Take Control Of Your Fans

Filed under Building a social network, Proactive Writer.

Capture followers with BubbleCowIf you are a writer looking to build an online following, then you need to think about just how you can control your fans.

Social media is a dynamic and evolving beast! Over the past few months I have seen a number of conversations that talk of the changing nature of Twitter, Facebook and blogs. In essence, the trend seems to be that Twitter is growing too noisy, the ‘like’ button expansion on Facebook has made them a serious player, and that blogs are still the foundation of any online presence.

I have views on all these (it will surprise you to know). However, I wanted to offer another thought -

Have you considered who owns your list of fans?

Take BubbleCow… We have 5000+ followers on Twitter and just under a hundred fans on Facebook. Great you might say, and I agree. The problem comes if Twitter or Facebook change. What happens if Twitter decides to charge and the platform dies overnight. I don’t own that list of 5000 followers on Twitter. I don’t have their email addresses or contact details. If Twitter folds, I lose the list. Same with Facebook, those hundred fans belong to Facebook not me!

As a writer building an online presence this should give you sleepless nights.

For me the solution is the blog. I would suggest that, starting today, all writers with a large following on social media tools should begin the process of pushing fans to their blog.

Why?

Because on your blog you can use two capture tools that YOU control – RSS and newsletters.

I am shocked to still find that I read blogs that don’t have prominent RSS subscribe buttons. In fact, it was such a case that sparked this post. If you not sure what RSS is, then read this post about RSS. Then, set up a link on your blog today.

As for newsletters it is pretty straight forward. I would suggest that you either use Feedburner’s ‘subscribe by email’ service (which is free) or set up a real newsletter using a free newsletter service such a Mail Chimp.

How do you capture fans/followers? Are you worried Twitter and Facebook will die?

BubbleCow can provide writers with professional help to pitch your book or edit your book in preparation for submission or self-publication.

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  • Vincent Eaton

    My experience show I have a significant bump in visitors not when I announce my latest blog post on Facebook, or Twitter, or Linked-in. It comes when I email. Emails remain the gold standard at this date, and capturing those people who are truly interested, an obvious yes.

    • garysmailes

      I also feel that email is an under-appreciated method of capturing fans. Do you have a link to your site so we can see your ‘funnel’ so to speak!

      • Vincent Eaton

        Oh I have links. My email signature is starting to look over-loaded and over-blown (and this is without phone & email contact):
        Personal: http://www.vincenteaton.com
        Blog: http://www.vincenteaton.com/Blog/
        Publishing: http://www.hidden-people.net
        Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/vincent.eaton
        Twitter: @VincentEaton
        YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/VincentEatonStories
        LinkedIn: http://be.linkedin.com/in/vincenteaton
        Facebook Fan Page hidden people: http://bit.ly/9xfpW2

        The dilution of impact by having too many (of the obvious) outlets. I’m on the typical, current essentials, and may pull back as I see over a two-year span, what works best for me. But fans, the true ones one requires, is best done in the authentic voice of one’s blog. Much of the rest of social media is much chitchat, site pointing, transfer of information, and all very pleasant, but is a huge time eater, and rarely “captures” a true fan, as they say out there in virtual-land.

        • garysmailes

          I find it interesting that you pin point the blog as the focus of your efforts. I too agree. I think blogging offers many advantages. The obvious is that you are able to develop of voice. But on a practical point the blog is outwards facing and gives the chance for you to be exposed to an unlimited number of people. This is not the case with a tweet. It comes and goes, if you are involved in conversation then it is one – on one.

          • Vincent Eaton

            Thanks for commenting on my comment. I make it a rule not to follow more than 100 blogs or a 100 people on Twittter (new one on, old one off–always be weeding). On Twitter, if you are not checking every hour, things go by that “might” be of value. Anyone who follows (or who you connect with) over 500 people has a very, very slim chance of seeing your Twitter, and reacting, or being aware of the tweet. Tweets go zoom into the void pretty quickly when you build an audience there. Unless it’s a conversation, within a Twitter group, which is vastly time consuming, I find Twitter devilish difficult to get a feel for the personal because it’s such a mass scale. Blogs have archives, and I can visit as time permits. Facebook…I have a writer friend who has passed 3000 “friends”…now, posting something there, the post on his site (and others who have lots of friends, are pretty rapidly pushed down and out and off into a similar sort of Twitter-like void. Social media, when you are dealing with significant numbers, is pretty much a crap shoot, which makes it a worthwhile gamble, but a gamble. As we know, authenticity is the key online, and so far, for me, best served, most rounded, via a blog. All else supports this.

