The Value of Social Media
Only six more days to fund The Wardenclyffe Horror!
As I have said previously in this blog, I am a bit of a newcomer to social media. I’ve been a part of social networks as long as most, but treated them more as address books and alternative email services than communities and tools for active communication. Eventually I eased into Facebook after a promotion took me far from my flesh and blood social circle, but I didn’t really even try twitter out until we decided to launch or project on Kickstarter, and I started digging around, looking for new and better ways to find our audience.
With these facts in mind, it’s no wonder that I’m forever stumbling across new information on the subject.
Today I discovered that there has been research on exactly how much tweets and shares are worth. This is hardly surprising of course – it makes total sense. With ad revenue supporting so much of the artifice that is the internet, it only makes sens that people would want to know how much traffic is driven on average from each social interaction. It turns out, it’s quite a bit.
My own experiences tend to mirror the above numbers in the last few weeks. I haven’t had a lot of luck with Twitter traffic, but Facebook results are much more noticeable. On one occasion a backer told me that he just shared the project with all his friends, and over the next few minutes a small flurry of Europeans signed on to back the project. While I couldn’t say for certain all of those people came because of that one share, I think that is likely the case; one share by one passionate backer generated over $100 for the project, not including his own donation – an impressive sum.
Naturally, not all interactions are quite so prosperous, and I think that the enthusiastic and organic tweets of strangers, infecting whole new social circles with ideas are far more effective than the shout outs of creators, urging their friends and family to share more often. I limit myself to doing the later to perhaps once a week. So, loyal readers, do your experiences line up with the above data? Any hot tips for how to better use social networking?
Caffeineforge 
It’s a tough situation for a small time writer like me to be in. I would love a twitter with enough followers that I get linked beyond a few crowds I’ve been lucky to be seen by, but I need to be big enough and interesting enough and important enough first to get the following. I mean, what comes first: The gravity that creates the planet or the planet that creates the gravity?
Either way, my twitter is pitiful!
From Pitiful to Twitterful: The Gamedelver Story
When done right, I think building a twitter following is a slow process of sifting and building. I believe I’ve already said I’m not much of a twitter expert, but I’ll be sure to share any social secrets I discover. In the meantime add @caffeineforge to your list, and I’ll be sure to hit you back!
It doesn’t help that I am not used to just sending out little quips and witticisms either. I was lucky enough to be young enough to have some idea about social networking, but just old enough that Twitter seems a little foreign and childish still.
That part gets some getting used to. Think of it as a challenge!
Brevity as the soul of wit is a very old concept, after all.
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