While browsing the social media if we find something interesting, our first urge is to share. Our brain conspires to keep us happy. At that moment we want to share happiness with either the someone special or a small group of friends or to the world.

Depending on a large number of factors, you either want to share it and leave it or want a response in return. If it is that special one, you would wait for a response because you want to share that moment of happiness you just experienced.

We care about a few special people in our life and want to see them happy. Sharing a thought, good experience or a picture are ways of sharing happiness.

We respond to happiness because of our brain and the ability to find happiness. Your brain will respond to only those with whom you had a prior moment of happiness.

It is this happiness effect that the social media and even messengers are cashing on.

You can now proceed to read the longer version.

History of stories

In 2013, Snapchat introduced the feature of stories for the first time which had a series of pictures which disappeared after 24 hours. At that time, Snapchat was mostly used by the young people. Stories drew its popularity even further. Twitter was the first one to copy it two years later in 2015.

In 2016, Instagram copied it and soon Facebook and WhatsApp also followed. Finally it appeared on YouTube too.

Curious case of Instagram

For the first time Instagram in a blog update explained how they rank Feed & Stories, Explore section and Reels. Take a look at the screen grab below.

Originally Instagram assumed that people were only interested in seeing original stories shared by people. Also Instagram was initially not ranking anything from stories shared. However soon Instagram realised that people were sharing anything and everything in their stories and soon enough they had to change the algorithm.

The happiness factor – exploited

Happiness is believed to be the most dominant human emotion. So our brain is working overtime to keep us happy. All the day we have our happy moments. Instinctively we reach out to share. In the old days, with no digital communications we used to wait till the end of the day for a family time for talking and sharing. Today we are connected 24×7 and each happy moment we reach out for our smartphone.

For those lucky ones, be rest assured that you will get a constant stream of updates from that one special person which will actually make you more happier. While sharing this person is actually waiting for your response.

For those unlucky ones, who do not have that someone special, there is a group of close friends. Stories is the place where status updates are posted and the response goes to DM.

For those cursed ones who do not have friends share their stories to the world with their public account.

With most of the behaviour data available with the social media, they have seen the rise of story sharing. They are exploiting the happiness factor.

Story sharing for different scenarios

For personal accounts sharing for friends or for entertainment purpose is what most of us do. Instagram and Facebook measures the metrics just for data mining about behaviour. If you share sensitive information, you will land up in trouble with a ban.

For public accounts and small creators, Instagram goes all the way to give them space to grow and reach more audience. Originality and consistence is the key to get more visibility.

Brand owners can use stories to promote content and allow it to reach a wider audience. The first action which most people do as soon as they open the app is to check stories. It is basic human tendency to check what someone else is doing first. To get to that, you have to first have a target list of people whom you have to follow. Here is the suggest list of whom to.

• Other accounts of similar products which you sell
• Your suppliers and whole-sellers
• Other accounts connected to your brand
• Your prior customers/clients
• Potential target audience

The post Why do we like to share – the science and stats appeared first on Start Blog Writing.

Blogging re-defined

Both Facebook and WordPress began roughly in the same year. In the year 2003, Google acquired Blogger platform from Pyra Labs. While Blogger and WordPress are true blue blogging platforms, Facebook started off as a social network. If we go back to the aim of blogging, all the three of them provide the ability to allow the user to post articles, photos, audio and videos. Which brings us to the question, is YouTube a complete blogging platform.

Different ways to blog

The two distinct approaches to blogging is via website article way and social media platforms way.

Website articles method

The free options available for bloggers are as follows

• Blogger by Google – The most beginner friendly option for bloggers with many of them staying on. You get a subdomain by Google and simple blogging interface. Blogger or Blogspot has been around since 2003 without many changes in design. Integration with Google Adsense is added advantage. Simple design means you can focus on blogging and creating content.
• WordPress – Rich in design and functions with themes and plugins. Launched the same year as Blogger, WordPress has grown from a blogging platform to a content management system. The core functionality as a blog tools will not change. You get a sub domain from WordPress and many features far better than Blogger. The WordPress smartphone app helps you to get more followers in a focused manner.
• Others – There is Wix, Weebly, Jimdo, Shopify, SquareSpace, the list goes on. Everybody is vying for the site builder space. They all want to take the complexity out of design by providing templates and giving all functions like payment gateway, shopping cart, etc in the form of simple drag and drop modules. All of them give a subdomain and website for free.

