I have a love-hate-hate relationship with Facebook.

I much prefer Twitter, which is more like a crowded lunchroom, where you can pop in and out (or not) as you please. You can stick around and converse (or not) or browse around (or not).
I love Google-Plus, which is like a restaurant (at least the way I’ve been able to use it), where you can come all the way in and sit down or you can pop in and grab a drink at the bar.
Facebook is more like a living room, sometimes crowded and sometimes empty. It requires ongoing maintenance and the interaction can be unending.
(The “unending interaction” thing is true of all three, admittedly. I just find it harder to manage on Facebook.)
In the five years that I’ve been blogging, things have changed in the blogosphere, in part because of how I now use social media, particularly Facebook.
For one thing, I definitely get less comments on my blog. The comments come over at Facebook much more frequently (I have my posts published through RSS on both my personal wall and on my page).
For another thing, I tend not to blog the short snippet posts that I used to post to capture “kid moments” and those sorts of things. They are the things that I now use as status updates or tweets.
However much I may struggle with Facebook, there’s no denying that it’s changed my blogging.
How about you? How has Facebook impacted your blogging?

—
Sarah Reinhard blogs at SnoringScholar.com and is hopelessly active on Twitter and Facebook. She’s the author of Welcome Baby Jesus: Advent and Christmas Reflections for Families.

When Sarah Reinhard's not writing online at SnoringScholar.com, she can be found on Twitter, Goodreads, Pinterest, Facebook, or Google +. She's the author of a number of books, including her latest title, Catholic Family Fun: A Guide for the Adventurous, Overwhelmed, Creative, or Clueless.

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By Blogging7 Comments on How Facebook Has Changed My Blogging

7 Replies to “How Facebook Has Changed My Blogging”

  2. I have found the interaction to be much more vibrant at FB…I'm no superstar blogger and most of my comments (even in the form of likes) come from there. I am starting to think of it as a sort of "necessary evil" (evil because I don't like it very well…yet) in terms of building rapport and a good platform or tribe.

    Karina, I've used ping in the past, too. Now I use Hootsuite (like Mike) and have my FB fan page set up to forward to Twitter.

    Dorian, ah! Well. I guess I'll be over at FB more then, huh? (Trying not to grumble.)

    Reviewer11, I hear you on the not trusting FB thing. However, as an aspiring author, I do think it has a valid use and function for building that tribe of fans and people who will buy your books (or products) and share them with their network. My marketing background says it is "word of mouth" translated to an online environment. It can be abused (and is, often), but…it also has a real use and function. Which is not to try to talk you into it, just to toss out another viewpoint.

    Antonella, yes, you are doing it right. One of the best ways to get people to interact with you is to interact with them. I often will check someone out who replies to me more than once and who seems to interact/"talk" to me frequently. And, really, there is the reminder (that I so often need, too) that it's not a numbers game, not really. If our goal as Catholic writers is to bring the Faith to others, we are looking at the one, right? (Though there's always that "paying the bills" thing.)

  3. I'm new to the social media and most of the time I don't even understand what you guys are talking about! I recently started both Facebook and twitter. I twit about new posts on my blog and the twit appears on Facebook. Am I doing it right? The thing is, I don't know how to make people read my twitters (or go to my page)!

  4. I only use Facebook to play games there, but I haven't done so in a long time. I also prefer Twitter than Facebook. I don't know, I just don't feel comfortable (I don't trust it) using Facebook for personal and business stuff.

  5. Supposedly, Facebook is now going to "weight" automatically-posted status updates (like from RSS Graffiti or other services) much more lightly in terms of how likely they are to show up in people's News Feeds. The idea being – it wants Page administrators to focus more on interaction with their "fans" via comments, etc., and an automatically posted status update is less likely to reflect the Page owner's active desire to engage Fans.

    But…it sure does make it a lot easier!

  6. The Facebook notification I use for blog posts brings in the most traffic, followed by Twitter. I noticed lately some folks have shared the blog post notification, so the exposure circles are growing slowly.
    Also, I get the most comments and new friends from the Facebook notifications. It is simpler and easier to interact there rather than directly posting comments on blog.
    I use hootsuite.com to post to all the social networks simultaneously. It all works together.

  7. I have a service called ping.fm. it allows me to post my tweets on facebook, linked in and Yahoo! Most of the time, that's my FB interaction except to comment on stuff. It's not really affected my blogging except that my posts are noted on FB.

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