Weaning Myself from Social Media

SEO should resolve to my websites – not someone else’s.

Yes, that’s me at the controls of an AT-6 “Texan.” Now I need to take control of my own marketing efforts.

Content that I create should benefit me and my business. Whenever I post on Social Media that content helps attract visitors to the benefit of the stockholders of Facebook or Twitter or wherever. When I post to a forum, the basic SEO benefits go to the owner of that forum. There is, however, a compromise in that some judicious posting to a forum or social media may have the residual effect of sending a visitor to my site(s). Therefore I am not abandoning…just making changes and redirecting the bulk of my efforts.

My aim is to wean myself from a lot of social media and from posting on forums (quite so much). I’m not talking about a “cold turkey” removal from social media but, instead, a re-focusing of my posting efforts. I have have begun a rigorous campaign of article publishing (blogging) on several of my sites (mostly BillSwartwout.com and USPictures.com) that support my art photography. I am sharing photographs and places of where we have traveled. I am also sharing some marketing insights – here on “my site” rather than there on “their” sites. My goal this year is to publish one new piece per day ( on average) for 2022. At the end of January, as I write this, I am ahead of my goal by a half dozen new blog posts.

Posting on SM and forums is good SEO for “them/those.” I am striving for increased search engine clicks for “me” and my photography. So far it is working – I am seeing a two-fold increase clicks from Google and Bing this month compared to December (and there is still nearly a week to go in January). Unique visitors and page views are up, as is bot traffic (the stats on my server separate the two so I can see “real numbers” of visitors).

I want to create articles and photographs that help me, both in the short term and long term. I’ve had some success on Facebook, but I’ve never been able to fully monetize it. With all due respect to the owners of Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites, I have to focus on my own business. I have to be more deliberate in what I post and how I use social media. While I do have a Facebook page(s) and Twitter accounts, I need to keep in mind: there are no real (do-follow) links back to my sites. So why do I need them? Why do I care about “likes” or comments? What does that do for ME? Well, I do receive visitors from those sites and, yes, some of those visitors buy my art photography. Therefore, I am not being “ungrateful” for the work that these sites do for me; instead, I see it as running in place. I just need to keep in mind that the ultimate goal for SEO is rank well on search engines by creating original content that people want to read and share (link back to).

With that said, I am using FB and Twitter to help promote my new articles. For example, an article I published two hours ago (just before I wrote this paragraph) has already had 31 views, with 24 of them coming directly to that post from Social Media. The others were likely me (for one or two) and some from people landing on the home page of BillSwartwout.com where “The Making of a Classic Bridge Photograph” was that first article.

Bill Swartwout Photography USPictures Header
Bill Swartwout Photography at USPictures.com

9 Replies to “Weaning Myself from Social Media”

  1. Bill, you and I have talked about this and I am doing a similar sort of thing, more of a focus on the blog with links to my own website. I, too, am seeing an uptick in traffic and comments which is very welcome. I also see some increase in views on the sites on which I sell my work (links from my own website). I think it is the way to go these days.

    1. Thank you for the comment, Dorothy. What is surprising to me is the speed at which this growth in traffic and subsequent visits to my online galleries is happening. This is only the first month of this focused endeavor – imagine what will happen over the upcoming months.

  2. Interesting post Bill. Although I occasionally use SM for trying to get visitors for my FAA/Pixels site, I have never really seen anything positive come from my time and efforts. Your comment about creating permanent and regular content for your own site rather than Facebook etc, sounds logical and is something I need to get doing myself. Your early results sound encouraging!

  3. Bill
    Do you have any concerns about mixing up blogs that are aimed at other photographers, such as this one, with ones aimed at potential collectors? I like what you are doing and will challenge myself with the same project. I’ve been creating videos based on my blog posts as well to get more traction, but so far all posts have been aimed at potential buyers.

    1. Steve, thank you for commenting and for asking a good question. I am focusing on (other) blog content with sites that pertain to one of my own collections. If I promote other artists there is some kind of reciprocity involved (exchanging links) or, more likely, an affiliate program where I earn a small commission from the POD company for referring a collector (buyer).

  4. One more question if I may. I see that you are on FAA and Pictorem, but you appear to leave it up to the customer to decide which one to choose by adding links to the same image in both sites. I can understand the value of links to each one, but isn’t that making it harder for the customer to decide to buy a print?

    Steve

    1. Questions are fine, of course. I believe in choices. Both of my printing companies produce quality work and both offer a 30-day satisfaction guarantee. However, they also offer a differing array of products – so an art buyer may choose what better fits their needs. Their pricing is similar but Pictorem offers free shipping within the US and Canada on all products.

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