Last month one of my blog posts was rejected by Facebook due to the picture I used and content. “Ads must not contain content that exploits crises or controversial political or social issues for commercial purposes.” Obviously, if you have read My Heart’s Cry blogs, they do not exploit crises at all. My blogs focus on giving people peace to get through life with prayer. Now that Facebook is censoring more content, I believe it will be harder to post with details pertaining to certain subjects.
When this happened last month, I sent a text to several of my closest praying friends, explaining about the post being rejected. I asked them to pray for me as I reworked the post. And I also asked each one, if they felt led, to share it on their wall. Half of them did share my original post. I was so thankful for their support and prayers! As a blogger who is passionate about sharing her personal love of praying to God with others, this rejection felt like someone kicked the chair out from under me while I was still sitting in it! I was in shock. Thank you again to those praying friends. I appreciate each of you more than you could ever know.
To sponsor the content, I had to replace the picture of a woman with a face mask. Instead, I used a picture of flowers. Now I love flowers, but the face mask picture went with the “I’m so done” blog so well! I also had to take out key words like: Covid-19, face mask, “Stay at Home” etc. and replace them with more generic terms. However, I can use these words in this blog post because I am not planning on sponsoring it. This post is just going to my friends on my timeline, along with the likes and followers on the My Heart’s Cry page.
All morning as I went through the process of rewriting the blog, I asked my friend at Barbara Veronika Photography for the use of one of her pictures. She graciously said YES. Then I took out all the key words that could cause my blog to be rejected again. Next, I sent it to my editor for her suggestions. She graciously stopped her day to work on the blog so I could post it again that same day. I’m so thankful for her. She prays as she edits each of my posts. Through much prayer and support from my friends, I was able to post it again by noon.
Of those friends I reached out to, a handful of them shared the original post “I’m so Done” on their walls as requested. All morning my stats were going up and WordPress even notified me: “Your stats are booming! My Heart’s Cry is getting a lot of traffic.” I had never received that before. That was cool to get while I was in the process of reworking the rejected post. You see, this message of hope was touching people that had seen it on my friend’s wall so they shared it on their wall too and this went on and on. That’s how sharing works.
During this time I got my new reworked blog post “I Want it to be Over” accepted through Facebook’s Sponsoring process. What does that mean? It means I have selected a particular audience for my post to be placed on their wall as a “Sponsored” post. The audience I chose was women ages 18-65 in the United States with interests including Christian Church and Christian music. I pay approximately 10 cents a click for others in the United States, who I don’t know yet, to read my post. I have a dollar amount it doesn’t exceed. I feel like it’s worth it because it’s cheaper than a stamp and sharing these encouraging words about praying to Jesus is well worth the money.
This is what I learned by having two similar posts running: one through Friends sharing and one I paid to sponsor. Friends sharing gained more people reading my blog overall. This was actually quite surprising to me. But maybe it shouldn’t have been. You see, a great many of my friend’s friends know me or at least have heard of me. So there is a connection. The other thing is, their shares contained personal promotion at the top of the post they shared. Generally, the sponsored posts that get shared are just straight shares without words. I see less likes on straight shares and sometimes none.
So as you can see, how you share makes a difference. If you care enough to share, please share it well.
Why Share?
We share what is good because as Christians, we are called to “fix our thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” With some of our friends, we may be the only one who is placing true, right and lovely things on their news feed. It’s the modern day equivalent of giving a cup of cold water to a thirsty soul. They can choose to read my positive biblical message giving them hope and then admire the beautiful picture. Then they can read other positive posts like the updates you provide and see the pics of your kids or grandkids. But you have to put something good out there to share.
How to Share
There are levels of effectiveness when you share something.
- Okay level – A straight share is okay. At least you’ve shared it and passed on the good post or pic.
- Good level – A share with words containing a short comment like: “this was good.” That’s definitely a step above a straight share with no words.
- Excellent level – A few sentences about how the article or picture made you feel, helped you or how you are going to use it in your everyday life, moving forward. Example: Wow, this blog helped me to realize that I need to take time to rest during this crisis. It soothed my heart. I need to remember God is with me through it all. A worthwhile read, for sure.
So you see, there are different levels of sharing. If you care to share then please make it count. If you want people to enjoy it the way you did, then share it well. Put a personal endorsement on it and make it excellent. Otherwise it gets lost in a boatload of posts your friends just scroll through endlessly – which, on average, is about 70 feet of content per day.
I hope you understand this is not just for my posts. I’m sharing this with you because as a blogger, I have a unique view of posting. I see the statistics of how many people actually read the article and where it came from (whether on Facebook, Linked in, WordPress or a search engine). When I promote, I can see the number of responses that come back: like, love, comment or share. Because I see this information, I want you to know it really does matter when you take a moment to share it well.
I encourage you to share what is good and share it well.
Kim
P.S. If you want to treat yourself to some beautiful pics of the Pacific Southwest area go check out Barbara Veronika Photography. Like, Love and Share!!!
Philippians 4:8 NLT
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