Tag: Social Media

Is there a Correlation between Social Media Followers and Website Pageviews?

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?

June 17, 2014
Anti Social Media Cartoon

Ever get that WTF face when checking out Facebook or Google Plus like in today’s cartoon? I do. It is annoying as hell on Facebook because those are my “friends” I am commenting on their posts so it isn’t like I can dump them without hurt feelings. Though usually on FB it is isolated and not consistent among the same friend.

But it seems to be worse on Google Plus as you don’t have to be friends with someone to follow their posts (as they don’t necessarily have to follow you back). There are plenty of people that I follow on Google Plus who don’t follow me back but I have two rules that I look for to continue following them.

1. Be present. Broadcasters who post but never respond to comments on their post are not worth my time. And I don’t think you have to respond to every comment, but a chosen few shows that you actually read the comment. And speaking of reading the comments….

2. I try to always plus every comment on my posts as a way to say thank you for leaving the comment and acknowledge you took the time to write. That is unless it is a douche/troll comment and then I ignore it. That being said there seem to be some people who will post and plus every comment but a few. To me that says you only want to engage with certain people. Just recently uncircled someone who has on three occasions ignored my relevant non douchey comment while plussing every other comment consistently. I get the hint!!

What other moments on the web cause you to have the WTF face??

February 5, 2014
Is there a Social Media Posting Frequency Sweet Spot?

For those of you who use Social Media (be it Google Plus, Twitter, Facebook) is there a sweet spot for the number of posts a person should make in a day/week? How much is so little you think they abandoned or at least aren’t interested? How much is too much that you tend to ignore their posts and probably miss good things from them but can’t weed through all the noise? How does resharing/retweeting posts factor?

I have my own thoughts but want to hear from you.

August 30, 2013
Share This Post Or Else
There is an interesting trend that I have been seeing lately on social media. People trying to draw attention to good causes like Cancer/Bullying but while doing so, actually bullying others to share the post.

Typically the post will finish with words like “Share this if you don’t support Bullying” or “99% of you won’t share this to fight Cancer”. In both cases it causes those who don’t share to feel bad about their decision. So if I don’t share it, then I a support Bullying or I don’t want to fight Cancer?? So the other day I decided to create a quick graphic that poked fun at these type of posts. As you can see from above, there really is no content to share, but I included a reason why you should share nothing.

99.9% of you will not reshare this. I wonder how you look yourself in the mirror you soulless Jerk?

Originally, when I posted it I was going to include an explanation. But then I didn’t just to see the response. Well if you want to gain attention on social media, create controversy.

Initially the people in my circles got the joke and reshared it and commented. While not doing much on Facebook, it started getting traction on Google Plus. It seems the further out the information goes either the less people got the joke or more mad they were at me for posting it.

Results: 830 plussed it, 684 shared it, and 415 commented on it. By far the most attention any of my posts have ever received. On average here is the breakdown of the comments.
- 30% – Got the Implication of the Post or thought it was Funny
- 30% – Didn’t get it or were not sure why I posted it
- 25% – Were pissed at me
- 10% – Added comments like “hi” or other stupid stuff that didn’t have anything to do with the post.
- 5% – My Comments
Two of my favorite comments were: “If you went away for any reason, like passing away, I’ll not cry for you” and “This is Google Plus not Facebook. Go Fuck Yourself”

Several people made the Facebook comment and yet when I went to their profile, many of them posted the same crap that you find on Facebook. Which made it more humorous.

So please, in the future, encourage, ask, plead, etc people to share your posts but don’t make them feel bad if they don’t.
March 25, 2013
Takei – Definition

Seems actor George Takei isn’t just famous for his stellar acting on Star Trek. He has parlayed his celebrity into appearances on the Howard Stern show and is something of a Social Media icon – especially on Facebook. And several times from an unmentioned cartoonist friend of ours. As you all know I am a big proponent of those who share other’s work to provide credit where you found it. It isn’t too hard even if you found the picture/cartoon on google because many artists, including yours truly, puts their URL on the image.

