An excellent post with some great advice for bloggers, and all those navigating the ocean of social media.
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The ‘Follow’ is as much of a floating minefield as the ‘Like’.
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Tips on blogging are in some ways similar to tips on how to live life, if you read too much about it, you may never actually do it because sometimes the myriad pieces of advice conflict with each other causing confusion, like asking a cartoon character “Which way did he go?” and the character replies “He went that-a-way!” and simultaneously points in opposite directions.
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Sometimes you just have to take the plunge and learn from it… posts like this one help to give you an idea of what you may find when you take the plunge, and gives you options from which to choose… the choice still belongs to you as does the adventure which ensues after the plunge.
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One of the best tips I was given for blogging was – Follow The Daily Post – and I am very glad that I took that plunge!
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ps. I experienced a glitch while trying to reblog this, so it may appear more than once… or not at all (in which case no one will read this ps or … ).
Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, your blog: pitch a tent anywhere on the web, and the expectation is that people will quickly line up to give you a (virtual) high five in the form of a “follow.” I see it often enough in our own Community Pool posts here at The Daily Post: “Follow me and I’ll follow you back!”
It’s pretty clear what the followed blogger’s supposed to do: keep posting stuff that others enjoy reading. Be a gracious host. Ensure posts are readable. But what about the follower? Is there a job description for what happens after you click on a blog’s “Follow” button (or Follow Blog Widget)? Here’s some food for thought.
Don’t expect instant reciprocity
You shouldn’t take the plunge if you don’t want to read new content from the person whose blog you just followed.
When you follow a blog you’re making a light…
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An Upturned Soul 
I’ve spent the better part of last 15 years in countries with spotty internet. I’ve never followed a blog or even read one, until I found yours, and that because I had recently divorced a narcissist, but didn’t really know it. I actually didn’t know could comment on an old post. I don’t know how to follow or like stuff, or really what that means. And if you respond this comment, I don’t know how to know that you did. I thought I only could comment on a current post, so I was trying read the current ones, so I could comment. I also feel like you’ve already answered most of my questions in old posts, and it would be annoying or frustrating. I didn’t realize bloggers wanted feedback or were curious about readers. I’m woefully ignorant in all things modern,so glad that this is much easier than chisling on a stone my gratitude for you! Anyways, I’m working my way through your blog, I love it and it’s helping me more you could ever know, your regular commenters as well. This is an incredibly dark time my life and this place has comforted me greatly.
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Thank you for sharing 🙂
When you comment on WordPress there’s an option under the comment box which says – Notify me of follow-up comments via email – that you can click to receive email notifications of replies. I think that may also cause email notifications of all comments made on that post.
It’s intriguing that you mentioned the comments being open on old posts because just the other day I was considering changing my blog settings to close comments on posts older than a year, but I hesitated about doing that partly because it means messing with my blog settings and that could go horribly wrong as following instructions has never been something I do well and partly because I don’t want to put people off communicating with me if they feel the urge.
I don’t know if all other bloggers like feedback, some definitely do. I definitely do. I like conversations which flow both ways, it’s stimulating, inspiring, and often something someone else says to me will have a piece of a puzzle I’m trying to figure out, will show me a different perspective, will snap me out of a rut I’m in, will give me an insight which I lacked. I want to know about other people, what they’re thinking, feeling, their experiences of life and of being. Understanding others helps us to understand ourselves, and the more we understand about ourselves the more we understand others.
One of the things about dark times is that they push us within – this can make us feel very alone, but it can also be the spur which makes us connect at a deeper level with others. Pain is something which all living beings experience. Knowing our own darkness informs us of the darkness of others – and since it is often the darkness of others which may have pushed us into a dark place of our own (like in a relationship with a narcissist) delving into the dark brings light to it… eventually. Dark times force us to seek and in seeking we find. But while we’re in the deepest dark we often feel lost and powerless. We reach out into the void, the nothing before us, around us, wanting a hand to grab ours and pull us out and away from the past, what lies behind and the lies which lay behind a fairy tale turned into a nightmare. A hand may not grab ours but we may find a loose thread which our fingers grasp and somehow it begins to guide us out of the labyrinth.
It’s worth noting that the comfort you find here comes from within you more than it comes from me, my posts – you have within you the light which dispels the dark, the ability to shine and show yourself your way forward 🙂
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