Help! Social media shy!

[indigogirl66]

Hi there, I've been blogging for about 18 months now, and I have been happy with keeping things quite low key. I didn't tell very many people about it, just close friends and family. I love doing it, and I've had some lovely comments from people I know and via the blog about my writing, so I'm thinking now about trying to to grow my readership and connect with the blogging community a bit more.

The trouble is, I find the concept of promoting myself via social media really tricky and time consuming and I would go so far as to say that Twitter gives me anxiety, it moves at such a pace! I'm also considering if I should share my blog with local mum groups on Facebook, or even on my Facebook personal page at all. I'm worried about offending anybody or that people will laugh at me behind my back - I know this is silly but that sort of thing does upset me.

Can anybody give me any wisdom or just a good talking to please?!

My blog is abeeandabloom.wordpress.com in case you want to have a look for reference. (I promise I am not just posting it to try and get more views this way…!!)

Oh yes it's a real problem isn't it! Share, share and share again though. Those who hide in the shadows don't get the benefits of the sunshine....you're afraid (as am I!) of people sniggering in a "Who does she think she is!?" kind of way but the simple truth is that those people are no use to you anyway!

The people who judge aren't the people you want to affect....the people who are good and will share and give you praise for doing something are the people who won't judge. They will admire.

I haven't clicked your link yet but will do now. x

Gorgeous photos! Had a skim and your writing is lovely. Don't be shy! Do it! Share tonight when there's plenty of traffic about....past 8.30 I'd say.

Thank you MrsFlannel. You are right, I need to try and forget about people who are negative. Not sure I will summon the courage tonight, but thank you for the timing advice too! x

This is a great place to share your blog posts and there are lots and lots of mums doing it on there. www.facebook.com/groups/bloggingmumsclub/ Some people won't like your blog; some people will. Just be you and you will attract the right people. Good luck.

Hi indigogirl66, I saw your post and decided to post my first comment on mums net! The hardest part of Social Media is providing relevant content and having taken a peak at your blog you already have a rich back catalogue of great articles to pick from. Don't be shy but do have a plan (the tone of the feed and what you are looking to share) and maximise your profile.

Ensure you use the header and bio to maximum effect so people visiting your feed know what you're feed is about straight away and provide a link to your blog / website via the url option (it's amazing how many people don't!)

The best time to share content on Twitter is 1- 3 pm Mon - Fri whereas Facebook the best times tend to be between 6 - 9 pm, but check your page insights to see when most of your followers, friends, connections are most active.

Also before embarking on your social media adventure, consider which social media platform your target market is going to be using. For Highly visual content / images Pinterest and Instagram work well, videos youtube etc. If friends and contacts are suggesting you look to social media to promote your blog or business, speak to them and find out which platforms they are using and why.

I hope the above is of help and wish you every success on social media :-)

Hello - do share your blog, cause it is lovely and you should be read by lots of people! I like your photos too.

I was like you when I started blogging, and gradually built up a following on Twitter. I don't share on my personal FB page very often, because I prefer to keep that a bit more private.

While I absolutely adore Twitter, I actually get more hits from Facebook. I love the fact that Twitter is fast moving - don't feel you have to keep up with it. Read the snapshot that you see while you have the time to look at it, and reply if you feel like it.

MmeLindor you don't need to post on your personal page on FB. You do special page like a fan page for your blog and post every updates there. I like it more then twitter because you just cut&past the link and FB got snippet of your post and pt it on your page. Then, if I dont' want to put special text, I delete the typed link but the snippet stays. Very fast and you don't have to make creative txt like in TW. (lazy me :) )

And after you publish new post on a page, you could "share" it from your personal account, if you think it's interesting to your friends. If not - you don't bother them.

And when you just create the page, invite everybody (your friends) with something like you want be offended if they don't follow and thay you wan't post updates on your personal account, only on a page. Or something like that.

Thanks Zanuda. I worded that post badly - I should have said that I have a FB page that I post to, and I only share personal posts on my own FB page occasionally. FB pages can be a right pain, I find, as they don't share your posts will all your followers, but once you build up a following it gets better.

...they don't share your posts will all your followers... and they will share more if the owner starts to pay for adverts. It's been a lot of complains on the internet. That's FB way of getting money... Anyway, another knowledge, if your followers interact more with your content FB will show it to them more often. So remind your followers somehow about it or encourage them to comment.