So Long, Klout, Triberr and Google+

Well, not entirely, I guess. I have decided I won't delete the accounts altogether. Why bother? Besides, who knows when they will seem useful again or come back on my radar? In any case, I've reduced my involvement, stopped visiting them, let them go, whatever you want to call it.

It seems until recently Klout was broken, or that their algorithms over the summer were too generous. Now they've changed them and, while they say most people have gone up, most of the people I know went down - way down. I suspect the people who went up were largely Facebookers who never signed themselves up for Klout, anyway. (It seems you have a Klout profile whether you want it or not - nothing is private online, anyway, so I'm not shocked by this.)

I'm not complaining. I'd rather have a "real" crummy score than a fake high one, I guess, though I don't believe either of them are real (in fact, by pointing this out, Klout kind of proved it was all bull-hooey, anyway, didn't it?). In a way, I'm relieved, as it was too much pressure having a Klout score in the 60s. Now that I have a crappy 50-something score, I can feel free to ignore it. When I was at 63, I actually felt guilty on the days I couldn't Tweet, since I knew I'd lose a point. Yes, I agree - that's just sad.

In any case, now that Klout is fixed, and I'm a nobody again, I can relax and stop caring about it. It was always a fake gizmo, but now that the game is less serious, I can stop playing. Whew!

As to Triberr, I joined because it seemed like a great way to increase blog hits - and I think it was. I don't watch my hit counter very closely, but it seemed to be working. I was in a nice tribe filled with writers I knew from around the community, so I was happy. Then, Triberr changed, so it doesn't RT the Tweets of your tribemates automatically. You have to go to Triberr and do it manually. In short, I don't have time for this, and it wasn't fair to stay in the tribe, having my stuff Tweeted, and not returning the favour. So, that's gone.

I was surprised, actually, that leaving the tribe made me a little sad. The consequence, I guess, of naming it a tribe.

Now, Google+ I never really decided to go - I just stopped visiting it a couple weeks after joining. Why? Not really sure. I guess I just didn't need yet another social media thingy. Also, gmail tells you your notifications so why ever visit it? Eventually, I even forgot how to visit it. Then one day Twitter failed and I wandered over. It seemed like a ghost town - no one I knew was there. I said as much in my status, hoping to find a little chit chat. What I found was a very grumpy jerk, who I didn't know, who yelled at me for saying no one was using Google+ any more (which I didn't say), and some chick (who I also didn't know) who scolded me for wondering why no one was up for a chat in light of Steve Jobs' death. Well, that was the end of Google+ for me.

If I wanted to be yelled at by self-righteous, rude strangers, I would just spend more time on public transit.

So, there's that. I guess I'm back to Twitter and Facebook, and this old blog - which perhaps no one even visits any more now that I'm not full of Klout and all Tribed-up.

To be honest, now that I'm back to teaching, I really don't have time for social media like I did over the summer. Over the summer, I had time to do promo, social media, mommy stuff and write. Now, teaching has taken over the social media time, and I am taking time out of my writing to increase my promo. Such is the way of balancing jobs, I guess.

These were the three bigger failed experiments. There have been a number of other, smaller social media things I never got into - seriously, what is the point of About.me, except as a place holder for your link? - so they fell by the wayside. I've walked away from forums, for the most part, since I don't have the time to spend being annoyed. Blog hops have been fun, so I will do a few more. GoodReads is fine, since I like books. Six Sentence Sunday got fairly old, and Sample Sunday is worth doing once in a while, but isn't something for every single week if you are unwilling to rehash the same sample over and over. Other little gimmicks, such as lil.paper, I find useless, but they aren't irritating enough for me to quit so I let them run. A few major efforts, such as the monthly newsletter, I am still trying out - I'm giving it a few more months to build an audience, and will re-evaluate it as I go as to whether it's worth continuing. Over the holidays, I am concentrating on direct promo (ads) and guest blogging, so that's where all my networking time will go for the next while.

Well, I'm learning and trying. Promo has never been my strong suit, but I like social media. I don't really consider social media as promo, to be honest. It's more about networking, learning, chatting, and gathering information/connections. This is why I'm not giving up on it all. Social media has not netted me any sales, but I see its value in other ways.

That's the state of things for now. Happy writing, folks, if you ever have the time.