Reader Survey!

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Last week I announced that I’ll be making some big changes to this blog over the next few months, and I was so happy to see all the supportive comments from my readers wishing me luck! It’s amazing to see so many wonderful people following along with my posts after just under a year of blogging. My readers are what make this such a fun hobby for me, which is why I want ensure that you’re included in my new project. I figured the best way to do that is by getting to know my readers a bit more, so today I’m launching a reader survey!

Whether you’ve been reading this blog for a few weeks or have stuck with me from the beginning, I would love to hear from you. Don’t worry, it’s completely anonymous, so feel free to speak your mind. I want to know what you really think, and any response is appreciated! I’ll be running this survey for the next few days, so don’t worry if you can’t fill it out at this moment.

Thanks again for all of your support, and I hope you have a fantastic week!

Have you ever made a reader survey? If so, what did you learn from it?

7 Resources For Tracking Your Social Media Presence

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When I think about social media, I like to imagine little messengers going out and telling everyone about my new post. Every time someone finds out about it, they share it with someone else, who then share’s it with another person, and so on. Social media seems so simple, but it’s kind of crazy to think about how many eyes could end up on your content just by posting about it outside of your blog. Take Pinterest for example. A few people initially pin your post, then their friends see it and pin it as well, and then their friends see it and pin it too, and if you’re lucky, that process will continue for a long time. Soon enough, you’ve got yourself a viral pin that will bring in readers for years to come. But how do you know which techniques are working, and benefitting your blog in the long run?

As my following has grown, it’s become a lot easier to keep track of my social media presence. More posts means more sharing, which means more data to go off of. I’ve also bookmarked my fair share of resources that are really helpful in this process, and today I want to share those with you!

ShareTally

I heard about this website a few weeks ago, and I can’t believe I hadn’t found it before. You input a url to a specific post, and it scans all the shares that post has gotten on 21 different social media platforms. It’s super specific too, getting down to the number of likes vs. shares vs. comments on Facebook. I love using this website to see the long term popularity of a post. I check it every once in a while and compare the number to see if an old post is still getting shared around, which is always a good thing!

Twitter Analytics

Twitter tracks a lot about the tweets you make, so why not take advantage of that! The engagement rate (the number of users who engaged with your tweet divided by the number of users who saw it) is a great way to see which tweets capture your audience’s attention the best. You might begin to see a trend between high engagement rates and a certain aspect of your tweets, like an added picture or the use of hashtags. The graph is also an awesome visual tool for seeing which days your tweets do the best.

Pinterest Analytics

Pinterest also came out with an analytics tool, and it’s probably one of my favorite resources. They track traditional data like profile views and repins, but they also include a section tailored to tracking pins from your website (if you have that hooked up to your Pinterest account). I LOVE this feature, because I can see which posts are doing the best, which images may need improving, and which pins are staying popular in the long term. Without this tool, I never would’ve known that my college shopping list post from last year got over 100 repins! That might not be a lot in the big blogging world, but anything over like, 10, is a huge accomplishment for me.

Pin Plugin

This tool isn’t as detailed as Pinterest analytics, but it gives you a quick look at how well a post did on Pinterest by gathering the total number of pins made from a specific post. If you don’t feel like digging through the traditional analytics system, this tool is perfect for you!

Iconosquare

This is my central hub for Instagram statistics. Along with its beautiful interface, it has all the stats you could possibly want to know about your Instagram. You can even track your follower count, which could be really helpful during giveaway times if you added your Instagram URL to one!

Bitly

Most people see this solely as a way to create short URL’s, but it has a great statistics tool too! If you create an account, you’ll get a feed of all the links you create and some data about their performance. You can see how many total clicks the link got, as well as the number of clicks made on each social media platform. This might help you rethink your link placement strategies if one platform isn’t doing as well as others.

Pinterest Source Page

I know, lots of Pinterest, but this platform has proven to be the most helpful for my blog, so I track it the most! I had no idea this page existed, but it’s pretty fantastic. It compiles all of the pins made from your website, making it a great visual representation of how popular a post is. Just add your blog’s URL to the end of it so you can see pins from your website.

p.s. : 6 Tips For Growing Your Blog With Twitter + Using Pinterest Boards To Organize Your Life

Big Changes Are Coming!

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Do you ever have one of those days when everything just starts coming together? As if right before your eyes, all the thoughts flooding your mind somehow connect and, well, make sense? That was me yesterday. And it was beautiful.

Yesterday was huge. I’ve been thinking a lot about this blog recently, and my future hopes for it as well as myself. My laptop is cluttered with lists of new ideas, hopeful dreams, and a million things I need to do to accomplish those. But those millions of things started coming together. And it was beautiful.

I was practicing yoga, telling myself, “STOP THINKING, JUST RELAX,” which worked…for about ten seconds. I can only go so long without my mind wandering off and thinking about what to do next. What could I be filling this time with? What can I do now that will make me a happier/better/more successful person tomorrow? So I started thinking about something that’s been nagging at me for weeks. Something that I feel like most bloggers would understand, because they’ve all been through this frustrating time. And finally, it hit me. And it. Was. Beautiful.

But I can’t tell you about it. It’s just that big.

All I’ll say is that big changes are coming for Seeking Individuality, and I think y’all are going to love them. I don’t exactly know when they’ll be happening, but my hope is by the beginning of summer. Whether that be a month from now, or June 21st, depends on how smoothly these changes go. I have a huge feat ahead of me, but I’m beyond excited to begin this journey!

Until then, I’ll be running Seeking Individuality as normal, and I have a ton of new content ideas to roll out. Thank y’all for supporting me and this blog over the past few months, it means the world to me!
Hint #1 – Let’s just say, coffee is brewing…#EEEEEP