First Off, Happy New Year! And welcome to the new members of Romance Eh, Canadian Style, Leah Braemel, Kali Willows, Deb Cooke, Kayleigh Malcolm!
First off, I'm a writer. I write. I don't spend huge chunks of my time on any social media. Its a few minutes here and there during the run of a day. Also, who has time to interact with all your 'friends'? I have 3100 on FB. Its impossible. So people dropped out of my newsfeed into a black hole never to be heard of again.
I recently deleted a whole ton of photos from Facebook and was shocked to see how much interaction there was when I first joined in 2011. Photos I posted would have 80 likes, 40 comments. Then around 2013, it all changed. FB monetized, tweaked their algorithms, and interaction dwindled to nothing. In 2014, it worsened.
I see now having too many friends is quite insane. No normal person with a job and a life can keep up with it all. Yes, I know Facebook is a social site, not a place to sell your books, and Facebook will be pounding that point home starting this month when they will supposedly start cracking down on any posts that smack of promotion or selling something (on profiles, I mean) FB wants that limited to pages.
Fair enough. But out of 2050 likes, only 24 people see my post on my page. Facebook's answer to this is "Buy an ad!" That tears it.
And its the reason I am trying Tsu. I've seen people curl their lip in disdain over the concept, calling it a pyramid scheme, and in a way it is. The more you share, comment, like, interact, etc... the more money you make. I don't give a tinker's dam about making money on a social media site. (I've made 9 cents so far, *snort*) If it's something you would like to try, have at it.
All I want out of Tsu? To have everyone I am 'friends' with to see everything I post, and I in turn, want to see everything they post. That's it. Simple.
Some are grumbling already their streams are full of promo. Well, yeah. Your 'friends' are authors, bloggers, and readers. They are talking and sharing about...books. I'm fine with that. And yes, the more popular authors are getting more exposure and shares. It's the way of the world. (One popular author already announced she made $100.00 on Tsu, yay for her)
I've friended or have been friended by many reviewers and bloggers on Tsu, a better connection than I ever had with them on FB or Twitter. If a blogger comes across my post about one of my books on sale for 99 cents, shares the post, I say mission accomplished.
One thing I will be doing different. I will not be letting the friend numbers get out of hand. I want a good mix of authors, bloggers, and readers. If I don't know a person and they are not involved in the romance world in some capacity, I won't be friending back. I've had some guy keep friending me after I declined 3 times. I just found the block button. Done. I am keeping a firm control on who I want in my circle. Wish I had done that with Facebook.
Thanks to Tsu, I am interacting with authors I lost track of on Facebook. Also, when you post on Tsu, you can also post on Twitter and Facebook at the same time with a click of a button. I like that as well.
So far Tsu is all right. I am cautious about it, they don't seem as intrusive as FB but who's to say when Tsu gets bigger they won't introduce their own draconian rules and regulations? They have signed up 1 million users in less than five weeks.
I will keep my eye on it so how it goes, post promo, pictures and recipes that catch my eye (and man candy) Keep it social enough, but keep my private life private, and have fun discussing books. It was all I ever wanted out of Facebook (and never seemed to accomplish). Willing to see if Tsu will deliver. I am willing to give it a go.
Want to give it a try? https://www.tsu.co/KarynGerrard You can sign up through me. Cheers!
Thoughtful post. It's in line with my own (new) philosophy "less is more." I watched authors fill up their FB friends list with other authors--and then hit the 5,000 maximum and READERS were unable to friend them. I had more interaction on Twitter when I had 500 followers instead of my current 5000. I joined Tsu just as a fallback--in case FB continues to become more restrictive and starts to target personal pages.
ReplyDeleteCara, less is more. I've already unfriended people on Facebook (like writers who are not in the romance field) And I've thinned the herd on Twitter as well. Its impossible to keep up with it all.
DeleteI'm there too, Karyn, and have been enjoying it. We'll see how it pans out but I'm open to any platform that doesn't put massive restrictions on us. See you there!
ReplyDeleteExactly Rosanna. The restrictions. Only reason I am trying Tsu. I am cautious, will see how it goes. :)
DeleteWhen I first joined twitter and was following a core group of people and vice versa, I had lots of fun convos, and actually learned quite a bit. Now, with so many, many more -- and it's true -- most are other authors -- it's all promo all the time. I am guilty of this, too. I have no time to follow lengthy tweet streams, so when I get on it's Here's my book. I don't want to read that on Twitter and I'm sure no one else does, either. I've also noticed the diff in FB. In the beginning, I relied on Twitter and didn't like FB at all. It gradually grew on me. But lately, it's more of a PITA, deciding who I should view and not view. Most of my Twitter tweeps, who were my original FB peeps, have vanished. Now I get the same handful of folks over and over -- many of whom I had no idea who they are! And yeah, the ads get to be ultra-annoying. Tsu is momentarily, "oh, shiny!" It's annoying there's no edit function so you can't fix screaming boo-boos. It's annoying that you can share an orig post to FB and twitter, but if you share someone on tsu you can only share them on tsu. Yep, mostly I have a stream of "Read me, read me." And yes, a lot of people have sent me requests which I've just approved because "hey, shiny!" instead of "hey, who the heck are you?" We'll see how it goes. 39 cents and counting. Yeehaw!
ReplyDeleteHardly anyone talks on Twitter any more, its too bad. And as you say, time is a big factor in any social media. I'd rather be writing, but I know I have to spend some time on social media. So when I do, I want people to see what I post. Never liked Facebook's rules, but as a published author, its expected to be on there. So what I will do is post on Tsu and cross post on FB.
DeleteTsu does have that 'its shiny' vibe, and my expectations are kinda low. They certainly have some kinks to work out (like the edit, I agree) But this time, I am controlling the friend requests, lol~ Cheers Taryn!