Fire Critic An Unadulterated View of the Fire Service
I read a post yesterday about pageviews not mattering. I could not disagree more.
The post also spoke of rss readers and other viral readership via other social media mattering… To this I do agree, however pageviews matter more!
This is my main point: bloggers utilize facebook, twitter, rss feeds, youtube, podcasts, and many other social media outlets to garner readership and expand their reach of who sees the articles which are on the blog sites. All of this other “social media” usage is supposed to drive traffic back to their websites. That is the point. If you increase your scope of readership through social media, you will increase your traffic.
For instance, when I post an article a link is automatically posted on the facebook fan page and streamed through twitter. This typically includes the title and a link. It is my job to create a title that will entice the reader to click through to the blog and read what I have to say.
It stands to reason that the more the twitter followers or facebook fans then the increased chance of someone clicking through to the blog. The more the merrier. However, without those click throughs (as a blogger) you should be reevaluating your message, titles, and delivery.
The post I am referring to is Firefighter Blogging Behind the Scenes. Jay over at Firefighter Hourly has begun a campaign to move to the mainland after being out on an island by himself for so long…or so it seems. In the past, the blog has been out there by itself independent of all the great networking many other bloggers have enjoyed between each other. So many fire blogs feed off of each other via content links, twitter retweets, posting articles on each others facebook fanpages, emailing back and forth, and all around enjoying each others company online. Jay has taken a different approach. I am not exactly sure what the plan has been, but it seems as though he is changing his ways.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying he is doing anything wrong. I am just pointing out that by networking with other blogs and being in some of the circles I am in, the cross traffic proliferation of our messages has been easier. The networks I belong to are worthwhile and I have created many friendships along the way.
If you follow me on twitter or facebook, you will notice that it isn’t all about me or all about Fire Critic. It is about networking. I have always enjoyed helping out the little guy and still consider myself one of them…outside of all the jabs that some of my friends may take at my height.
In the end, the pageviews are what I measure my success by. What I write, what my readers read.
Oh yeah… and don’t forget that readers can’t click on advertisements if they don’t go to your site. Not all fire bloggers have monetized their blogs. The ones who have can’t get click throughs on advertising via twitter or facebook.
And just to be clear, I am not hung up on traffic. I enjoy my readership, but don’t really compare myself to anyone else. I post what I want when I want to. The reader gets to enjoy the serious stuff along with the fun stuff!
If you want to be successful, you have to use old media, new media, and social media!
