This is a post I plan to continually edit to reflect how I’m growing my social media networks. I hope it can be a resource offering guidance for others who are just starting out in the blogging world or with a business that utilizes social media.
Facebook:
November 29th: Started the page and had 1 follower (a fellow blogger I shared the page with).
January 5th: I didn’t get the courage to share it with my friends and family on Facebook until this point. After sharing with about 100-200 friends, I was up to 80 followers. I don’t take it personally that they didn’t all “like” the page, since it is a niche blog.
January 6th: I reached 100 followers after doing a like share with other bloggers on a Facebook group.
January 7th: Was up to 117 but now down to 99. Wonder why some people “unliked.” Trying not to take it personally.
Plan: Continue doing like shares with bloggers in my niche. I’m finding Facebook is much harder to build a following on than Twitter, because it’s more personal (real names) and less business-focused.
Goal: Reach 150 likes by January 15th. (Didn’t quite make it.)
January 20th: 142 likes
February 1st: 154 likes (Made it!)
February 17th: 175
Goal: 200 likes by the end of February. (Didn’t quite make it.)
March 10: 2o4 likes YAY!
Goal: 250 likes by the end of March
May 11: 278 likes
Goal: 300 likes by the end of May
June 4: 344 likes
Goal: Start a group instead by the end of June
Twitter:
September 13th 2013: I had 80 personal followers.
November 11th 2015: I posted for the first time in two years. Still had 80 followers.
December 14th: Found out about twitter chats and joined one called #blogelevated on Monday nights. A few people followed me from there. I started retweeting others and had a few more followers this way.
December 15th: Tweeted my first blog post.
December 28th: Began having real conversations through twitter with other users. This raised my following.
December 29th-January 6th: I began following followers of twitter users in my niche. This strategy has raised my followers the most. I’ve also used apps Crowdfire and Unfollow to make sure I’m only following users who are following me back and to keep my followers and following around the same number.
January 6th: I am sitting at 477 followers.
January 7th: Now at 650 followers.
January 10th: 806 followers (People are starting to add me to lists such as family bloggers, influencer marketing, blogggers, coworking, mommy, remotework, Pinterest interests, work culture thought leaders, relaxation, mompreneurs, WAHM, committed2wellness.)
January 13th: broke 1,000 followers (I’ve noticed that most of the new followers are not ones I have followed. They seem to be finding me from searches. It could be the hashtags I’ve used in my profile. #freelance #writer #blogger #wahm #workingmom @workfromhome #mompreneur #mindfulmom #remotework #influencer #dallasmom)
February 17th: 1,990 (I keep fluctuating between 1,950 and 1,990, so I’m not sure what’s going on. Regardless, I’m fairly sure I can reach the 2,000 goal by the end of the month.
Plan: Continue copying followers from Twitter users in my niche. Continue retweeting their tweets and having twitter conversations with high traffic users. Also, be a week ahead on the Buffer app as far as scheduled tweets.
Goal: Reach 500 followers by January 15th. Whoops. That goal was too small! Let’s try for 1,000 followers by January 15th. Update: I made it two days early!
January 20th: 1,271 followers
February 1st: 1,594 followers
Goal: 2,000 followers by the end of February Met!
March 10: 2,507 (I’m excited about this because now more sponsors will look at me, since 2,5oo is the minimum for some sites.)
Goal: 3,000 followers by the end of March.
May 11: 3,530
Goal: 4,000 followers by the end of May (almost 200 shy!)
June 4: 3,818
Pinterest:
I haven’t done a lot of new work here. I already had 500 followers on my personal account, since I’m a bit Pinterest-crazy and had over 5k pins. So I turned my personal account into my blog account and have since added 240 followers (5/11/16).
January 7th: 581 followers
Plan: Join a few group boards and pin my posts to my own boards first, then repin to the group boards. Also, I plan to follow some other bloggers on Pinterest and hope for refollows (is that a word?) Join boardbooster.
Goal: Reach 600 followers by January 15th.
January 20th: 616 followers
February 1st: 652 followers
February 17th: 660 followers
Goal: 1,000 followers by the end of February. Did not meet.
March 10: 707 followers
May 11: 740 followers
Goal: 800 followers by the end of March May
Plan: Boardbooster is helping with repins, but not much with new followers, so I need to research more on how to gain Pinterest followers.
June 4: 762 (eek! So I just signed up for Tailwind, so I’m hoping this will make a difference in my followers soon)
Newsletter Subscribers:
(not really social media, but I want to track this too).
December: I put a subscribe button at the top of my site.
January 5th: I added a pop up subscribe widget.
January 6th: 7. I know. But they are an important 7. My nearest, dearest, and biggest fans. Both moms (mom and MIL), 1 high school friend, 1 college friend, 1 spiritual friend, 1 blogger friend, and myself–my other email that I used to check to see if my subscription worked. So I guess that last one doesn’t really count. But if we can’t be our own biggest fan, I’m not sure why anyone else would be. Self confidence for the win! Haha.
February: I converted one of my most popular posts into a freebie download for signing up.
February 17th: 9…
Plan: I need to create and offer something the reader wants for free. Ex. A downloadable file or an ebook.
March 10: 34 subscribers. I created a downloadable file, which increased my followers quite a bit. So did the popup through SumoMe (listbuilder), which is a great plugin with lots of other helpful tools.
Plan: Create specific niche landing pages. Jen at Women Winning Online has a great post on The Top 7 Benefits of Landing Pages.
Goal: 50 subscribers by the end of March
May 11: 180 subscribers (largely in part to the working mom survey I shared on Facebook Groups which asked for emails at the end).
Goal: 200 by the end of May
June 4: 208
Goal: 300 by end of June
Pageviews
November 2015: 98
December 2015: 338
January 2016: 867 (jump because my Facebook page went live and many friends/family checked it out)
February 2016: 770
Goal: 1,000 page views in March, then double each month after.
March 2016: 1,493- My Link-up Party has had the most views this month. Facebook is still my biggest referrer. My first Weekly WAHM Interview has also done pretty well. How I Paid Our Bills this Month with my Freelance Income is a big hit every month.
April 2016: 4,951- Largely due to a successful Stumbleupon of my post 5 Places to Look for Higher Paying Work at Home Jobs
May 2016: back down to 1,060
Goal: Reach 2,000 page views in June.
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