My Social Media Solar System

The Flirty Blog is the center of my social media universe. From there Facebook is my strongest web presence that brings readers to the blog and my website. After that I've had success with Pinterest and have just started experimenting with Tumblr because the whole Twitter thing just wasn't working out for me. I RSS feed my blog posts to LinkedIn where, on occasion, someone finds a post interesting enough to take it viral on LinkedIn. Sadly, the Pluto in my universe would be Google+. Which isn't to say it will always be there. It just is right now.

This is my social media solar system (a description coined by Blogher for the name of the conference session I spoke at during the Blogher/Creative Connection Event in St. Paul, MN last fall).

I was working on some new slides for my Beginners' Blogging seminar tomorrow

in SF and had to share this one with you.

People often ask me how do you find the time to use Social Media when there's so many options to choose from? My response is always to try everything and stick with the platforms that bring you the best results then use your time efficiently.

Total Flirty Blog Visitors for Jan. 2012 as per StatCounter:

28,453

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Number of friends and followers on:

Facebook - 709

Twitter - 952

FB Fansite - 679

LinkedIn - 158

As you can see my reach is much more broad posting on my blog than on other social media sites. Yet each day a lot of people post professional content over (and over) on Facebook but they don't blog. Imagine if I only posted on Facebook and didn't blog. My audience would be less than 800 people each day and that's counting friends sharing some of my posts for me.

My point is this: When it comes to exposure and efficiency Facebook falls short of what a blog can do for you and your company. Responses on Facebook can give you immediate support, agreement or encouragement which is great for your personal life. But your professional life requires a different perspective that weighs the return of your time investment against results and in this arena, for most of us because of the way we use it, Facebook simply can't get the job done as efficiently as a blog.

So if you aren't blogging but you are posting professional content each day on Facebook perhaps reconsider that posting on your blog first then sharing that post on Facebook will allow you to keep your Facebook friends updated and introduce who you are and what you do to thousands of other new people including potential clients, colleagues, supporters and friends, all at the same time.