Wednesday, June 8, 2011

To Tweet or not to Tweet, that is the question...


You all know I have this blog as a means of keeping my sanity and preventing my brain from being filled entirely with lyrics from Sesame Street songs and the names of The Fresh Beat Band, but over the past, almost four years, a few of you have suggested ways I market myself and Mean Mommy to gain readership and, if H had his way, some cash. H installed the ridiculous content based adds you see, and I do keep tabs on my stats occasionally, but really, even if only my immediate family were reading, I would still be doing this because I love it. I am beginning to wonder though, with all the resources out there whether or not I'm being a bit of a simpleton about this writing game and perhaps I need to enter the modern age and use some of the tools at my disposal.

A reader recently suggested in her comment, that I put a Facebook "like" button on the blog - which might not be a bad idea. Although I primarily see Facebook as a non-threatening way to see what losers you ex's turned out to be, and for everyone to try and win the My Life is the Most Fun or My Kids are the Cutest Contest, it would be a way to really drum up some readers. I'll do that as soon as I figure out how to work this flux capacitor - or wait until H gets back from his FIVE day business trip* and ask him to do it.

My neighbor also suggested I start Tweeting. This is the second person in two days, over the age of thirty (shout out Arti), I have discovered Tweets. Up until now, Tweeting, for me, fell squarely in the "Nobody Cares" category of show-off behavior. We all, myself included with this blog, are too sure that other people want to know all about us. Other than celebrities, whose every bowel movement we want to know about, who the hell cares about the minutiae of someone else's life? I've de-Friended people on Facebook for posting too often about too dull things ("Great tuna sandwich at lunch. I need a mint!"), Tweeting seems like it would be that in spades. But then my neighbor explained I could Tweet teasers about new posts, or even comments related to recent ones. The teasers seem like direct advertising, which I'm not sure I want to do. I sort of like it when people stumble upon me by word or mouth, or accidentally. I'd be too afraid of disappointing anyone I lured in myself.

She does have a point about Tweets related to recent blogs though. There have been many, many times, something has happened right after I've posted, that I want to share with you guys, but I don't want to put up just two lines about an old post. For example, the morning after my Lightening my Load post, I discovered, after #1 asked why I still pee with the door open, that I can pee with the door closed for the first time in nine years without the fear of someone killing themselves in the ninety seconds it takes me (you want to be behind a mom in line for the bathroom at a major sporting event or concert, she will also have baby wipes when they inevitably run out of TP). If I were Tweeting, I could have Tweeted, "Just discovered that, in addition to no longer needing diapers, I can pee with the door closed!" Well, I think it's funny.

I have to mull this one over, dear readers. While I'm not exactly technologically averse, I'm just not that into new stuff until someone, usually H, clearly shows me how useful it can be, ala, my Blackberry. And since H doesn't even have a Facebook account, I'm not sure how helpful he'll be in the Twitter world. And I can't help but feel I'm too old for this. Will my signing up for Twitter akin to your grandmother Friending you on Facebook?

And speaking of Facebook, I have to figure out this "like" button thing...

*I loved being texted from another continent that it was rubbish night and after taking the kids to the school pool party from 6pm-8pm, then bathing them and putting them to bed, I got to drag seven, fifty pound contractor bags to the curb, only to notice half way up the driveway, they were all leaking a brown, primordial ooze from having sat in the garbage shed for four months.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

might help?

http://www.facebook.com/notes/nithya-swaminathan/adding-the-facebook-like-button-to-a-blogger-blog/384177412674

she's got a whole bunch of sharing things down the bottom of each of her blog posts including fb and twitter if you choose to tweet.

http://nithyaswaminathan.blogspot.com/2011/05/video-of-paintings-in-march-and-april.html

Anonymous said...

and here's another blogger page with facebook app. Looks like you would have to create your own MM fb page and then somehow link your blog to it?

http://teslagirl360.blogspot.com/2011/06/what-if-you-were-this-mother.html

Good Luck!

Arti said...

Thanks for the shout out! I think your blog would blow up if you put it on your page. I would also usher everyone who follows me to it :)