Is there a correlation between the number of social media followers a person or brand has and the amount of visitors and pageviews that it generates on their websites? The short answer – NO! Well at least for me.
Scott Jenkins and I were passing emails back and forth last week (I always think of Scott as Hodge from his former comic strip). He was looking to potentially increase his presence on Google Plus and noticed my follower count there and wondered if that has increased my overall pageviews as my numbers have increased. Honestly not so much because as Google Plus has increased, I have lost the pageviews I used to get from StumbleUpon and Digg (which are both dying a slow death).
Average Daily Visitors
People tend to assume that because I have a bunch of engagement on my site that it means I must have a ton of visitors. Well I am about to reveal my numbers for the first time publicly. When I was posting three times per week two years ago my average visitors was about 400 per day. Now that I only post once a week, it is in the 200’s. Here is how my numbers break down of where people are coming from to get to my site during May:
As you can see Social Media only accounts for about 16% of my total traffic with Search and Direct make up the majority. Looking just at Social Media you can see the effects of referrals from this year compared to last year.
Google and Reddit have increased while Stumbleupon, Facebook and Twitter have decreased.
While Google Plus was the majority of visitors for May, it has more to do with that being my Charity Challenge month and a larger influx of support with links to my site than typically.
So why waste time on Social Media?
Simple answer is that different ones may give you things other than direct traffic. The majority of the people who have converted to regular readers and commenters on my site, found me via Twitter (or me being social on other blogs).
Reddit gives you a thick skin (haha).
Google Plus has given me more commission work than I ever had directly on my blog or via other social media/search efforts. And here is the secondary benefit. An additional outlet for people to see my work and another outsource for engagement. I have several people who will engage with my posts on twitter or facebook but it is the exception versus the norm.
To be honest, I was of the belief that a social media platform should only serve to drive traffic to my site. And for those that display ads it is a potential worry if people are engaging with you outside your site, you won’t make money. But as I said I am doing better than display ad dollars (the majority of which is going to charity btw) and gaining another level of engagers who might in the future want to buy a t-shirt or book.
And the data pans out. Since July 2011 when I joined Google Plus, Beartoons.com had 495,971 pageviews. In the same time my posts on G+ have had 8,652,696 views.
Posting Schedule
This is what I do as a cartoonist. If you can give up control it might work for others. It varies a bit by social media but my posting schedule for Google Plus:
Day 1 – Post a link and teaser to my site (at times I might reshare this later in the day for those who are in different time-zones)
Day 2 or 3 – Post the actual cartoon on Google Plus. I have tips on what I find is the best way to do it but that is for another post. This step is for those that prefer to engage without leaving G+. But I make sure to put the link to my site in that post as well.
Important: I am getting bad at remembering at times on twitter or FB, but it is important to check your status at least daily so you can engage with those who comment. I see a bunch of cartoonists who post a link, have people comment and then you don’t hear back from them for days if at all.
So how does this play out to your own experiences?? Anyone want to confess what numbers they are getting on their own site and what they think helps/hurts?
There is this weird thing about social media, especially FB. A lot of FB users think that FB is the web. Everything they need is there. So one must create something in their site that FB won’t or can’t give them. You got their attention now offer something they want only from your site. Cash always works ;-))
Sadly I don’t even think Cash is motivation enough but I get what you are saying. Though I thought all the kids have moved on to Instagram.
Cash? Bwahahahaha. Here have some money and like me. At least on the streets you can get …oh never mind
Well they like you for a minute.
It seems most of my traffic comes from fb.
My friends in real life couldn’t be bothered to visit my blog.
My own mother has never visited my site.
I got over the fact none of my friends read my comic. Comic’s aren’t their thing.
My kids and wife visit my site occasionally. But no one else in my family shows any interest. No big deal.