George, or whomever is posting for him, doesn’t seem to always have the time for that so he just takes it and posts it as is. Interesting that someone who is in the intellectual property business seems to miss that courtesy.

Any other celebrities that I should spoof their social media habits into a future definition?

NOTE: For those who were here yesterday I didn’t like my caricature of George Takei so I updated it.

March 2, 2013
Social Media Pariah

I have said before that as an artist, it can be frustrating to spend several hours on a piece of work that gets ignored or little attention on social media but I can toss up a picture of my cat and it get tons of attention. So today’s cartoon is another homage to that.

I asked my google plus followers “what trending topic that consistently pops up do you just not get?” Of course I got many but the ones that popped up most were “Cats, Justin Bieber, and Dr. Who.” I get cats and honestly that is the only social media aspect that my wife is remotely interested in and I am guilty of giving into her demands to post our cats on occasion Luckily for me the people I follow are not Justin Bieber obsessed however I constantly see his name as a trending topic. Dr. Who is the one I don’t get the fan love about. I watched it as a kid when we didn’t have cable and it was the only thing on the 5 channels we got. I even tried it again as an adult. Just can’t get into it.

What about you? Any trending topics you find consistently on social media that you don’t get? Oh and first person to name the character on the wanted poster wins…..NOTHING.

January 27, 2013
Social Media Copywrong

Today’s cartoon was inspired by some conversations I have been seeing more and more from cartoonists and graphic designers bemoaning the practice of companies who crowdsource graphic work. The process of crowdsourcing is where a company invites anyone and everyone to submit graphic/cartoon work but only choose one or a limited number of people to win. And even then there may or not be a monetary prize. Personally I don’t have a problem with the contests except when (and it is becoming all too frequent) when the contest rules state that any submissions become the property of the sponsoring company. BS!!!

However, some of my same friends who will be irate over crowdsourcing don’t seem to have any issues with illegally downloading music, tv shows, or movies. It becomes a larger group when you include some others that I follow on social media. Some complain when someone posts something they found/made without attribution to the original poster. I am in full agreement with that complaint provided that you aren’t yourself in the practice of stealing content from someone else.

Know your meme is a great site to find out the history behind certain memes that suddenly become popular on social media.

Those of you who are artists/designers, what are your thoughts on crowdsourcing design work?

October 7, 2012
Social Media and Cats

And the Caption Contest Winner is – ME!! And all of you who agreed with me that cats getting attention on social media is the bane of existence for someone posting something they actually spent time on.

And the inspiration was this picture of our cats, playing on the ipad with their favorite app Games for Cats.

March 28, 2012
I Hate Social Media Cartoon (Caption Contest)
Cartoon Caption Contest time. You need to help me complete the words that best go into the third panel. While I posed this as a cartoonist I think we can all relate to posting things online only for them to get ignored while other crap gets a bunch of attention. Here are some options I came up with:
- Oh look (fill in name of any Celebrity on the same social media site) found my cartoon and uploaded it to his stream.
- I am just going to post how much I hate social media
- Wow look at that cartoon. Looks like he spent about 5 seconds on it.
- Before I go, I’ll post this picture of my cat licking himself.
All of my choices have actually happened to me. Like one of these or got something better. Post it in the comments. I’ll put the finished one up either Wed or next Sunday.
March 25, 2012
Why Google Plus is better than….

So it is no secret that I have been somewhat neglecting my friends on facebook, twitter, etc because my time on social media has been taken up by Google Plus. While it of course has some limitations I wish they would work out sooner rather than later, the above cartoon pretty much sums up why it is better IMO than other social media.

As always let me know if you need an invite. And for people who have recently joined who are lost, ahem Bo Lumpkin, a fellow cartoonist Debbie Ohi has created a nice page with links to help get you started. You can find it here.

August 28, 2011