          • http://www.thecreativeidentity.com/ Steph

            Vincent, too true. What you talk about is the reason why I keep my following stream to a minimum. I think that, as you start following over 200 people, you’re missing out on the updates that you really want to see. How can a person who follows 10,000 others successfully engage with even 1/4 of them? It’s impossible. Every time I get around the 200 people mark I weed out. It all becomes a cacophony of pointlessness.

          • garysmailes

            One solution I use to follow large numbers of people is to use small lists. I set up lists and then shuffle tweeps I wish to pay attention to into one or more of these groups. Yet the reality is that once you hit the thousands of followers you become more of a megaphone.

  • Sarah Callejo

    Gary, I think your 5000 (!!!) followers are interested in your info, and now know you, so if Twitter did die they’d come over to your blog. But it’s the virtual closeness of Twitter that keeps the relationship more dynamic. In your case, I think one of the main reasons to follow you is that you provide lots of interesting links to other blog posts, you filter the interesting information for us, and this would be difficult if you only had a blog.
    I hadn’t thought much about the possibility you suggest, now you’re getting me worried, I’ve made friends on Twitter and I wouldn’t be able to contact them!!

    • garysmailes

      I suspect of the my 5000 followers I reach 10% at best. At least 1000 are either spam or ignoring twitter altogether. I am glad that you see value in our twitter feed, and it is true that we filter content that writer would enjoy. However, should Twitter look to change its model followers could just evaporate.

  • http://writeforyourlife.net Iain Broome

    You’re absolutely right on all accounts, especially on list ownership. It’s much easier to build a following on Twitter, but by crikey it’s way more valuable to build a subscribership, if that’s a word, to your blog. Because those people like your writing and trust your judgment in a completely different way.

    Also, Mail Chimp is ace and I’ll be using it alongside Feedburner on some upcoming exciting projects!

    • garysmailes

      I notice on your blog that you have always pushed the ‘subscribe’ angle – has it worked?

      • http://writeforyourlife.net Iain Broome

        You know, I’d like to say it was my wonderful personality and brilliant writing that helped me build the subscriptions, but I honestly think the giant ‘Subscribe for free!’ banner on every page was more to do with it. I think it definitely helped yep. the word free is also rather powerful, as subscriptions in general are typically associated with recurring payments. Free subscription sounds like a bargain!

  • http://www.thecreativeidentity.com/ Steph

    I think that many people who are striving so hard to build a following on Twitter often do not grasp the importance of the concept of conversion rates. If they are on Twitter just to chat, good, but if they are there in order to increase their visibility as subject matter experts, then they are essentially seeking to turn a follower into a paying customer. A conversion rate of 1 to 2% is the norm on this, as any other, type of sale, and I speak as an ex management consultant here, not as a writer or editor. But… an awful lot of your (my, anyone’s) followers don’t even know you’re around, so to speak, a lot of them are spam, some more will be asleep when you’re most active and a few more different variables. Remove all of those from your calculations and get a 2% out of what remains.

    Your site is your showcase, in every sense, and that’s where your efforts should concentrate. Personally, and as Iain also rightly suggests, people who subscribe to your content without being coaxed by continuous short, and essentially meaningless, status updates are immensely more likely to engage with you, with all that the term entails. It is, as usual, the 80-20 principle whereby 20% of your customer base is responsible for 80% of your earnings. Produce really nice, meaningful newsletters for that 20% and you’re away. Produce lots of tweets and you may, or may not, see a return on investment, but only a tiny one.

  • Vincent Eaton

    My experience show I have a significant bump in visitors not when I announce my latest blog post on Facebook, or Twitter, or Linked-in. It comes when I email. Emails remain the gold standard at this date, and capturing those people who are truly interested, an obvious yes.

  • garysmailes

    I also feel that email is an under-appreciated method of capturing fans. Do you have a link to your site so we can see your 'funnel' so to speak!

  • Vincent Eaton

    Oh I have links. My email signature is starting to look over-loaded and over-blown (and this is without phone & email contact):
    Personal: http://www.vincenteaton.com
    Blog: http://www.vincenteaton.com/Blog/
    Publishing: http://www.hidden-people.net
    Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/vincent.eaton
    Twitter: @VincentEaton
    YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/VincentEatonStories
    LinkedIn: http://be.linkedin.com/in/vincenteaton
    Facebook Fan Page hidden people: http://bit.ly/9xfpW2

    The dilution of impact by having too many (of the obvious) outlets. I'm on the typical, current essentials, and may pull back as I see over a two-year span, what works best for me. But fans, the true ones one requires, is best done in the authentic voice of one's blog. Much of the rest of social media is much chitchat, site pointing, transfer of information, and all very pleasant, but is a huge time eater, and rarely “captures” a true fan, as they say out there in virtual-land.