My wife will look at a cartoon before I post but never has actually read anything that I have posted beyond the cartoon. Everyone else including my mother doesn’t come…
I’ve tried all sorts of tricks, and all I can come up with is that social media can make you popular for being a creator or funny guy, but most folks only care about your reputation and not your product.
It’s like saying, “Boy, that Bearman is an awesome musician! He can really play the guitar! Do I have any of his albums? Uh…no, but I respect his drive and ambition, and I know he’s talented. I figure he has lots of people buying his CD’s, he doesn’t need my money. He’s a rich, big, ol’ pimp.”
I hear from folks daily who think that I’m reliably funny, but they don’t feel compelled to take those extra mouse-clicks to come to my site.
I truly feel that the permanency of the internet has made it so no one has to worry about missing anything and they can catch it all later on down the line.
I’m from an era where, if you wanted something, you’d better get it right then, because there was no telling when you’d ever have the chance again. The same with music. If I liked a song I had to wait by the radio to record it or search high-and-low thru every record store in my community. There have been many songs that I wouldn’t hear again until YouTube became mandatory and prevalent.
All in all, we’re just creative victims of unlimited access…..
haha reminds me of the days of having the tape recorder on standby in case a song you liked was played on the radio.
But that is what I am saying. I used to get hung up on people from G+ not clicking the link and commenting here. But through engagement now I have two places where people are engaging. And that was the same for me back when I only had 1000 followers. However as I said you have to engage there as much as you do on your own site.
I have zero social media presence for my comic, but other things I’ve tried on FB have not had much of an effect.
Are you talking website stats, or Google analytics? For me at least, there’s a huge difference between the stats, a factor of about forty. 3,000 page views a month by Google, over 115,000 by my website stats. Someone is lying.
Why did my comment end up here??
You hit reply somewhere. That was a look at Google Analytics because I have turned on and off the one on my site. It is pretty accurate for me comparing the two but when you have such small numbers it is hard to be wrong.
All that. OTOH. If you don’t have a huge social whatever, then they might think. Damn this Bearman dude is pretty funny. But I wouldn’t buy any of his stuff cuz he not very popular.
That’s why I forget trying to bring people here to be popular and just try to do it where they are.
I get most of my traffic from Twitter, about 100 hits a week or so from there. I’ve been spending about ten bucks a week running a project wonderful campaign. I might get over a thousand page views in one day, but it’s usually three or four people checking out my archives. I’m happy with my fifty or so dedicated readers, they are good folks.
You are the Twitter king and have found your niche relative to engagement. I used to love twitter more but it was too hard to have and follow a conversation. They have made improvements but….
Social Media does me squat too. I’m not very much into it either. Time consuming and I’m not really doing anything important. So there.
Nice job putting this together.
Have a fabulous day. 🙂
Thanks Sandee. Your jokes would probably go over well on social media.
I have nothing to add but HODGE.
Both you two have fun alter ego characeter designs, and I have enjoyed drawing them both.
That’s what matters to me, anyway.
Well keep on drawing us…we are characters!!
It always amazes me how many people see Hodge as my alter ego, Hodge is my alter, minus an ego! Bearman on the other hand, I think he’s all him! [smirk] I’m glad Hodge still resonates!
Have you looked in the mirror…ok you have less pretty hair hah
Former comic strip?!? Did Hodge die? [blinks][grin]
Reddit traffic for me, I don’t know what its giving me beyond inflated traffic. They do come, they do look, but the depth of page-views seems hollow. I’ve posted a couple of my comics on there, a tad older, so people will see I’ve directed them to the middle of the archives. I don’t get up votes, or down votes on the reddit site, I don’t get insults or compliments, nothing is said. I don’t know what to make of it. I’ll take insults, no publicity is bad publicity when pushing content.
