Project Trout – Social Media Experiment Update #3
Project Trout continues measuring the effectiveness of various online promotion methods as mentioned in earlier posts (See: #1 and #2).
While we are not fixated on gaining readers we are curious to know what works and what doesn’t, and how hard it really is to establish any form of following. If you are a blogger and have some tips/suggestions then please drop us a line.
Recap:
Last month we shared our disappointment in Twitter and it’s failure to convert followers to blog visitors. We had some limited success with Stumble Upon but not enough to celebrate.
| StumbleUpon: | Big spike in traffic over two days from SU however traffic falls back down to normal levels. |
| Technorati: | Registered account and application approved. |
| Blog: | 25 posts available. About page updated. Traffic still remains low. |
| Twitter: | 82 Tweets, 440 Following, 162 Followers |
Week 11-14:
The past four weeks proved as disappointing as last month. We persevered with existing tools and signed up to some new methods.
| StumbleUpon: | Limited traffic being directed. |
| Technorati: | Some traffic being directed. |
| Blog: | 38 posts now available. About page updated. Glossary page added. Three posts hoping to attract interest: Startup Glossary of Terms, The Apprentice Teaser of Upcoming Posts |
| Twitter: | 245 Tweets, 550 Following, 200 Followers. Difficulty in increasing followers (as new joiners offset by leavers) |
| Google+: | Remarkably we now have one person following our page! Not liking Plus platform at all. |
| Google Adwords: | We were the lucky recipient of a AdWords voucher. We will share the outcome of this work in a later post. |
| Sprouter: | Signed up but have not made any activity. |
| Reddit: | Signed up and shared some links. No traffic or interaction this month. |
| Digg: | Signed up and shared (“dugg”) one link. |
| Other: | Submitted two stories to Hacker News. Big one day spike in traffic but nothing afterwards. Visitors only visited linked post and nothing else. |
What worked?
+ Google Adwords shows some promise but costs money.
+ Targeting niche sites works to drive short term traffic but has potential if visitors stay.
+ Traffic is low, but has increased from previous period suggesting signs of some activity.
What didn’t work?
- Twitter followers are fickle. As soon as one joins, others leave. Few/none click on links.
- Visitors to one post don’t mean they stay and/or re-vist.
- Google Plus is difficult to use.
Current Links:
WordPress: sparkNlaunch.wordpress.com/
Twitter: twitter.com/sparkNlaunch
Google+: plus.google.com/sparkNlaunch/
RSS: sparkNlaunch.wordpress.com/feed/
StumbleUpon: stumbleupon.com/stumbler/sparknlaunch
Sprouter: http://sprouter.com/sparknlaunch
Digg: digg.com/sparknlaunch
.
You might also enjoy:
+ Lessons Learned From A Hacker News Traffic Spike
+ Startup Weekend: What to expect? How to prepare?
+ Social Media Experiment – Twitter, Google+ and now Facebook
+ Project Trout – Social Media Experiment Update #3
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