Paid options are as follows.

• Self Hosted WordPress – If you are in for the long haul, self hosted WordPress is the way forward. You have complete control over design and SEO is a breeze. Looking for sponsors or joining an ad network, this options works best. besides giving a professional look. Choose your hosting provider with care since it is going to be a three to five year commitment. Go for the longest duration pack since you will get a straight 50% discount on your first transaction. Check for free addons like SSL cert and business mail.
• Paid plans by WordPress.com – Plans include custom domain, ads by WordPress, spam protection, CDN and much more. It is like a single platform giving cutting edge features of WordPress. But comparatively, plans are expensive.
• Other options – Google Domains provide an option to buy a domain and link it with blogger website. It also give business mail options under G-suite. Except for the basic integration, the setup remain buggy and customer care is non existent.

Blogging by Social Media method

Popularity of social media networks has tempted the masses to change the definition of blogging. People now assume (wrongly!) that posting updates is a form of blogging too. Here are a few pointers suggesting otherwise.

• Blogging is necessarily writing an article of between 300 to 600 words. How will you post a 300 word update on Facebook timeline.
• Every social network keeps insisting that they are only for updates from friends and family.
• Google does not show search results within the social networks.
• Social media posting is for entertainment purpose, at-least that is what your followers will believe.
• Brands are given promotional tools for business purpose which are misused by influencers to boost follows and likes.
• This confusion will remain because blog articles are also called posts and social media updates are called posts too!

Here are a few social media networks and what they can be used for.

• Facebook – To check-in public places of interest like restaurants, shopping malls, picnic spots, museums, gardens, etc. Post pictures and videos of travel experiences. Use a Facebook page to post short stories, poems or funny one liners.
• Instagram – If you are photographer or travel blogger or posting restaurant reviews, this app can work with short updates.
• Tumblr – Can be used to write posts sometimes detailed ones too.
• YouTube – Integrated with Adsense, this has become the big daddy of money spinning vloggers.

If you are an aspiring blogger, you need to take a long and hard look towards social media before taking a call. Businesses and brand have a presence on social media without need for a website. But for a blogger, a website is the only sign of true identity.

The post Ways to blog – Is social media posting a form of blogging appeared first on Start Blog Writing.

Pre-requisites and preparations

• Get the post and caption ready. Description if needed and hash tags.
• Connect Instagram with Facebook page for automatic posting.
• Choose the suitable time for posting as per the composition of your audience.

Step 1 – Post on Instagram

Create a post on Instagram. Linking with FB page should auto post on Facebook too. Create a link of the post on story. Make it catchy and attractive for people to click on it. Story on Instagram is replicated on FB stories also. But you can create a different Facebook story. You can share a story between close friends too.

Step 2 – Create a Facebook Story

Facebook is the largest social media network and build your social circle and client circle around Facebook. Stories are the best way to reach to your audience. It is the fastest way to take your followers to new content on your page. Post can be featured in profile story as well as page story.

Step 3 – Share you post in Groups

Facebook groups are active and they help you meet people with similar interests. Some groups are area based and include general members from all categories and background. Small locality groups are very useful to promote your services in the form of a post. Keep searching for groups which your posts will fit and engage your audience.

Step 4 – Share to Google My Business

Google My Business should be on the top of your to do list. Even if you do not want to mark a location publicly on Google Maps, you should have a presence. Offers and Services especially can be posted on Google My Business so that any customer coming for the first time is able to see your portfolio.

Step 5 – Share to other social media

Finally you can share to the rest of the social media accounts like Twitter or Pinterest and so on. Remember, there are far too many social media networks these days to even keep a track of, leave alone getting meaningful traffic from it. Besides you do not want to keep posting content throughout the day.

The post Why the 12 hour gap between posts – work flow for social media appeared first on Start Blog Writing.