Twitter, I’ve seen myself get as much 480 uniques from there and visitors would go about 4 to 5 pages into the archives giving me about 1800 page-views. As I’ve said to Bearman in my discussion with him, even with the readership numbers I have, there is a difference between readers and consumer potential from them. A majority of the people I follow on twitter, are other sequential artists, writers and various other artistic people. Granted, I only have about 550 twitter followers at the moment, so the tweets and RTs from others are sparking people to look at my content. I have yet to embrace facebook or google+, so I dont have numbers there, unless someone has liked my work to their own FB or google+ page.
It just seems to me, a lot of the social media followers we have, are mostly those of us in the field of something creative, rather than run of the mill readers. Are others seeing this same collection of other creatives in their timelines, circles and like collections? I feel like social media is very West Virginian, in that we are all kissing each others cousins trying to spawn new readers! Yes? no? maybe?
Well I was thinking about the Madbury look of Hodge with the funky hair!! Not the new and improved version haha
Yes, I say you can say what you want about me…just make sure you are talking about me.
You have more than 3 pageviews per visitor…you are doing something right. And you are very good about engagement on Twitter which means people are encouraged to RT your stuff.
Yes I think the same. Most of the time we are all just one big circle jerk of readership.
Even when I do get a spike like the one I mentioned from twitter, its not a constant. I could type the word “moose” and a link to the comic and everyone flocks to see what it is. Anything else, I usually have to post a “first frame” in order to garner any attention. Some days, I post what I think is a well crafted, well paced comic and nothing… so, its a crap shoot. Readership for me can be very schizophrenic!
I posted a blog yesterday on “comic creators are talking” and it got 22 views…. and 80% of my twitter followers are other sequential artists. 1 re-tweet with that blog post mind you. Even with an audience who’d want to discuss comics, they came here, or they went to the alliance. I’m like the blinker on the Christmas tree, sometimes I amuse with my glow, sometimes I’m not even on! Bottom line is, I struggle to figure out the magic of getting my comic attention regularly. One I see one pattern evolve, it shifts and confounds me yet again.
Using social media, or even ones own blog site for promotion… its an enigma wrapped in bacon!
My experience has been very similar to yours in all respects.
Sorry about the lack of pageviews then haha
How many follow you on RSS?
I do.
Awesome. I never can figure that number out. I think about 50? Now I need to convert you into a regular commenter!! haha
Why must Jyknsie always rub it in?
Because I’ve been told rubbing it out in public is wrong! …anywhoo…
Stats are just numbers, its about engagement of readers and what those readers bring you beyond the basics of passing through. What one stat tells me, another disproves and another rewrites and another mocks! Analytics , regardless of who you use, they have their own methodology and none of them are really what I would call accurate. That why the word anal is in the word, they offer a sh*tty picture.
You have far more reader engagement than I have ever had… so lets just call you what you are… spectacular! [bows]
I like your analysis of analytics. All based on anal – good one.
Agreed. Thanks Bill
Damn’t. I saw Aidan’s comment earlier and was going to say “Because we don’t want to see him rub it out” GET OUT OF MY HEAD.
I think you need to tweet “That why the word anal is in the word, they offer a sh*tty picture”
It is weird. I have a good amount of followers on my various social media outlets, and it seems only a small portion of them go to my site. It is strange, but it seems to be the norm.
I admit there are times when I see something on my RSS and haven’t clicked it if I can’t think of something pithy to comment about.
Posting to Reddit is like singing in front of a million Simon Cowells. Great read.
More like the Gong Show. At least Simon will tell you WHAT he doesn’t like
My blog numbers were never as high as yours and this year the numbers have really dropped off. Unless someone comments (I’ve heard all types of percentages for commenting) I suspect it is very hard to know if you have a new reader/follower. It’s hard to be a consistent reader/follower. Too much changes in lives and time available. I found this post interesting. I don’t trust/believe much of the SEO type posting out there.
Thanks Bill. I actually think I did better when I was hosted on WordPress versus hosting myself as I got a bunch of directed traffic from them.
You don’t, …that’s the bitch!
I don’t what?
Bearman if your not getting traffic from all the hard work you have put into Google Plus, then I am not going to try so hard with social media.
