionrhodposted 9 years ago

   Normally I stink at both social media and self promotion. I've decided to make a change in that.
   
   And in light of the traffic challenges that various black & white animals are creating, I also want to do something to support the greater HubPages community.
   
   So I've decided to take one day a week and use it to promote my own hubs as well as those of other Hubbers. Today, I've tweeted twice (a record for me!) once on my own newest hub and once about someone else's. I also created two new pinterest boards, a food one and a self help & relationships one, and have thus far put up about 25 pins today, and I'm probably still not done.
   
   Please do join me in this effort! No, it certainly doesn't have to be on Mondays if that's not a good day for you. But I would very much like to get a project going that helps us all get traffic.
   
   So lets tweet and pin and FB and mention our fellow Hubbers on our blogs, websites or whatever social media you use.
   
   I used to have (well I still have it) a pinterest board where I grouped a bunch of my favorite Squid lenses (now converted to favorite hubs, and yes I did fix the links. I've since found an article (don't recall where) that suggests it'll be more powerful if we focus on specific boards geared to a particular subject. On the funny side, I learned today that pinterest doesn't have a category for food - that blew my mind! (If I'm wrong, let me know and I'll change the category.)
   
   So, join me if you will for Social Media Mondays. (Or Thursdays or whatever). I'll make a special effort to include the hubs of anyone who wants to join me in this project so long as they fit my boards and have pretty pics I can pin.

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      Jayne Lancerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Great idea. I'd love to join you. I randomly tweet hubs etc., but not on a given day. Making a point of doing so is a good way of getting it done regularly. By the way, Pinterest has a 'Food and Drink' category.

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         Lionrhodposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Where do I find that category? It's not showing up for me.

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            Jayne Lancerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Category>What kind of board is it?> between 'Film, Music and Books' and 'Gardening'.

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      Christy Kirwanposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      This is a neat idea and a very nice thing to do for the HP Community.
      
      You can also include @HubPagesDotCom or use the #HubPages hashtag when you Tweet Hubs on Twitter-- sometimes we'll Retweet.

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      1. 74

         Lionrhodposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         I use @HubPagesDotCom as often as I can remember to. Didn't know there was a hashtag, so you might want to advertise that a bit more. (LOL some of us are still trying to get used to the new ways that the internet and social media work.)
         
         You folks have created an awesome site and I feel honored to be part of it.

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      MelRootsNWritesposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      This is a great idea!  I will think about how to incorporate something like this into my day.  I find balancing all my social media tends to leave me felling unbalanced.  I tend to spend more time with Facebook and Google+, but never can get the hang of Twitter.  I've only recently started putting Pinterest into my writing related routine.

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      relacheposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Current social media theory recommends timing the info release to peak activity for the topical audience.  Picking the time that task-wise is best for you may result in the bulk of your promotional efforts missing their intended mark.

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      1. 74

         Lionrhodposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Excellent point. Pinterest I don't see time being much of a problem with. (Maybe I'm wrong?) What times do you feel are best for tweeting and FB? I usually tweet around lunchtime or in the early evening.

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      Maina Ndunguposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Great idea if you have the time but do it with caution.
      I've heard it said that the big G guys penalize sites which spam the social media with the same links, from the same domain/sub-domain and the same user. I still can't confirm this though. I'll advise sharing a link only once to each media until someone can tell us how it should be.

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      1. 74

         Lionrhodposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         This is certainly a concern...I'd love to have more clarification on it.
         
         Meanwhile I suggest folks tweet/pin/FB other sites and domains too. I know I try to.

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   Glenn Stokposted 9 years ago

   This is a great idea and I definitely commit to being part of it. I have a list of a few hubs I was planning to read this evening after work. I will chose one of them to tweet. And I will continue to do so every Monday.

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   rebekahELLEposted 9 years ago

   I like it.  It sounds much better than just another manic Monday.   
   I love finding a random hub on the feed that catches my attention and giving it a tweet.

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   Millionaire Tipsposted 9 years ago

   This is a great idea.  I know everyone reading this forum already knows this, but the lawyer-wannabe in me wants to remind you to be careful and share in moderation.

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      Lionrhodposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      If there are things we should be concerned about, please do spill and spell it out so that we do the right thing.

