Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Starting over as a book blogger

I've been blogging on Fluttering Butterflies since January of 2006.  But not consecutively.  There have been large gaps and blogging breaks.  I always knew that breaks would mean less engagement, people becoming less interested in what I had to say or write or at the very least being less aware.  But when I decided to return at the beginning of this year to reboot my collaborative booktube channel, Bookish Brits, I had no idea how bad things had gotten.  (same with this poor blog!) 

It was other things at first that I noticed first: that posts on Instagram and Twitter didn't seem to get any engagement but that if I posted on Facebook, I'd have much more engagement.  I just figured that FB was a better media platform for me at the time instead of thinking 'FB is where all my real-life friends/family are' which would explain the higher engagement.  What it took me forever to realise... is that Instagram and Twitter (and also YouTube!) had moved on without me.  A lot of the people I follow/who follow me on these social media platforms had mostly stopped blogging or booktubing.  There weren't that many 'newer' (to me!) book bloggers or booktubers that I had followed.  So when I was tweeting about niche book blogger problems earlier in the year it really didn't land with the right audience.  

I find myself now in this difficult position of starting all over with everything.  I was already following upwards of a thousand booktube channels, but now I'm following more.  Following more bookish people on Twitter and Instagram, watching lots of booktube videos to figure out how the booktubing community has changed and evolved since I last posted there.  I haven't really been reading many book blogs as yet but that's my next step.  

It's always difficult starting over but I find that it's worth it.  I get a lot of enjoyment at writing about books, uploading bookish content to YouTube.  Sure, the community isn't quite the same but perhaps that will change over time.  For now, I'm an outsider again, and invisible. But I've got my passion back for reading and writing and some ideas for upcoming posts and videos and who knows what will happen next, eh?  

5 comments:

  1. Hi Michelle, good to see you back! I tend to keep following people for quite a while. I think last year I went through my Blogger reading list, and I stopped following a couple of blogs because it had been several years since they'd posted anything and I thought they probably weren't coming back!

    Hope you and your family are safe and doing well. :)

    Zania

    ReplyDelete
  2. It is hard to start over, and to find ways to reengage. I haven't even tried on Twitter and don't think it will. It just feels like on the odd occasion I do there I tweet into a void and that's it.

    I had a year off last year but I do seem to be more settled now. I have ideas for posts and I am getting to visit some other bloggers along the way. Good luck.

    ReplyDelete
  3. best of luck with your reset!

    ReplyDelete

HI! Thank you for leaving a comment, you've just become my new best friend :)