If I were in your position (creator of content) I think it would bother me a bit but sense I am not (thief of content or as I like to see it promotor of content) it doesn’t bother me too much.
That’s the point Dave. I stopped being hung up on traffic it provided directly to my site and instead focused on the increased interaction there.
I had the same frustrations and since I can’t seem to create a worthwhile website, I started my daily email subscription (for free). You might want to consider that. More subscribers and people read those than I ever got off my websites. Plus, you keep everyone in the loop and can mention any new projects or whatever. Surprisingly, the majority of subscribers came from social media.
Anyway…. that’s my two-cents (or three…depending how much loose change I have).
I do have the email subscription and that is where probably 50-75 people get updates from me.
The problem with e-mail subscriptions right now is that if you use comicpress/wordpress, the e-mail subscription plug ins do not recognize the custom content known as “comics”. It’ll send e-mail only when you update the blog area.
I’m curious Nate, who do you use for e-mail subscriptions? and do you use cp w/ wp? If you have something that works, a lot of people might want to know this!!!!
I would think there is a workaround for that. Have you asked Frumph on Twitter?
I always ask Frumph first. Its a simple waiting period until jetpack catches up with custom content categories. Other than mailchimp, which I cant be bothered figuring out, I’m not aware of another e-mail subscription format that works with CP/WP. It could and might exist, but I only know what I know and don’t know all the rest of it!
I use WordPress/Comic Easel and I use Feedburner for the email list. It works great so far.
Scott did you see this???
Yes, I believe google is phasing our feedburner in the near future. I didn’t want to invest in a product that has an expiration date placed on it. Although, this was supposed to occur in early 2013 and hasn’t yet been implemented. I’m not sure what is going on with the future of it.
I’m looking into Mad Mimi, but haven’t researched it enough to know what it can do, if anything for me. I want a program that is automatically going to send any and ALL updates I make to subscribers. I’ll keep looking!
First off, Bearman, you HAVE an email subscription? Why didn’t I notice that….. I will have to sign up.
Anyway, back to your question – I use Constant Contact. They have a pre-made template (NOT for comics) that I upload the image into. I do a daily blog as well. Sounds like a lot, but the thing is you can schedule them out. It’s not a time consuming monster like many would think. I probably have about half the subscribers for the comics and the other half for the blog. I launched back in Jan. (or Feb) and it’s growing daily. I like that format the best out of everything so far (well, again, until I can create an awesome website, which I seem to have a hard time doing).
Something else about the list – I have the contacts separated into different subscriptions. It’s a pretty cool feature beyond just an RSS feed.
Well for whatever reason I miss a bunch of your posts (except your blog ones) because I can’t get it to stick in my RSS REader. So I just comment on G+ and FB when you post there.
BTW what happened to your avatar?
I really appreciate you sharing this. I am a marketing nerd an am always fascinated by what is working for others.
Well from one Marketing nerd to another…you are welcome
Good stuff as always Bearman. This is helpful to everyone. I’m very introverted and don’t engage much. I just enjoy drawing and not the social media part of it (Surprise!) I do however really enjoy the comments on my cartoons and I’ve had people tell me they enjoy reading those as much as the cartoons.
I did a search on how to tell how many people follow your RSS and read a paragraph and felt like I was back in spanish class. I tuned out and came back here.
I am very much a show me versus understand a litany of instructions. Then you have to let me figure out how to apply it or it doesn’t retain.
Before I started my comic I gave a hard look at myself to understand why I was about to do it. What did I want from it? What was a reasonable goal.
While we all want numbers, what I wanted was comments. I created something. Something to get a reaction. I want to experience those reactions. No one in my life reads my comic. It’s not their thing, I’ve come to understand that. But I still want to engage with people who do enjoy comics. So I comment on sites like these and get to express what I thought of their comic and often they will do the same for me. It has also been an invaluable source of education and inspiration for my own comic creations.
