Hootsuite... Facebook Insights... Google Anayltics... Website monitoring...
Writers are not known for being good at statistics, and I'm firmly in the no-can-do camp. I'm not a big one for numbers (words are my game, baby!), but even I can handle some web monitoring. There are many ways you can easily monitor your website use and social media reach.
How many of us really get to grips with it all though? I'm going to share with you the statistics I think are the more useful ones and the more interesting ones from the plethora of information on offer.
My Website
I judge the success of my website and blog by the following:
Writers are not known for being good at statistics, and I'm firmly in the no-can-do camp. I'm not a big one for numbers (words are my game, baby!), but even I can handle some web monitoring. There are many ways you can easily monitor your website use and social media reach.
How many of us really get to grips with it all though? I'm going to share with you the statistics I think are the more useful ones and the more interesting ones from the plethora of information on offer.
My Website
I judge the success of my website and blog by the following:
- How many individual people visit in one month
For example, when I posted the blog entry of I'M HOME, that day I got almost 400 hits. Over the week this obviously increased. I don't think many people would read my blog more than once, so his means I am reaching a lot of people daily with my blogging.
In my first month of my travel blog (Born To Be A Tourist, started in January 2013) I received over 1200 hits. This amazed me, as I was new to the travel blogging game, and nowhere near well-known. This gave me a great boost!
It's interesting to see how these numbers go up and down between the two blogs. Even on the quiet weeks I get over 1800 hits on each, though, so I can't be doing too badly! - The number of comments I receive on a new blog post
Of course, I love it when people comment on my blog. I've never had negative feedback; constructive, yes, but not negative. I love to hear from my readers, especially if that blog struck a chord with them. Please do leave me a comment!
Keeping track of how many comments a blog receives is not always the best way to measure its success, but it's one of my favourite monitoring methods. It doesn't show what EVERY reader thinks (most don't bother to comment at all), but it really helps with my confidence as a writer and builds a relationship with my readers.
My Twitter
I pretty much judge my Twitter success on the number of retweets I get. I don't keep a count, but I thank every retweeter and I'm grateful for them spreading what I have tweeted.
This is the way to succeed in the of game Twitter - it's not counting not the number of followers you have. Sure, followers will follow if they see a retweet, but twitter is about broadcasting. And if someone re-broadcasts something you've said, it can only be a good thing. They think what you have said is insightful, funny, useful, interesting... etc.
Of course, I retweet as much of the good stuff I find from other people (writers or not) and organisations too.
My Facebook
My Facebook page is where it all began - it predates even my website. Facebook are very clever, creepy, almost, in their monitoring of the ways you use the social networking site. However, it can be useful for people who host 'pages'. I get regular updates as to how many people my posts have reached, the gender and age of my fans, the countries and cities they're from, which websites have acted most strongly as referrers, and what the highest performing posts are (i.e. the ones which encouraged the most engagement or which had the most people look at it).
If I'm honest, the stats I only really pay attention to on Facebook are 'total reach' - I've noticed evening posts get more exposure - and the number of fans the page has. As long as the second one doesn't start declining, I know I'm providing content people want to read.
So, I'm watching. I'm trying to figure out what you like to read online from my writing world. If you like what you see, please retweet. Please share on Facebook. Please visit my blog again. I am grateful for every single one of my readers, and I hope you like what you see!
How many of these tools do you use? How helpful have they been?
All the best,
Lou x
Find me on Facebook
...And on Twitter
Born To be A Tourist
I pretty much judge my Twitter success on the number of retweets I get. I don't keep a count, but I thank every retweeter and I'm grateful for them spreading what I have tweeted.
This is the way to succeed in the of game Twitter - it's not counting not the number of followers you have. Sure, followers will follow if they see a retweet, but twitter is about broadcasting. And if someone re-broadcasts something you've said, it can only be a good thing. They think what you have said is insightful, funny, useful, interesting... etc.
Of course, I retweet as much of the good stuff I find from other people (writers or not) and organisations too.
My Facebook
My Facebook page is where it all began - it predates even my website. Facebook are very clever, creepy, almost, in their monitoring of the ways you use the social networking site. However, it can be useful for people who host 'pages'. I get regular updates as to how many people my posts have reached, the gender and age of my fans, the countries and cities they're from, which websites have acted most strongly as referrers, and what the highest performing posts are (i.e. the ones which encouraged the most engagement or which had the most people look at it).
If I'm honest, the stats I only really pay attention to on Facebook are 'total reach' - I've noticed evening posts get more exposure - and the number of fans the page has. As long as the second one doesn't start declining, I know I'm providing content people want to read.
So, I'm watching. I'm trying to figure out what you like to read online from my writing world. If you like what you see, please retweet. Please share on Facebook. Please visit my blog again. I am grateful for every single one of my readers, and I hope you like what you see!
How many of these tools do you use? How helpful have they been?
All the best,
Lou x
Find me on Facebook
...And on Twitter
Born To be A Tourist
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