Crunching The Numbers
There’s always so much talk, worry, emphasis and hand-wringing over social media. How much should you, as a writer, be on it? What kind of content? How does it help you build your author platform?
The conventional answer is to use social media to build your audience and find your readers. That in and of itself isn’t easy, so a lot of writers (me included) get frustrated.
That’s when my problems with social media dawned on me! I was always looking at the numbers! But I’m not a numbers person. There’s a reason I choose words over numbers. Numbers are a foreign language I have yet to master, yet conventional social media wisdom wants us to grow the number of followers or subscribers, to net the most likes and comments and thumbs up and whatever other metrics are necessary for “success”.
I get wanting to build connections online. But numbers don’t do that. Nor do they show you whether you’re succeeding at that. Because connections online aren’t about quantity. They’re about quality. Do you feel good about the content you’re posting? Would you want to read it yourself? That’s what’s important. Since we’re not uber-celebrities with bajillions of followers, numbers don’t actually matter. ONE reader is enough for you to have made a difference. One smile on one person’s face, making one person’s day is worth it.
Damn. “One” is a number. Okay, I concede. Numbers do count. “One” is my new favourite.