I wish someone had the answer on what I have to do to get more visitors. I think it just comes down to promoting the right thing on the right site at the right time. And that answer changes week by week. So I just continue plugging away and make sure it’s something that brings enjoyment to my day. Engaging with others. 😀
I think part of the reason we struggle with readers is that we are kind of being sent in the wrong directions with where they are Bill, everyone’s looking for where they might go, not where they are. Readers, for the most part, the majority of them are still reading our stuff in traditional manners. While everyone is on the bus to mobile-ville, the majority of comic readers still use their desktops and laptops and a growing number are using their tablets to read, but phones? why are we trying to get readers to read visual content on such a small screen that less than 2% of people use for such things?
I’m always humbled when other comic creators comment on my comic, to me, they are the hardest reader to entertain since they already know what is out there. If they see value and have an interest in my work, then I must be doing -something- right!!
Yeah, I really don’t know where potential readers are. If I knew, I’d reach out to them.
And I agree about the phone. Too small. I’d rather wait till I get home to read something rather than reading it on my phone.
For me it is about cookies. I hate having to log into every single site to post a comment on mobile. And don’t get me started on disqus. Hate that too 🙂
Why do you hate Disqus? I use it because it doesn’t require the site to load each time somebody leaves a comment, once your logged in you stay logged in, a ton of sites use it and it is really easy to keep track of who has commented to me on somebody else’s site.
Just curious, sorry about getting you started 😉
Dave I only have figured out how to comment on one of you sites haha.
Because (at least it used to) if you sign in with an email and someone is trying to link back to you by clicking your name they go to your disqus profile and not your site.
I never view sites on my phone so if I had to do that, I probably wouldn’t comment much at all.
I bookmark all the comics I read in folders named for the days they update. Sites like yours and Jynksie are on my RSS feed that I check after reading the folders.
I’m very organized! 😀
Both of my sites use Disqus so I’m not sure why you can’t comment on both. Strange.
I can easily get back to your site by clicking on your Disqus profile and seeing the pretty link to your site. It’s one more step but probably too much for most people, which is just sad.
One reason I have a top commenters widget on 8-bit Nerds is because it is easy access to your site for the entire month.
Bill that is a good thing because I never know when I am going to post haha
Bill there are times when I can’t get around to all my favorite blogs and comment. I noticed there were several bloggers who never commented here unless I commented on their site first. I tend to remove them from my RSS. Not that I ever expect anyone to comment on every single post but if you only comment out of guilt for me commenting on your site, I figure why bother haha
That being said I found some great content by just checking out the sites of my commenters that eventually went into my reader.
I catch myself coming to your site after you have left a comment at one of my sites. I usually know that you have new content then.
Every now and then I do head on over to your site to see if you have new content without you having to leave a comment.
I’m not a big RSS subscriber guy because I hate cluttering up my email account, so I am just a random checker I suppose.
I use feedly so nothing comes to my email I go to the site and everything is there.
I’ll have to check that out.
Great post, Bearman! Thanks for sharing your info.
I don’t like FB much and G+ is a bit confusing for me. Twitter has been the best for me because I am most comfortable with it. And it’s quick. That’s where I meet lots of amazing artists and discover new things.
As for my site. I am grateful I have people reading and commenting on my site. My progress is so slow I am just thankful I get any followers!
Also, I’m relatively new to the webcomics scene, so I still have a ways to go before I feel I should be concerned with comic views, stats, visits, etc…
Right now I’m focusing on creating great content. I need to get better and faster with my art so that I can post a page fully inked and colored each week. Once I can nail that, I will work on promoting it.
Advertising: I hate commercials, so that’s why I don’t advertise on my site. However, if/when I get a huge following I will probably put up some Amazon ads or other affiliate links.
Email Subscription: It’s easiest for me to get an email update of a new comic posted. Otherwise, I forget about a webcomic or two until weeks later.
