Friend sourcing. I just made it up, so you’re not missing out on something new. Yet. It’s like crowdsourcing, but among people you already know, even if you’ve only met them online. After all, don’t we all have more and more friends online? Especially during this past year, when the pandemic influenced how many people we could socialize with.

Here’s How it Works

Ask your friends what they think of a topic, then take what they say and create content with that. It’s like when you attend #DigiBlogChat and then create a blog post about it, like Jim Katzaman (@JKatzaman) often does. You’ll get more eyes on your piece because people love to hear about themselves. It’s easy, fun, and clever!

Don’t Believe Me?

If you need to see how friend sourcing works, take a look around the interwebs. Check out who’s retweeting whom, who’s sharing whose pictures, and which posts get shared the most. Friend sourcing posts may not always be the most popular (animal posts are very popular, too), but they do get shared. A lot.

Friend Sourcing Is Social

Remember when social media was actually social? No, neither do I. But these days, you really need to be social more than ever. Engagement counts for a lot, and I predict it’ll count for even more in the future. Need to know more about engagement? Check out For Better Social Media Results, Focus on Engagement.

Get Started

Attend a chat (#DigiBlogChat is a pretty good one!) or start a conversation on social media. Ask a question or create a poll. Collect ideas from your friends. Ask if they’d like to be included in your piece if you want. Or tell them later. Or apologize later. Your choice! There are no wrong answers here.

Collaborations Are Gold

Collaborate with someone to create something, write something, or do something together. You could be in a challenge together, too, like the 46-mile Mt. Fujii Virtual Conqueror Challenge that @MistressPrime and I were in together. We both walked the miles, checked in, and got our (real metal!) medals. But the walk was all done virtually, so anyone can participate.

Write or Vlog About it!

Now create your piece! You could write a blog post, talk about it on your YouTube channel, make an art piece to share later, etc. You might want to take pictures of whatever it is you did, said, or created together. Make sure you tag your friends when you do share the piece. People usually love being mentioned!

Share and Share Again

If your piece is evergreen (for more information about evergreen posts, see: How Long Is Evergreen Content Actually Good for?) then share it more than once! After all, you’ve put in the work, right?

Recently, I’ve been seeing more and more sales gimmicks. Sites where I’d normally shop anyway are now regaling me with Spin the Wheel! and Mystery Discounts, along with cute fuzzy animals. I might have shopped there anyway, but does the focus on games make me trust them more? No! Quite the opposite.

Does There Always Need to Be a Game?

Why does shopping have to be made more fun? Haven’t we been told to plan ahead, make a list, shop online, get in and get out as quickly as possible when shopping in person, shop around the edges for the best dietary choices, etc.? Do we have to go on a Treasure Hunt and make our online shopping trip more amusing? You’ll probably guess what my answer is to these questions. By the way, you might like this article about the Gamification of Social Media.

Budgets and the National Debt

Ok, maybe I’m ranting now, but as Americans don’t we already have a problem with overspending? According to CNBC, “The average American has $90,460 in debt. Meanwhile, millennials have seen the largest increase in debt in the last five years.” So gamification probably makes the debt problem even worse. Maybe there’s some sort of moral obligation to make sales as boring as possible to help bring down the national debt! Yes, people want to sell more, but how about a little mercy for everyone during these panicky, pandemicky times?

Just Say No

Maybe our collectively ginormous credit issue stems in part from our difficulty in saying no. Setting boundaries is hard work and depends upon knowing what we want and don’t want. And what about that darn pandemic? Gosh, maybe if we spent less to begin with we wouldn’t even need as much darn money from the government in the form of stimulus checks. Maybe we could even–gasp!–spend within our means! Not to say that some need the stimulus checks–they do. It’s just that right now we need to be budgeting our money so it stretches farther, not looking for excuses to spend more money. And certainly not making a fun game out of overspending. Oh, and get off my lawn, you darn kids!!! By the way, I talk about boundaries in Best Time Management Hacks for Your Online Life.

Scams and Rabbit Holes

Maybe people are more sophisticated than I give them credit for. Somehow, I don’t think so. Tons of my friends fall for scams. When people with unknown numbers call, they often pick up and talk to the callers. And give away their bank account information. So this emphasis on games doesn’t bode well for many. At the very least, it’s a waste of time heading down that rabbit hole of online shopping and games. I know we’re all bored. But why make it easier for someone else to get into debt? Leave me a comment if you feel like it, but only if you aren’t procrastinating on doing your budget.

