Social Media Update

In addition to feed readers, bookmarks, search engines, and good old-fashioned typing in the URL to the browser, some folks choose to follow Bull Runnings via social networks Facebook and Twitter. Right now we have 260 followers on Facebook, and 88 on Twitter. Not only are these other ways to be notified of new posts here (you’ll still need to come here to read them, of course), but on occasion I’ll post items to those forums that I don’t post here.

If you’re interested in following Bull Runnings in a slightly different way and you have a Facebook and/or Twitter account, you can use the links in the column to the right to follow us there!

Bull Runnings on Facebook

I think I’ve figured this out.  To follow Bull Runnings on Facebook, try clicking this link.  Then click the “Like” button.  Let me know if it works or not.

Update: Bull Runnings Facebook Fan Page

After one week up and running, the Bull Runnings Facebook Fan Page (honestly, I have no idea what the link to the page is) has 105 followers.  Most of them are my own Facebook friends who for whatever reason wanted to stay up-to-date with the blog (see here for why I set the page up).  But about 20% are folks with whom I am not familiar on that social network.

Thanks for the response – it has been greater than I anticipated and kinda-sorta makes me feel good.

Bull Runnings on Facebook

I decided to set up a page for Bull Runnings on Facebook.  Up until now, I’ve been posting links to new articles here on my Facebook wall.  That means I’ve been bombarding all my Facebook friends with links on their home pages, even if they have no interest in the Civil War (yes, believe it or not there are people like that out there…lots of them, in fact).  With the new Facebook Bull Runnings page I’ll be able to post the links for people who are more likely to be interested.  If you’re a Facebook friend of mine, you should have already received an invite to “like” the Bull Runnings page.  And if you’re a Facebooker but not a friend, you can simply look up the page (it’s called Bull Runnings) and click “like” or “follow” or whatever it says there at the top.

I tried to set it up so that new posts automatically update to the page, but apparently I can only link between my blog and my personal wall, not the page.  So I’ll still be doing that manually.

Social Networking via “Get Social”

For the past 6 months or so (it could be more – I have a terrible sense of time anymore) I have been including colorful links at the bottom of most of my posts.  They appear as a bar of logos/icons – there’s one at the bottom of this article for illustrative and practical purposes.  These are links to various social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Digg, Del.icio.us, etc…  Here’s how they work: you read my article and think to yourself: “Self, this is pretty cool.  I think my friends might like to read it.”  If you subscribe to any of these social networking sites, all you need to do is click on the corresponding icon(s), log in (unless you’re already logged in) and follow the instructions to post a link to the article on your page.  It’s magic.

Some of you WordPress.com bloggers may want to know: “Hey Har, how do you get those icons at the bottom of the page?”  I use a tool called “Get Social”, which you can get here.  It’s very simple, and it’s free.  Essentially, what you do is copy the post URL into Get Social, and it spits out a code for you to insert in the HTML editor.  Quick and easy.