  • Sarah Callejo

    Gary, I think your 5000 (!!!) followers are interested in your info, and now know you, so if Twitter did die they'd come over to your blog. But it's the virtual closeness of Twitter that keeps the relationship more dynamic. In your case, I think one of the main reasons to follow you is that you provide lots of interesting links to other blog posts, you filter the interesting information for us, and this would be difficult if you only had a blog.
    I hadn't thought much about the possibility you suggest, now you're getting me worried, I've made friends on Twitter and I wouldn't be able to contact them!!

  • garysmailes

    I find it interesting that you pin point the blog as the focus of your efforts. I too agree. I think blogging offers many advantages. The obvious is that you are able to develop of voice. But on a practical point the blog is outwards facing and gives the chance for you to be exposed to an unlimited number of people. This is not the case with a tweet. It comes and goes, if you are involved in conversation then it is one – on one.

  • garysmailes

    I suspect of the my 5000 followers I reach 10% at best. At least 1000 are either spam or ignoring twitter altogether. I am glad that you see value in our twitter feed, and it is true that we filter content that writer would enjoy. However, should Twitter look to change its model followers could just evaporate.

  • http://madisonwoods.wordpress.com Madison Woods

    Gaining blog subscribers is ultimately the goal for all my Twitter and FB interactions, but it is a long and tedious (and luckily, enjoyable!) process. Almost all of my blog followers were first Twitter followers who were enticed to visit my blog via a Tweet. At some point, usually after several enticements, they decide to sign up using their email address at the blog.

    I didn’t realize the RSS feed subscribe was a very useful tool. It’s never been something I’ve used, but after reading your article, I’m inclined to put it back up as an option for readers. I’d prefer them use the email subscribe, though, which is why I took it off to start.

    Thanks for another interesting and informative post :)

    • Vincent Eaton

      Agree with your experience of Twitter & FB, as mirrors mine. Long and tedious, too, but at one moment, if the quality it good, things suddenly pick up and then the going gets zooming. … I have an RSS feed, and don’t know who’s using it, who isn’t. Then once in a while, just as happened this week, someone mentions having read a post of mine, and, inquiring how, I find out it’s via RSS. So, as we know, the internet is about giving people choices, including how they want to access to our stuff. One offers, they make the choice. It’s one big, You never know….

      • garysmailes

        RSS come to life when linked via feedburner.

        • Vincent Eaton

          Thanks, I’ve heard good things about Feedburner, and have (from various recommendations picked up over the last months) various email systems that do the job on a blog (I use WordPress and there’s some made just for it), and now, like Madison with RSS, I’ll be hooking up one before the end of the summer after my plunge into the details, pros/cons of each. (Nice strings on this post.)

          • garysmailes

            Do let us know when you have the mailing list up and running. I would like to see how you fit it into your set up. Plus the value is always in the comments.

    • garysmailes

      I would say that email trumps rss since you have the email address. However, I would never subscribe to a blog via email, but I wouldn’t think twice about signing via RSS.

      • http://madisonwoods.wordpress.com Madison Woods

        So that makes me definitely want to put my RSS back onsite. I do nothing with the emails except see how many I have from time to time, lol. The comfort is just in knowing I can let followers know if suddenly I have to move my site.

  • http://writeforyourlife.net Iain Broome

    You're absolutely right on all accounts, especially on list ownership. It's much easier to build a following on Twitter, but by crikey it's way more valuable to build a subscribership, if that's a word, to your blog. Because those people like your writing and trust your judgment in a completely different way.

    Also, Mail Chimp is ace and I'll be using it alongside Feedburner on some upcoming exciting projects!

  • Vincent Eaton

    Thanks for commenting on my comment. I make it a rule not to follow more than 100 blogs or a 100 people on Twittter (new one on, old one off–always be weeding). On Twitter, if you are not checking every hour, things go by that “might” be of value. Anyone who follows (or who you connect with) over 500 people has a very, very slim chance of seeing your Twitter, and reacting, or being aware of the tweet. Tweets go zoom into the void pretty quickly when you build an audience there. Unless it's a conversation, within a Twitter group, which is vastly time consuming, I find Twitter devilish difficult to get a feel for the personal because it's such a mass scale. Blogs have archives, and I can visit as time permits. Facebook…I have a writer friend who has passed 3000 “friends”…now, posting something there, the post on his site (and others who have lots of friends, are pretty rapidly pushed down and out and off into a similar sort of Twitter-like void. Social media, when you are dealing with significant numbers, is pretty much a crap shoot, which makes it a worthwhile gamble, but a gamble. As we know, authenticity is the key online, and so far, for me, best served, most rounded, via a blog. All else supports this.

  • garysmailes

    I notice on your blog that you have always pushed the 'subscribe' angle – has it worked?

