I joined Twitter because everybody said that it was a great resource for authors, for advertising, connecting with authors, etc. The question is: has it worked?
First off, for the Twitter data itself: I joined Twitter on 1/20/2012. It is currently 2/7/2012. That means I've been "Tweeting" for 18 days.
In 18 days, I have gained 291 followers and have sent 360 tweets.
I know, I'm ashamed too. I've sent more tweets than gained followers.
Less "hard" data: because of Twitter, I'm scheduled for two upcoming guest blog posts on two different websites, so keep a lookout for those (although one isn't scheduled to occur until April 17th).
That said: let's look at something else. How has being on Twitter affected traffic to Predicted Hindsight?
Number of Page Views Prior to January 20th, 2012.
- January 15th: 8
- January 16th: 12
- January 17th: 13
- January 18th: 35
- January 19th: 28
- January 20th: 32
Now, keep this in mind: January 18th was SOPA blackout day. For whatever reason, my SOPA post attracted a lot of attention that I wasn't used to having. I was actually getting people getting to Predicted Hindsight via Google searches, mostly with terms containing "SOPA" in some form. The dates preceding January 18th are more representative of what I was used to.
Now, what about after January 20th?
(NOTE: I'm not including January 21st, 22nd, and 25th, because I think I might have posted a Reddit link that day, and those tend to skew the data pretty high. Since I'm not looking at "The Effect of Reddit on Data", there's no need to include them here.)
- January 23rd: 5
- January 24th: 7
- January 26th: 28
- January 27th: 28
- January 28th: 25
- January 29th: 49
- January 30th: 8
- January 31st: 13
- February 1st: 17
- February 2nd: 25
- February 3rd: 33
- February 4th: 48
- February 5th: 35
- February 6th: 31
But...What Does This Mean?
To be honest, this is not ALL Twitter. There are a few other things to consider. Like, first off, I established my Facebook Author Page just a few days before (I'm thinking it was about a day or two before SOPA blackout day). Also, I post most every blog post, at least the ones with substance, on the Kindle Boards blog thread. Despite having only 20 likes on Facebook and being relatively unknown on Kindle Boards, these seem to generate quite a bit of traffic themselves.
Also, with any statistic like this, we have to remember to keep this very important fact in mind: Correlation does NOT Equal Causation.
So, what else, besides the factors mentioned above, might be contributing to the fact that this little blog does seem to be gaining some traction?
Well, first off, it is important to note that I've been working on this little project for more than 2 months now. The passing of time alone might be contributing as more and more people have the ability to run across this website.
Also, the blog also now has nine followers. Quickly: may I give a big THANK YOU to those who have followed? :D
That said, though - despite everything, I do think Twitter has a lot to do with the slow uptick in numbers, ESPECIALLY since my "Twitter" posts seemed to have gained "some" attention on their own. Quickly...
- Part 1: 7 Page Views
- Part 2: 6 Page Views
- Part 3: 22 Page Views
- Part 4: 6 Page Views
- Part 5: 9 Page Views
Also, keep in mind that these are just standalone page views - these don't even count the people who read these posts just be "scrolling down".
What Conclusions can be Drawn?
Really, it's pretty inconclusive. To REALLY gauge where I'm going, I should be ceasing all advertisement of posts on Twitter, but nowhere else. But am I going to do that? Maybe. Though what's the point of that? At this rate, I seem to be doing something right, something that seems to be working.
Also, something else of interest: I did a "secret" free download of Family History: Part 1 today. By secret, I mean I advertised NOWHERE - no Facebook, no Twitter, no Reddit or Kindle Boards. As of 9:27 pm MST, there are 15 U.S. downloads and 5 UK downloads. With some advertising on Twitter, Part 2 made it to 24 U.S. downloads and 1 UK download (also: 5 Germany Downloads).
So yeah, Twitter does seem to be doing something.
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