Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Some Questions

In this new year, I've been thinking about expanding the blog a bit. I wanted to pick the brains of some of you book bloggers who use social media more than I do. Do you have a Facebook page or Twitter account for your blog? What do you find to be the pros and cons? Did you meet a lot of new bookish people that way and get more blog traffic? What should I do as a first time Twitter user?!?!


I'm also curious about how you all use Goodreads. I have an account there and love it. I realized that I had just been giving books starred reviews as I finished them and was several months behind transferring my reviews from my blog to Goodreads. I was going to catch up on that, but then I started thinking about how easily my reviews might be used by other people. I started reading the user agreement, but I'm still not sure I understand it all. Does Goodreads own the rights to your reviews once you publish them on their site? Do you publish partial reviews on Goodreads and then direct people back to your blog?


Give me your thoughts, oh wonderful blog readers. Thanks!

10 comments:

  1. I don't use social media at all. I do use goodreads, but mainly to keep a record of what books I've read and when. Sometimes I upload my reviews, sometimes I don't, it's a bit hit and miss!

    The reason I don't go for social media is that it takes to much time. I like to visit and comment on blogs in the free time I have.

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    1. You make a lot of good points. I like the record keeping aspect of Goodreads too, especially because I don't really rate books on my blog per say. I wonder how much time I would lose actually commenting on blogs by following twitter....

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  2. Good questions about goodreads. I never thought about ownership, I like their program. More people will follow me through twitter than following the blog because of twitter

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    1. Hmmm....do you find that many of your twitter followers come over to read your posts via twitter?

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  3. I just started using Goodreads. I had an account before but I was hit or miss with it and never put reviews up. I deleted all of my previous activity and started fresh for 2013. You bring up a good point about people using your reviews..hmm. I never thought about that! Maybe I'll just post partial reviews from now on? I'll have to think on that!

    I do have a fan page on Facebook for my blog. I use it to post bookish articles and images. I don't know how many people visit my blog because of it. I have a lot of fun posting that stuff though.

    Twitter! Yes to Twitter! I've met so many great bookish people there. I've found new blogs to read, people to chat with in real time instead of just in comments. I do think I get quite a few blog visits from using it too. :)

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    1. Thank you so much for your insight, Jennifer. I have some things to think about....

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  4. I have both a facebook page and twitter account that link to my blog. I don't necessarily get a lot of traffic from twitter, but I do have all my blog posts automatically tweeted and I do know some people have come to my blog as a result. I've also connected with some publishers and other fun book bloggers via twitter, so I enjoy it.

    I use goodreads religiously to track what I'm currently reading, what I have read, and what I want to read. I always post just the first couple of paragraphs of my review and link to my blog post for the rest of the review. I'm not worried about ownership necessarily, but I want to drive the traffic and comments to my blog instead of to goodreads when possible, I just prefer interaction on the blog instead. But I absolutely love goodreads for tracking purposes.

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    1. That's what seems to be the consensus about twitter - it brings some people to the blog, but it's mostly fun for meeting others on twitter.

      That's a really smart idea for goodreads. I was thinking that too - if you can read my review on goodreads, why would you come to my blog?

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  5. I have both, a facebook page and twitter, they don't take a lot of maintenance if you don't want them to - my blog auto publishes to both so I don't have to fiddle too much.

    Shelleyrae @ Book'd Out

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  6. I use both Twitter and Facebook for my blog. Twitter is great because I can reach a wide audience and I can link other websites through it. I have it linked to my Goodreads profile so my updates appear on it as well as when I add a book to my amazon wishlist, or I review it or I purchase something from them.
    Facebook is my prefered social media site though because it's easier to use for many people and I have friends and family who don't use e-mail or follow my blog any other way they follow my posts through Facebook.
    I would probably recommend using Facebook over Twitter though. Hope this helps!

    -Kimberly @ Turning the Pages

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