  • http://www.thecreativeidentity.com/ Steph

    I think that many people who are striving so hard to build a following on Twitter often do not grasp the importance of the concept of conversion rates. If they are on Twitter just to chat, good, but if they are there in order to increase their visibility as subject matter experts, then they are essentially seeking to turn a follower into a paying customer. A conversion rate of 1 to 2% is the norm on this, as any other, type of sale, and I speak as an ex management consultant here, not as a writer or editor. But… an awful lot of your (my, anyone's) followers don't even know you're around, so to speak, a lot of them are spam, some more will be asleep when you're most active and a few more different variables. Remove all of those from your calculations and get a 2% out of what remains.

    Your site is your showcase, in every sense, and that's where your efforts should concentrate. Personally, and as Iain also rightly suggests, people who subscribe to your content without being coaxed by continuous short, and essentially meaningless, status updates are immensely more likely to engage with you, with all that the term entails. It is, as usual, the 80-20 principle whereby 20% of your customer base is responsible for 80% of your earnings. Produce really nice, meaningful newsletters for that 20% and you're away. Produce lots of tweets and you may, or may not, see a return on investment, but only a tiny one.

  • http://www.thecreativeidentity.com/ Steph

    Vincent, too true. What you talk about is the reason why I keep my following stream to a minimum. I think that, as you start following over 200 people, you're missing out on the updates that you really want to see. How can a person who follows 10,000 others successfully engage with even 1/4 of them? It's impossible. Every time I get around the 200 people mark I weed out. It all becomes a cacophony of pointlessness.

  • http://writeforyourlife.net Iain Broome

    You know, I'd like to say it was my wonderful personality and brilliant writing that helped me build the subscriptions, but I honestly think the giant 'Subscribe for free!' banner on every page was more to do with it. I think it definitely helped yep. the word free is also rather powerful, as subscriptions in general are typically associated with recurring payments. Free subscription sounds like a bargain!

  • garysmailes

    One solution I use to follow large numbers of people is to use small lists. I set up lists and then shuffle tweeps I wish to pay attention to into one or more of these groups. Yet the reality is that once you hit the thousands of followers you become more of a megaphone.

  • http://madisonwoods.wordpress.com Madison Woods

    Gaining blog subscribers is ultimately the goal for all my Twitter and FB interactions, but it is a long and tedious (and luckily, enjoyable!) process. Almost all of my blog followers were first Twitter followers who were enticed to visit my blog via a Tweet. At some point, usually after several enticements, they decide to sign up using their email address at the blog.

    I didn't realize the RSS feed subscribe was a very useful tool. It's never been something I've used, but after reading your article, I'm inclined to put it back up as an option for readers. I'd prefer them use the email subscribe, though, which is why I took it off to start.

    Thanks for another interesting and informative post :)

  • Vincent Eaton

    Agree with your experience of Twitter & FB, as mirrors mine. Long and tedious, too, but at one moment, if the quality it good, things suddenly pick up and then the going gets zooming. … I have an RSS feed, and don't know who's using it, who isn't. Then once in a while, just as happened this week, someone mentions having read a post of mine, and, inquiring how, I find out it's via RSS. So, as we know, the internet is about giving people choices, including how they want to access to our stuff. One offers, they make the choice. It's one big, You never know….

  • garysmailes

    I would say that email trumps rss since you have the email address. However, I would never subscribe to a blog via email, but I wouldn't think twice about signing via RSS.

  • garysmailes

    RSS come to life when linked via feedburner.

  • Vincent Eaton

    Thanks, I've heard good things about Feedburner, and have (from various recommendations picked up over the last months) various email systems that do the job on a blog (I use WordPress and there's some made just for it), and now, like Madison with RSS, I'll be hooking up one before the end of the summer after my plunge into the details, pros/cons of each. (Nice strings on this post.)

  • garysmailes

    Do let us know when you have the mailing list up and running. I would like to see how you fit it into your set up. Plus the value is always in the comments.

  • http://madisonwoods.wordpress.com Madison Woods

    So that makes me definitely want to put my RSS back onsite. I do nothing with the emails except see how many I have from time to time, lol. The comfort is just in knowing I can let followers know if suddenly I have to move my site.

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  • Russellbrookswiter

    Gaining subscribers to my blog should be the main goal of any writer. It’s the only way to know who your true fans are.

  • Kay Bigelow

    Losing Twitter and/or Facebook is a scary thought. Losing my followers is scarier still. Thanks for the wake up call on capturing my followers for my blog.

  • Russellbrookswiter

    Gaining subscribers to my blog should be the main goal of any writer. It's the only way to know who your true fans are.

  • Kay Bigelow

    Losing Twitter and/or Facebook is a scary thought. Losing my followers is scarier still. Thanks for the wake up call on capturing my followers for my blog.