Why I Read, Subscribe and Follow and Why We Are #BetterTogether

Introduction

This was kicked off because of a Medium piece that I saw in The Medium Writers and Vocal Creators Support Group here from Daniella Cressman. Why did I read it? What caught my attention?

Well I am Facebook friends with Daniella, I have a had a few Messenger conversations and the subject and image caught my eye and therefore drew me in.

This describes why I read, subscribe on Vocal, and follow on Medium. Things have to catch my attention. I have included "Come Together" by The Beatles because the only way we succeed is when we come together, work together and are #BetterTogether

This is my own personal modus operandi and is not a recommendation, advice or anything, I am just telling you how I do things. I’m splitting into what grabs me and a short bit on what puts me off, so here goes.

The Things That Grab Me

Obviously if I am Facebook friends and engage with the author outside of Vocal then I am likely to take notice of anything they post be it a Vocal Story a Medium Story or anything else. I do go for the Vocal stories in preference to Medium just because I am not a full Medium member and often cannot read the stories.

The next thing is that I use the Facebook Groups (see the poem at the end for a list of the ones I use) to find new creations to read, and used to like the threaded format of Vocal Social Society but that doesn’t work as well since they added unlimited solo posting and seldom close off and renew the threads, but I still find some great creations in there.

The next thing is does the subject and possibly the main image grab me? If it does I am likely to read and possibly subscribe to a creator if I am impressed with the story. I seldom send friend requests as being an old white male, users, especially women are likely to think I am a predatory creep if I do, but I tend to accept friend requests from people I engage with. As I said at the start of this paragraph, that is more likely to get me to take notice of your creation. If we are not Facebook friends it is likely that I may miss your posts.

If people leave comments on my posts then I am likely to seek them out and check their work, which in turn gives them a little residual income on Facebook. Similarly I hope that me doing the same to them will benefit me in the same way.

I also look for people on the Vocal platform and Twitter and have gained friends on those platforms because of my writing. Again the thing is reciprocal reading and sharing is beneficial to all parties.

So from this you may get an idea of how to get my attention. Sometimes other things stop me from doing as much reading as I would like but I do try to engage and feel guilty if I miss friends' stories.

The Things That Put Me Off

I shy away from people who continually demand that we read their latest story. I have stated many times I hate regimentation and I don’t like people telling me what I should read. It is a red flag to me and it tends to make me ignore such stories.

Then there is irrelevant link bombing on my posts. If someone shares a story in a comment on one of my posts that is relevant to my post I will read it and re-engage, but I get people dropping irrelevant posts on my with no supporting comment. I always delete or report them.

Then there are those that don;t reciprocate but expect you to read theirs (see first paragraph). There are many creators who never read or comment on my posts even though I have commented on several of theirs, so eventually I just ignore them.

There is one guy who actually called one of my friends on Facebook Messenger demanding money because she had read and commented on one of his stories. He has been banned from many Facebook groups because of his disgusting behaviour but is a great Vocal favourite with lots of Top Stories and Challenge wins. He doesn’t get any reads from me.

Conclusion

It’s about producing stuff that people want to read and reciprocity. I would not expect anyone to read all my stories as this article is number 831 so if you were to read one of my stories a day it would take you two and a half years, if you were to read one an hour without sleeping it would take you 34 days, so I never expect to be fully read by anybody.

Also my subjects are so varied that I have posted in every Vocal Community so there will be subjects that interest you and subjects that just don’t interest you.

I hope this has given you some ideas and told you a little more about me.