Listen: the best place to do testing is where it doesn’t really matter, and that includes experiments on social media platforms like WordPress and Twitter
This silly blog is a good example of that.
So let’s talk, you and I, about what’s works, what doesn’t and what we all can learn.
Lesson 1: Start small
When you first start a blog, or hop onto a social media platform like Twitter, there’s no guarantee that you’ll (a) like it, (b) become good at it, (c) the thing won’t go bankrupt or (d) it may get bought by Apple, Google or Microsoft and get folded into some other app.
Whatever you try on social media, it’s good to start small.
I started this blog to sell a car. Seriously. Didn’t know a craigslist ad disappeared after a couple weeks or whatever and the ad needed a free home. My genius sister said “WordPress, fool” and that ad went viral.
Doing a premium account from the start would’ve been a mistake.
I had to learn WordPress for a while before moving to a premium account and messing around with themes and such.
Same with Twitter and Facebook.
Start with a free account whenever you can and explore it fully before doing more.
Doing posts about books, movies and zombies truly helped me get good enough at WordPress to make new sites for other stuff, things that mattered, without a lot of sweat. And sure, after a while, go deeper. Just don’t try to learn how to swim in the deep end of the pool. Won’t work out.
Lesson 2: Try all kinds of things, relentlessly and constantly
There’s a ton of conflicting advice out there about any topic today. That includes social media.
Check them all out, then try out all kinds of things.
Just don’t think that once you figure out a process, you’re good to go for years.
The Series of Tubes isn’t like that. It’s always changing. Because of that, it’s smart to constantly switch things up. Remember that you’re doing experiments, which should be temporary unless they work like gangbusters.
Example: I tried a thing that sent a DM to to thank everybody who followed me on Twitter, and that was a big, giant NOOOOO. People hate DM’s with the passion of a billion burning suns. Experiment over.
Photos turned out to be a great experiment gone right. Now, every post I do has a feature photo, and I’m sticking more and more photos and video into everything I do. There’s research on this. They put Pulitzer-prize winning text on a page with no photos or graphics, then complete drivel on a page with a nice layout and a photo. What did people like better? The drivel with a photo. We are visual creatures, people. Visual visual visual.
Bottom line: You learn more by trying all kinds of things than by doing the same old thing. It’s more fun and more effective.
Lesson 3: Don’t get distracted–remember your core priority
I truly doubt that more than 1 percent of you make a living doing social media.
Remember that messing around with your blog, or posting to Twitter, can easily suck up all your free time.
If you’re a writer, it’s wise to do your writing first. Only play around with Twitter and such after you’ve gotten that daily word count nailed.
And try to think back to the real point of it all. It takes a crazy amount of traffic (and usually staff) to make a living off web traffic by getting millions of hits a month. First, you won’t ever get that. Second, you’re shouldn’t try, because that’s not the point. Most of us are doing social media to be SOCIAL–to write about what we love and meet people around the world who are into the same exact things, whether it’s Underwood typwriters from 1934 or knit hats for cats.
P.S. I did recently go from Premium WordPress to Business, to try some things out. Will report back on those experiments, including instant translations of the blog to many languages, which is why I’m suddenly getting traffic from Bulgaria and such, along with other craziness. Good times.
The Red Pen of Doom 