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         Millionaire Tipsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         If you share too much, too frequently, especially your own stuff, or stuff from the same site, you could be banned from the site or otherwise penalized.  All the sites have their limits on what you can do, but if they feel like you are being spammy, they have ways to stop you.  Some sites will ban you outright (I think Reddit and Stumbleupon) do this, others will simply not show your stuff as much (Pinterest for sure and probably Facebook.) Plus your friends will find you being spammy too, and you could lose friends and followers. I have stopped following people who clogged up my feed with their shares.
         
         My rule for sharing is that I must really really like the content and think my audience will be interested in reading it too.  Be sure to consider your audience when you are sharing; if they won't be interested, why bother?  Also be sure to participate on the site by doing more than giving them links.  The sites want active participants not spammers.

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         1. 74

            Lionrhodposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            That makes perfect sense.
            
            I looked at a LOT of pages today to come up with the pins I used. Great recipe, lousy pic? Drat, I can't pin it. Nor will I post recipes I can't believe in. For me, that usually means anything involving processed not-from-scratch food is out.
               
            Also since I don't want Google to penalize us, I'll be sure to post content from plenty of other sites. No problem there. I can find PLENTY of gorgeous food across the web.
            
            As for participating, I posted on the comments of recipes I was truly excited about. In fact I found a recipe for a very easy pie crust that I'm dying to try, and asked questions about it. The recipe felt almost too easy.
            
            Then at the end of the day I went and looked at other pins and found some way gorgeous stuff to repin. I think Pinterest will manage to see that I'm not a spammer.
            
            I appreciate the concern. Just to be careful I'll spend a bit of time on other foodie sites. Hubby and I have a joke about, "twist my arm." In other words: Oh! the horror! I must look at and pin other gorgeous food. How will I deal?
            
            I absolutely DO suggest that anyone participating in this game do the same and find posts from a diversity of sources. If you're focused on a true passion that shouldn't be challenging.

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            Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Really, really great points.
            
            Because it's discussed so much on writing sites, many writers grasp the idea that sharing their Hubs is a good thing, but don't understand the implications.
            
            Sites like Stumbleupon, Reddit etc allow sharing because they want their site to showcase the really good stuff their members find on the internet.  None of those sites ever intended to be places where writers promote their own stuff, because writers are always the worst judge of their own writing!   So when we promote our own work, we always have to be mindful that we are, essentially, doing the wrong thing.
            
            That doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, you just have to do it the right way.

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   Lionrhodposted 9 years ago

   LOL go figure. The day I start this is one week from the day I'll be sitting on a bus on the way back from my niece's wedding in GA. So I won't have the ability to make this happen NEXT Monday, but I'll get back on it as soon as jet lag (bus lag?) allows me to do. Sunday before if Mom lets me borrow her laptop or Tuesday after if not.
   
   If only I had the slightest clue how my smartphone works I could maybe use this to while away the bus hours.
   
   Anyhow the point is that it doesn't matter what day we do it on, as much as it matters that we do it.
   
   Thanks everyone for the so far amazingly positive feedback!

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   CuAllaidhposted 9 years ago

   I run a games group on facebook, I post a weekly article to the facebook group to an article here onto the facebook group. This serves two purposes, it increases my traffic to newer articles and forces me to write new articles often to keep up so I don't post duplicates all that often

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   Snakesmumposted 9 years ago

   This sounds like a great idea, and I'll be looking out for great hubs to put on Pinterest and Twitter.
   Thanks for suggesting it.

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   relacheposted 9 years ago

   What times are best are going to depend on your material and what audience you are trying to engage.  I am not giving you specifics because (I am presuming) you and I write very differently for different audiences.

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      Lionrhodposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      It's very possible that our audiences are different. It's also possible that the folks on this thread may share audiences with one or the other of us.
      
      That said, what time do you feel is best for engaging what audiences?

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   sara0129posted 9 years ago

   Good idea. I will do that too.

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10. 68

    sara0129posted 9 years ago

    Good idea. I will do that too.

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    Glenn Stokposted 9 years ago

    This was a good idea of yours Lionrhod. HubPages retweeted my tweet about @goatfury's hub.

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