Welcome to the cKotch.Com blog. I’m Christopher Kotcher, and this is why a social media promise has so far gone unmet.
When Last Was Mentioned
Last May, I made a post reviewing my first months of blogging.
I explained how blogging has helped me grow as a writer. I was finally sharing my stuff with the world. I was writing with an increased sense of purpose. This blog even pushed me to self-publish my first book, Five Strange Stories.
Writing which was once held close to the chest was now out for the world to see. Thing is, the world was not really seeing it.
Certainly, I have found a few good readers. Still, an audience is a crucial thing for a writer. What lies between a writer and a reader is the soul of a story.
So, my plan for future personal growth would be rooted in growing my audience. An audience that could guide me according to what it wants to read.
One key part of that plan was to expand my social media presence. I planned to open a Twitter account.
I wanted that account ready by summer’s end. And yet, summer ended with no Twitter account started.
My History with Social Media
Through all the years, my only real social media has been Facebook.
The site was getting popular around the time I was heading into high school. So, I joined to keep in touch with some friends from my eighth-grade class.
I used the platform here and there to see how everyone was doing. Maybe reply to a few messages and chats.
These were the good old days of chronological news feeds. I could see things from everyone on my friend list. Everything was just based on when things were posted. No annoying algorithms needed.
I have had some good times with Facebook. Best would be this one post I did after my last high school football game. Even turned that masterpiece into a poem included in this site’s portfolio.
Still, Facebook was never something which held my attention for long. I would often go weeks or months without checking it. I felt I only really needed to check in every so often.
Updates and such led me to use Facebook less and less. The platform’s focus kept moving away from my uses for it.
I went there to connect with people. Facebook shifted focus to pages and articles. Now I barely see anything from even half the people on my friend list.
Blogging and Social Media
When time came to start this blog, I researched how to attract readers. Social media was at the top of that list. This is where the people are now.
Most sources said to focus on one or two social media platforms. Better to do a few things well than everything with mediocrity.
So, I chose to start with Facebook.
I could make a page for my writing and blogging. Show it to my friends on the platform.
From the first moment though, I could not run the page the way I had wanted.
My page was going to be titled cKotch.Com to match my branding on this blog. Turns out Facebook does not let you begin a page name with a lowercase letter.
The rules obviously need not apply for bigger brands like eBay or iPhone.
I found a fair amount of family, friends, and friends of friends to like my page. While that number has not grown in a while, I do appreciate their continued support. They tend to check my posts whenever they see them.
Unfortunately, this fine group does not always see my posts. There are times where my Facebook previews and posts barely appear in anyone’s newsfeeds.
I have tried to increase my presence to keep appearing in newsfeeds. But I can hardly ever tell what Facebook even wants me to do.
There are times when one of my Facebook posts goes live, and Facebook sends me a message saying I have not posted in a while.
All these unmet expectations led me to start considering Twitter.
Considering Twitter
Twitter was always the platform which grabbed my friends away from Facebook.
I never made a Twitter account of my own. I figured one account was enough, and Facebook was what I knew.
Still, when Facebook started seeming lacking, Twitter seemed the natural choice for me.
Maybe here I could actually build an audience.
Tweeting did not seem so different from Facebook either. True, there is a character limit, but many of my social media posts about my blog tend to be short previews and links.
I could even set aside a little chunk of time every day to keep up with tweeting.
Summer seemed the perfect chance to start everything.
I would have some good vacation time. I could fit Twitter into my life before life started back up again.
I had all these plans and ideas. And yet, none of them happened.
Wondering What Stopped Me
I have had trouble thinking about what has kept me from tweeting. Starting a Twitter by summer’s end has been my first broken promise on this blog.
I wrote this post to try processing my thoughts. Honestly, I still do not understand them.
My best guess is that Twitter has been my high hope for a wider audience. Maybe some concern of that hope falling short stops me.
I am unsure of that reason though. After all, I was willing to put my writing out here on this blog.
If I were really so concerned with potential failure, would this blog even exist?
I suppose another concern now is fitting Twitter into my life.
My first year of full-time teaching is already picking up steam. Planning and grading workloads will only increase over the next few months.
Can I really commit myself to starting and running a Twitter for my writing right now?
I guess unlike many of my other posts this story does not have a clear ending yet. Hopefully, that ending can come one day soon.
However, I will not make any promises regarding Twitter today. This time, I will only mention a Twitter account once I am actually launching a profile. I just wanted to let everyone know why things are taking so long.
Kotcher’s Call to Action
If you like my content and wish to see more, then you have a few options.
You could check out my book Good Stuff: 50 Poems from Youth on Amazon. Good Stuff is enrolled in the Kindle Matchbook program, so anyone who buys the paperback can also get the eBook for free.
You can also check my Essential Posts page for links to some of my greatest posts to the cKotch.Com blog.
Finally, be sure to like my Facebook page and share it with your friends. I post a link there whenever a new blog post goes live each Friday at 5:00 PM EST.