Monday, May 20, 2013

# Mild-Mannered Mondays # Post

Why I Quit Triberr Rather Than Follow Tribal Rules

Not long ago, I blogged about how I tend to be a social networking lunatic, meaning that (among other things) I tend to try every social network I hear about. That doesn't mean I stay with all of them. But sometimes you have to throw spaghetti at the wall to see if it will stick.

The latest strand of pasta to fall off the wall is triberr. After hearing glowing recommendations from an author group, I dashed over to sign up. For the uninitiated, triberr is a blog sharing site where you join groups (called tribes) of like-minded bloggers. Tribe members promote each other's posts by sharing them with their own social media followers, increasing everyone's exposure. Sounded like a whiz bang idea, and I couldn't wait to get started.

My account on triberr lasted less than five days before I deleted it.

I could blame the numerous technical difficulties I experienced in that brief time, but the truth is, that wasn't the deal breaker. The reason I quit triberr is because of rules imposed by the leaders of every tribe I was interested in. Actually, it was one rule in particular that sent me running for the door.  

"You must approve and share all member posts without exception."

Whoa, hang on a minute. So, I had to promote all posts to everyone in my Twitter feed, whether or not I felt they were well-written or appropriate? Absolutely, positively, no way in heck can I support that sheepherder mentality, and I don't advise others on social nets do so, either.

If you read my recent post about why authors shouldn't promote books on social media, you know that I am a firm proponent of giving value rather than hype to followers. Promoting someone else's post because it's a rule rather than a worthy bit of content doesn't sit well with me, and it likely won't sit well with followers. Just because someone signs up for the same tribe doesn't mean their posts will truly be unique, relevant, and interesting. At worst, this kind of blind sharing smacks of spam, which could cost followers--especially when we're talking a volume of post approvals daily (100+ for the mere three tribes I joined).

In a perfect world, joining a tribe of similar bloggers would mean every post is relevant and worth sharing, but I simply did not find this to be the case. Well over half of the posts I was expected to shout from the rooftops were either too spammy, too naughty (yes, even erotic authors have limits), or too meh for me to feel good about promoting.

I get that tribe leaders feel the "must approve all" rule is necessary to ensure fairness, but is it really true? Why should I spend time drafting thoughtful posts and engaging on social media only to to turn around and push posts I don't feel offer equal value? It's a disservice to blog quality when everyone is required to promote equally "just because". And pumping out dozens of links to posts of little relevance may soon have followers tuning out all our updates or unfollowing us altogether.

Why not allow members to approve only worthwhile posts? What better way to challenge members to put out quality content than the discovery that dull, spambot-style posts don't get shared? When the day comes that triberr members decide to go for quality rather than quantity, maybe I'll give that pasta another trial toss at the wall. Until then, I'll keep on promoting other people's blogs individually the way I always have--based on the quality of worthwhile content.

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On Mondays I gab about, well, pretty much whatever I want!

I'm J. Rose Allister, wife, working mom, and the author of over twenty-five books. Somewhere in between one and the next, I love hanging out here on my blog and over on Twitter. Give me a comment or follow-I love chatting with people! And if you enjoyed this post, consider sharing with friends and subscribing for updates.

4 comments:

  1. Hi J. Rose

    Thnx for giving Triberr a shot. We try to build Triberr in a way that is flexible enough to enable any member to build their own tribe(s) in any way they see fit.

    Perhaps sometime down the road you'll try it again and this time build your own tribe with rules you'd like to implement.

    I will say that a minority of tribes pose a strict demand on sharing and it's even more scarcely enforced. So, I'm surprised you had a hard time finding the right fit, but hey...you can always make your own tribe that will fit you like a glove :-)

    Thnx again for writing about us and giving it a try :-)

    Dino
    Founder of Triberr

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing your thoughts! Triberr is a sound idea in theory, and I applaud the concept.

      Personally, I found that every tribe relevant to what I wanted claimed to require and enforce blanket approvals. Perhaps my particular niche has an unusually high prevalence, I don't know. Since other types of tribes wouldn't fit my needs, it doesn't really matter what the rest of triberr's percentage of share rules is.

      Creating a tribe seems a logical solution, except such share rules came about because of member expectations/complaints (according to the tribes I saw with these rules). Rather than making a tribe just to deal with similar drama, it's easier for the time being to go back to the old way of finding blog gems to share.

      Should my niche wise up and decide such rules do not best serve the long run, maybe I'll give triberr another shot. For now, I prefer complete autonomy in sharing based on merit rather than affiliation.

      Delete
  2. I understand exactly what you mean. I'm on Triberr as myself and two other pen names. Writing erotica and erotic romance tends to put us in specific groups because we get bashed by other authors. I'm sure you've seen it in some of the tribes, and Dino is right. Those rules are imposed by the Tribe chiefs and some of them are just ridiculous. I thought the requirement to approve all book related posts was a good idea at first, but it's not so great when you belong to more than two tribes. It's not easy to do that with the 100 post limit.

    Oh and don't get me started on the backlash from those who don't write erotica/erotic romance complaining about the blogs and demanding the "offender" be removed from the tribe or they'll leave. I joined Triberr as a time saving tool to help promote myself and other authors. It's turned into another way to bash each other at times. So not fun.

    I was more than a little frustrated during the time they were changing over from the old to the new version and there are still a lot of issues for me. Not all of them are with the site itself, but with tribe members.

    Tammy

    ReplyDelete
  3. Assimilating your experience. I worry about my followers becoming desensitized to my posts because they view it as spam. And yes, I see the possibilities, J Rose. But I'm inclined to agree with your statement: "Until then, I'll keep on promoting other people's blogs individually the way I always have--based on the quality of worthwhile content."

    Thanks for sharing your expereince. :-)

    ReplyDelete

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