Joseph that is why you see that I don’t have paid advertising. I just randomly post some banners of my friends.
I get very little traffic from social media. But then again I rarely interact with anyone on it much as I simply don’t have the time. I have a couple of friends here in town who regularly follow the links on FB to read my comics but that’s about it.
That is because you are too busy commenting on everyone elses site. I thought I got around.
‘Cos that’s what I enjoy most. I generally don’t find a lot of social network site stuff all that interesting. Maybe I’m just too old for modern technology. Oh I gotta go turn my toast over before it burns. Those little doors on the sides make it so easy.
I first found you through WordPress & now I have subscribed so I get a notification when you post. Just in case you were wondering.
I have you on my RSS reader just so you know. 🙂
I have to agree with what everyone is saying above and I appreciate you sharing this bearman. It seems there isn’t enough time in the day, as we all work (I’m assuming, unless you freelance and make a living at it). When it comes to social media, we try them all and sometimes we have to pick which one we are best at. I know for you it’s G+, which unfortunately I don’t have an app for that, because I hear it would eat up all the data on my phone. So it’s easier to participate, for me, on twitter or FB via my phone. And then there’s Instagram and Tumblr. And with every social network you have to participate for people to pay attention. So many times it’s post and go. That sounds crude but like I said above, there isn’t enough time in the day. So it’s easier for me to keep up with website than social media. And when it comes to commenting on a website, I use my computer. It gets exhausting trying to keep up with all the various social networks. So I limit myself, and when I am working on a comic I avoid social media all together. So I’m rehashing what everyone else has said. At least we all know what’s going on and hopefully have empathy for each other, lol. And I bow to you the G+ King.
One last thing, I believe most people don’t click on links, if you post a picture, which I do they just read that.
I started an instagram and tumblr page because I see a bunch of stuff shared from there. I just don’t get into it and probably haven’t posted in months.
That is what I don’t mind about G+ is that I can post something there and they don’t have to click my link if they are lazy. WE can engage there. And unfortunately I probably could do more with FB and Twitter but as you said it is exhausting.
I find that more people “like” “favorite” or “+1″my previews (which are incomplete) than visit the site to see the rest. My numbers are very low anyway, so accuracy is suspect, but this is the way it looks.
I am not too consistent in my social media presence because I’m very busy. I’m trying hard to be consistent with the update status at least, which I failed to maintain in the past. I always try to answer comments and interactions, but sometimes I’m not online for days, so I’m not the fastest respondent.
All in all, “the whole thing sucks” is a good summary for my current situation.
Sucks is a good word for it. I think it is 25% effort and 75% luck that it strikes a cord with the right people at the right time and suddenly everyone else thinks it is cool to follow.
I have a presence on both the blogs and FB (can’t stand Google+ and I value my job too much to be on Twitter) and while I’m getting a nice boost to my pageview count on my blog, (I post links on FB and link to my blog via my signature when I visit non-WordPress blogs), I probably could get more if I was a bit more hardcore of FB. Problem for me (in my mind) is that I equate getting hardcore on FB (aka posting a lot) with spamming. And since I’m in FB jail for my book blog link supposedly being “suspicious”, I have a tendency to look over my shoulder a lot when I post.
I guess it helps that I use my pen name on FB to post my stuff that my followers would like versus spamming my friends and family who could care less.
Social media doesn’t really do much in my case. I advertise my comic like a fiend on twitter… and forget about facebook. Facebook seems to be completely useless for driving traffic. I’ve been stuck at 27 likes on the Bunny Wiggins facebook page for ages…I’ve even thought about shutting that page down.
Stumbleupon drove a lot of traffic to my last comic (it gave one single comic I did nearly 140K hits), but not so much to this one. I post to Reddit… not really sure if I’m getting any traffic from it.. Not really sure how many hits I get from Google+, either. All in all, according to Statcounter, the return readership is quite small. I’ve gotten page views in the hundreds sometimes… occasionally I’ve broken 1000 when running ads.
