You know the type. The blogger with Facebook, Twitter, Stumble Upon, and more who only shares their own links. That’s a little annoying.
On one hand, I actually like it when people share their own links because social networking is one of the major ways I follow bloggers I enjoy. However, I also like to see what other people are reading. And honestly, self-sales are not the only reason to socialize. If all I see are personal links shared over and over, I’m far less likely to click said links. It ends up working against the blogger (for me).
What are your thoughts on this? Do you mind when someone only shares personal links, or do you expect a little more enthusiasm in the blogosphere?
I like to see other bloggers share links other than their own. That is a great way to not only see what they are interested in but finding new blogs and other things to read.
Of course, share! Other links, after all, do help your SEO.
I don’t care really. I assume everyone is tweeting their own stuff. Maybe I should think about it more.
What I hate is when someone tweets way too much. I stop following those folks.
Everyone likes link love! We all agree, well, Peggy only agrees to a point, but mostly we agree. I’m bad about twittering other people’s links, but I do facebook them and do link love at my blogs.
@Peggy what exactly is too many tweets? Like when people tweet their music play lists? I hate that. Also, you must love me – since I’m a random not heavy tweeter
I guess I give blogger love more in posts at my blog than social media, but you’ve given me something to think about.
Too many Tweets is when I open up Twitter and all the tweets are from the same person on the front page (even though I follow around 80).
It’s all about balance and purpose. What do you link to and why do you do it?
In general, links that make sense to the blog’s concept/purpose should be included so that the reader can have a nice experience. Having said that, the blogger needs to have an interesting blog in the first place so that the linked-to sites don’t overpower the blogger’s efforts. On the other hand, if the blog is more of a portfolio site then I would expect to only see links to the author/artist’s own work/projects.
Links to networking sites are necessary so that readers know where to get updates, how to contact/interact with the blog author, etc. But those links should be few in comparison to the rest of the blog content.
Sorry, I might have misunderstood the original post. My previous comments were directed at external links within someone’s own blog.
If you’re talking about signature links to personal sites in social networking profiles, I would say include one link to the site you find most interesting or important. If you’re doing it right, and by that I mean publishing blogs and promoting them, all of your personal sites should link to each other so anyone that visits one site should be able to visit the others. If you are engaged in a lot of projects, and they all have solid innate value, I would say limit the links to three so readers don’t feel overwhelmed.
As far as linking to other people within social networking profiles, this is tricky. A lot of these social sites have social linking capabilities built-in; Twitter calls them “followers”, MySpace calls them “friends” (I think?). Anyway, these functions are dubious endeavors at best. If you don’t reciprocate a link or follow request, your committing social networking suicide. However, you’re trying to only link to people/sites you find interesting (again, if you’re doing things correctly) so you almost feel obligated to accept the request or reciprocate the gesture, which isn’t a good thing.
My advice would be link back to those sites that accent your blog(s) purpose. If some readers drop off, let them; happens occasionally to me on Twitter. It’s better to keep your links honest than to accumulate them out of obligation.