A few months ago, disheartened by the difficulty of ‘growing’ my blog readership, I consulted some of my students about the situation. I say ‘students’ but in fact they are all high-achieving young professionals who come for the occasional coaching.
They all agreed that it’s nearly impossible to persuade people to go to the trouble of going direct to one’s website to see what’s new, when they’re used to getting their alerts from social media such as Facebook and Twitter. They thought I should bite the bullet and sign up with one or both of those services. I had always felt I didn’t have the time, but I was feeling sufficiently motivated to take action. So I said I’d try one of them. Which one? Everyone said Twitter. They thought that if I managed to build up a presence on Twitter, more people would visit my website on a regular basis, and even buy my books. So off I went (or flew).
I’ve only been on Twitter since May, but already I think I can see a pattern, and it’s not the one I hoped to see. The number of my Twitter followers is slowly increasing, but there has been very little knock-on effect on my blog readership. I’m starting to get the impression that the two audiences are quite separate, and interested in different things. There seems to be almost no overlap between the two groups.
So my strategy seems to have been misguided. My secret plan was to use Twitter to make more people aware of my website and then fade gracefully away from Twitter. But now I can see it doesn’t work like that. Curses! Is nothing simple?
In the meantime I have come to enjoy the ‘community’ of Twitter, which I didn’t expect. I have even met some fellow musicians who are fun Twitter company. However, keeping up with it is very time-consuming, as everyone warned me, and I don’t have time to do justice to both Twitter and my blog (as well as writing a book). What to do?
Keep the blog! (I write as one who follows both.) I miss your detailed comments and observations, and you post them less frequently these days.
Another vote for the blog. I look forward to reading what you post and that is what led me to your download CD recently. I first came to your writing and books through the Guardian and although I am getting more used to twitter I prefer a more considered read!
Thank you both for these encouraging words. It’s true I post less frequently these days, though that’s largely because I have been busy writing a book, which has pretty much exhausted my appetite for detailed comments and observations! I will certainly try to keep the blog going.
Yes, definitely keep the blog.
I enjoy reading your posts and appreciate the time you take to write each, always interesting, one.
I follow this pianist on Twitter https://twitter.com/pianist23 and so would suggest, perhaps, uploading little snippets of you playing.
Advertise your blog as much as possible on Twitter. People will view it eventually.
Yes, I agree that we only have so many words that can be said in a day. I enjoy writing letters and always try to keep a diary up to date. By the time I’m done with that the well is dry! I always enjoy reading this blog but the prospect of a new book is exciting!