It sort of reminds me of that Warner Brothers cartoon where Daffy Duck gives his all to a stage performance and just hears crickets at the end.
I think a large portion of commenters on my site come from readers who found my comments on other sites, and clicked the profile link.
Wow 140,000. I think my best day ever was 7,000. I did one cartoon that someone with a ton of followers on FB shared and actually gave me attribution. Drove about 1100 FB likes in one day. Hasn’t happened since.
Stumbleupon is just one of those things that I don’t think many people use. As I said it used to be my number one source but now those numbers have just transferred to reddit and g+
Here’s a site that I’ve been using to post on Facebook and Twitter. It saves me some time….
Bufferapp.com it will send out posts to your social media that you schedule to be sent out when you want it to.
There are others like it but this is the first one I tried out. 😉
I tried Hootsuite at one point. If I need to bother to set it all up, I might as well post directly haha
Bill,
WordPress has a plug in, that you can use directly, which have your website updates go live to your social media accounts. They recognize custom content and blogs. It’s just the e-mail subscription aspect that jetpack hasn’t finished addressing yet!
Unless, does this do something different than the usual?
With Buffer you can schedule in advance what times and how often you post on social media. Once a month I scan my twitter account using…
http://www.tweriod.com/dashboard.php
and it updates Buffer with the most popular times my followers are on Twitter. This way my scheduled posts hit the most people. 😉
I’m waiting for Jetpack to get that fixed. If you’re looking for an email subscription program for your comics, I know PJ Day of Flattbear.com has one that works.
I use Subscribe 2 which has worked fine for me
B-Man
I tried subscribe 2… it doesn’t recognize custom content [comics] portion of my wordpress site. It may work for you because you are using a completely different kind of pre-fab web design.
Probably.
Wow…. that does quite a few different things. I’ve just added Buffer to my things to look into! Thanks Bill!!!
Pj uses Mailchimp… and this monkey [meaning me] cant be bothered trying to figure it out. [smirk] Its to involved for what I want from it. Way more involved.
Testing my avitar to see if it comes back….
Okay….yeah, I had the wrong email address before. My penguin has returned now (whew!)
There he is
Since I have been offline for six months, I have found my engagement to be just as high now (and when everything was set to autofeed) as it was then. I have never liked social media for anything beyond gaming, but FB is the source of most of my traffic. I attribute this to many years there and many contacts (I sometimes wish would drop into the ocean).
The only other benefit to social media is the friends I have made around the world who would otherwise never know about me, my site or what really MAD.
True but you and I found each other via mutual blogs rather than social media.
Social media wise, I’m most active on Twitter and the majority of my visitors are coming from there. Facebook is next, but it follows way behind, mostly because I’m not on there much.
You are great on Twitter. It’s hard to multitask
You know, I don’t get notices when you post anymore. What happened? My social media time has fallen to next to nil, so it seems I’ve been missing your ‘toons.
Not sure. You can always subscribe to get email notifications if you want.
As a reader (I feel a bit out of place in this discussion), I can honestly say that it is the interaction on G+ that made me keep Bearman Cartoons circled. His partial posts of comics keep me curious enough to click through. And I read EVERYTHING (including the comic books I purchase on comixology and my kindle books) on my phone. Everything. I have a brand new computer and a new tablet. I use my phone. It goes with me everywhere. So when I’m on the train, at a Dr. appointment, on the couch (like right now), or in bed at night; I’m using my phone. If I’m online, 99% of the time I’m mobile.
I came here for the Lebron James article, but saw the title of this and was intrigued. I followed links yesterday for the new T-shirt design. If I felt all the posts on G+ were simply self promotion, and there wasn’t the great interaction there is on his posts, I wouldn’t bother coming to the site. After a while I’d take him out of my circles. Only posting links and having a less personable presence makes continued interest and eventual continued traffic to the website far less likely, at least for me.