Likes – Who do I write for?

I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting lately on likes, social media, data, and passion projects, and today I’ve decided to share my processing with you. This is an invitation to a conversation, so please feel free to reach out to me, through  comments and direct message – whatever you prefer! I remember when I first started blogging regularly about four years ago, I was using Medium, and it would tell me how many views I got for my articles and how many reads. There was always a huge gap between them and that could be  related to a number of reasons – the amount of time that it takes to read a post is highly dependent on what we want to take out of it, not how long it took someone to scroll from the top to the bottom. On WordPress, there is no way of knowing how many reads an article is getting. There might be a plugin for that but I have not explored it.

On Medium, the way to show appreciation is by highlighting and clapping for the content. On WordPress, we have likes. Both platforms have comments. In both cases, the appreciation is limited to those who are signed into the platform. A number of my friends who regularly read my blog are not signed into WordPress and while there is this aspect of missing likes, there may be likes that readers give without thoroughly reading. I am guilty of that when I come across blog posts that seem interesting and I peruse them. 

I have noticed a change over the past few weeks that there aren’t as many likes, both on WordPress and Twitter, and that made me wonder what changed. Do people not feel like reading the same type of content I have been putting out? Did I change something? It’s this kind of honest feedback which is hard to get from people we don’t know.

I am sure I am not alone in thinking that I could do better on my blog and spend more time marketing it and building the hype around new articles, but at the same time, I am giving it everything I have.

To change anything, I would have to take time out of what I love and put towards potentially being more seen; but for what and for who? If you have some constructive advice, feel free to send me a message. I would love to hear from you.

Do you ever wonder what the world used to be like when there was no social media? When people did not get so fixated on likes, whether they come in the form of thumbs ups or claps, and numbers?

When did we stop looking solely at the satisfaction we get from writing and working, and turned towards how much others resonated with it?

Who does not want validation? Don’t we all want some sort of validation or recognition of the efforts we put on our blogs and social media? 

I do. And that is why I end up thinking about the number of likes.

I am a data analyst and I work with data. If I start looking at data, I know I will have to decide what I am going to do with it. If I care about getting more likes, I am going to have to figure out how I am going to reach more people. Looking at the ways in which people engage with me on the blog and Twitter can give me lots of ideas around engagement – what works and what does not work. Where I can improve. 

But when I write for myself, when I write for pleasure, do these really matter or is it the comments and people who engage personally with the content, they matter more? And I mean beyond the ‘great article’ or ‘this was well thought out’ comment, though they have their value too.

Nora and I talked about numbers in her Creator’s Roulette feature about academia and publishing. I remember coming out of that conversation and writing out what success means for Armed with A Book. 

• Writing everyday (I have posted consistently since February 2020 and I hope to keep that up!)
• Finding actionable insights from books to apply (I write book reviews, but in my mind, they are always much more than that.)
• Exploring new topics (I love learning and my current project is My History Reading map.)
• Prioritizing reading over stress from the opinion of others (For example, I often stress around finishing ARCs in time for publication but I have learned over time that that is just something that I worry about. Publishers provide ‘post not before x days of publication’ suggestions but they never check on the reviewers to meet deadlines. So why do I have this in place?)
• Scheduling and organizing content (I am a planner and after university, my blog is the thing I plan with my heart, colors and spreadsheets.)

None of these are related to people and their engagement. None of these can be interpreted with a thumbs up. I want to be a better writer and this is how I work on that goal. I want to continue to learn, and I use writing and reading to support that. There is a feedback form on the homepage that you, my lovely reader, can fill out anytime!

I value working hard, writing detailed reviews, learning from stories and people, giving shout-outs to creators, reading in my free time, and most importantly, connecting with people of the community. None of these are numbers. I am learning that I have to be satisfied and happy with what I am doing, and worry less about what others are going to do with it.

Armed with A Book is not just a book blog.

I think part of my struggle is that I sometimes don’t know where I belong – with the book blogging community which is very focused on reading, or the writing community, which is about honing skills and creative pursuits through writing. Yes, I have said before that bloggers are also writers and we also belong in the writing community but the distinction comes in the conversations we have. 

I am blessed to have friends who support me and give me feedback on my writing – ultimately, when my writing resonates with people and gets them thinking more, maybe convinces them to pick up a book or ask hard questions, that makes my day. One comment over as many likes.

My blog is my passion project. There are no affiliate links, no advertisements. I am here to share through my writing and learn.

It’s always awesome to see others get validation and recognition for their hard work, but I have been thinking lately about what kinds of validation I need in response to my hard work.

I’ve found that I start to wallow a bit when the likes don’t come. 

So, I took away the like button on WordPress. 

I am a writer. And like any writer, whether we are looking to be published or to maintain a successful (however we define that) blog, we are trying to reach an audience. I have chatted with people about self-publishing and how traditional publishing might change the story to appeal to the audience. I don’t want to change the story. I want to work on things that I want to work on, not because they are the popular things right now and everyone is talking about them. That is not to say that one should not write about important timely issues – this is to say that I like to approach my learning and writing in my own way, not based on social media. That means disconnecting what gets traction from what I want to write and read.

Last, I want to remind myself and anyone who needs to hear this – no matter how many likes and engagements, there are people who will see your work and support you. These will not necessarily be family – some of these people I have met online and never met in person – but they will be family in their unique way. I am fortunate to have so many cheering me on – Ariel, Layton, Jerusha, SK, Chris, Camilla, Neru, Kota, Erynn, Josh, Novyl, Nora, Stephen, the wonderful creators who are part of my little network. And you too. 🙂

Do you ever go down the rabbit hole of engagements? How do you manage that?

Cover image: Photo by Carolyn V on Unsplash