I’m going to start posting more consistently on the topic of social media.  Because I use it.  And so do you.

How do I know?

You’re reading this blog right now.

You also likely use other forms of social media (platforms thriving on interaction around user-generated content), like

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Vimeo
  • Ping.fm
  • MySpace
  • Wikipedia
  • Yahoo!Answers
  • FourSquare
  • Gowalla
  • LinkedIn
  • Spoke
  • Google Reader
  • Reddit
  • Digg
  • Flickr
  • StumbleUpon
  • Posterous
  • PostRank

I wish I had all of the answers, but I often find myself with more and more questions when it comes to success in social media:

  • Why do some blog posts take off, and get thousands of hits?
  • Why do others, some of my favorites, fall flat on their face?
  • Why do the seemingly meaningless status updates get the most comments?
  • Why do the posts I take the most time crafting sometimes get no traction, and the ones I put together on a whim go viral?
  • Why do I sometimes get loads of comments and no retweets?
  • Why do I sometimes get loads of retweets and no comments?
  • Why do I think it’s cool to check-in using FourSquare…but nobody else seems to think so?
  • Why do some people I know and connect with off-line quit following me on-line?
  • What’s the next social media trend?
  • What’s next for my blog?

It’s questions like these that I wrestle with.  They keep me moving forward, pursuing continued effectiveness online, and with my local ministry here in Clarksville.  If I’m not moving towards an increasing effectiveness, it’s time for me to quit.

What social media questions are you wrestling with?

How do you measure effectiveness on your social media platforms?