Some people seem to think that there’s some kind of magic involved in improving your engagement on social media. There’s no magic involved, but you can use some science. Don’t worry–it’s nothing that costs a bundle. But having some science and just talking to people will help a lot.

The Science behind Tweepsmap

This week on #DigiBlogChat, a chat on Twitter, our special guests were Samir Al-Brattan of @Connexinet and Tweepsmap and Jayna (@JTweepsmap). We discussed how to increase engagement. Here are a few ideas from that chat. By the way, Tweepsmap has a terrific YouTube channel, if you prefer to listen to tips. Don’t forget to subscribe! 

Hashtags and Topics

If you want to supercharge your time on Twitter, you can find out which hashtags and topics will get you the most oomph. Yes, oomph isn’t exactly a scientific word, but you know what I mean. This is not to say that you’re going to be broadcasting. You’ll still be interacting, but in a smart way. If you’re already tweeting about one of the topics mentioned in your Tweepsmap, why not add a hashtag to your post? Did you know there’s a the hashtag suggestions tool embedded into the Tweepsmap scheduler? Not too many hashtags, though! Just one or two.

How Do I Talk to People?

Start by saying hello. Do you know how to make small talk? If you still go to the grocery store, or walk your dog past your neighbor’s house, you’ve been forced to say hello before. Then ask about them. How are they doing? You can also retweet with a quote. Simply click on the retweet and then you’ll get the quote retweet choice. That way, you can add a remark to the original tweet.

©Przemek Pietrak2013

Don’t Just Broadcast

Gone are the days when you could post an out-of-focus picture of a lemon and get a thousand comments. Comment on what other people are doing and saying. People love to hear about themselves. Some people may even say something back to you. You can use some of the suggested topics and hashtags within Tweepsmap if you get stuck for ideas, too.

©GotCredit2015

Add Value

Sometimes value includes encouragement. You can also post educational material, humorous things, or resourceful ideas. As Melissa Drozdowski, director of social media at marketing and brand-builder company Interprose mentioned during the latest #Digiblogchat “Repeat after us: it’s all about adding value. People engage for a reason. You have to provide something of value for their time – a new perspective, something followers can learn from, a resource they didn’t have before. Add value and they will come (and stay).”

©Adam Bautz2015

Don’t Get Discouraged

If someone doesn’t want to have a conversation, move on. There are plenty of people who will want to talk to you.

How to Make Your Writing More Resourceful: Five Simple Ways

If you want to become a resource, and educate or instruct your readers, then you need to make your writing actionable. Yes, I know actionable is one of those silly words, but you know what it means; people need to be able to do something based on your posts. And make your posts evergreen so people will come back over and over. Here are a few ideas.

Use Tons of Examples

When I was a full-time technical writer, one thing that readers always wanted was examples. They wanted to see themselves in your writing. Whether you’re writing a software manual or a blog post about social media, use a lot of examples. Use them liberally. Sprinkle them like magic fairy dust throughout your writing. For example, if you were writing a post about how to create an article in an hour, you might send them here: How to Write a Perfectly Fine Blog Post in An Hour. (See what I did there?)

Create Detailed Posts

If you’re writing a how-to article, make sure to give readers all the details. Try out your method yourself, too. Better still, have a friend or two try out your article. Ask for honest feedback and incorporate the feedback into your instructions. There’s no reason to be defensive when you’re getting feedback. Feedback makes your writing better. Sometimes when I’m reading recipes, it seems like the recipe writer didn’t try out the recipe for themselves. It’s so frustrating to try to cook and have one or two or more steps missing! So capture all the details. For more information, Master Class describes how to use concrete details to enhance your writing.

Have Actionable Steps

There’s that word again: actionable. Ensure that your readers can do what you’re telling them they can do. If your instructions are too vague, your readers will get frustrated and leave, and you never want that. So review the steps you’re asking your readers to take. Review the steps a few times and you’ll have happier readers. And you’ll feel satisfied that you’ve done a good job.

Be Specific

One way to be specific is to have examples. Another is to consider the environment your reader is in. For instance, will your reader be working on a laptop when they write a blog post? Will they be working on an iPhone? Then make sure you include information to help them in that environment. This is especially important when writing about software or apps. Some may only work in specific environments. Apps are often better on phones and may not work at all on laptops or in a desktop environment.

Curate Other Resources

Even if you don’t have all the answers, you can collect posts or ideas from those who do. Nobody has the time to read everything. You might like this article: How to Use Pinterest to Curate Content. Another excellent resource is Randy Clark’s book, How to Stay Ahead of Your Business Blog Forever. Highly recommended!