Facebook barely reaches any of the people who actually like my page. On most of my posts, I only reach 5-10% of the people who like me, and that’s only if I’ve done every single thing right and can trick the system into letting people see them.
Twitter moves way too fast and people never ever see anything, because how many people can anyone follow in the few seconds that a post is visible?! I only follow 239 people on there, through tweetdeck and I can only deal with it for a few minutes.
Google+ I don’t even understand it well enough to actually be able to use it.
Pinterest, I love; Instagram I love.
You see, I started a blog as a writer, not as a blogger who happened to write. I wrote to deal with and share our infertility struggles with other people, people who “Got it!”. I found an incredible community of women, some of whom I am still in touch with. Then we had Avelyn, and a few readers dropped off {understandably so, it wasn’t about just infertility anymore}…then I had the triplets and a few more readers dropped off.
But somewhere along the way I got sucked into the “What I’m supposed to do”, and not so much forgot, but willingly put aside the other parts. I took up with a likeminded group of bloggers {all of whom are awesome!} who wanted to grow and develop their blogging, and subsequently their writing, and I wanted to do that too! And I began to focus more on “quality content” and “pinnable images” and “social media presence” and “profitable affiliations”: And that was good too, it pushed me to better my writing.
But I still wasn’t seeing any sort of return on time investment, and I was getting torqued out about not “doing it {blogging} right”.
I am a prolific writer: I can churn out lots of stuff and thoughts, and sometimes some of it is even good. But, I started to force the art of writing, filling the days on my calendar with certain types of blog posts, because everyone says a good blogger must post quality: Consistently and constantly.
Then I started to think that maybe what I was blogging just wasn’t connecting with anyone. Or maybe it’s that everyone reads blogs on tablets and smart phones. Or maybe it’s that I’m not on Flickr. Or Tumblr. Or that I should be spending more time on Twitter and Facebook. Or maybe… Or maybe…
Or maybe I just need to stop. Stop playing all the social media games that bloggers have been led to believe that we need to be involved in to grow our readership, and just trust God. Somewhere along the line a lot of us writers began to focus more on the business of blogging, than the love of writing. More on what WE could do, than what HE could do.
“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty
hand, that he may lift you up in due time.
Cast all your anxieties on Him, for He cares for You.”
1 Peter 5:7
And so I’ve decided to do just that, to stop.
I’m going to get back to before this whole whirlwind frenzy….Writing: Plain and simple. I’m going to stick with those aspects of blogging that I enjoy. Posting on a consistent schedule? I hope not. Facebook? I doubt I’ll be on my page much. Twitter? Sometimes. Pinterest and Instagram? You bet’cha, I’ll be there! Pinnable graphics? Yea, but only because I am a very visual person and I enjoy graphic design.
What does this mean for you? How are you going to keep tabs on The White House? I’ll be right here at LifeintheWhiteHouse.com. But, I understand if you want something a little more streamline, you can sign up for emails here or add my link to a feed reader. I’m not going anywhere, I’ll be right here, at home.
If you want to get a hold of me the best way will be through either comments on my blog or through emailing me at Jess.White05 at gmail dot com {I’d love to hear from you!}
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