{"id":307952,"date":"2020-05-15T14:34:07","date_gmt":"2020-05-15T21:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/?p=307952"},"modified":"2020-05-15T14:34:09","modified_gmt":"2020-05-15T21:34:09","slug":"comparing-social-media-outlets-for-developer-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/comparing-social-media-outlets-for-developer-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"Comparing Social Media Outlets for Developer Tips"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>As a little experiment, I shared a development tip on three different social networks. I also tried to post it in a format that was most suitable for that particular social network:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>On Twitter, I made it <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/css\/status\/1254791680022069253\" rel=\"noopener\">a thread<\/a>. <\/li><li>On Instagram, I made it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/B_dvKIjgLew\/\" rel=\"noopener\">a series of images<\/a>.<\/li><li>On YouTube, I made it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XFXVJBzsMCA&amp;feature=youtu.be\" rel=\"noopener\">a video<\/a>.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>How did each of them &#8220;do&#8221;? Let&#8217;s take a look. But bear in mind&#8230; <strong>this ain&#8217;t scientific<\/strong>. This is just me having a glance at <em>one isolated example<\/em> to get a feel for things across different social media sites. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"the-twitter-thread\">The Twitter Thread<\/h3>\n\n\n<details style=\"margin: 0 0 1.5rem 0;\">\n  <summary>The Tweet<\/summary>\n  <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A little journey with lists, as a &#x1f9f5; thread.<br><br>`list-style-position: outside;` is the default for lists, and is a pretty decent default. The best part about it is that both the markers *and* the content are aligned. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/CkQv1hIt6q\">pic.twitter.com\/CkQv1hIt6q<\/a><\/p>\u2014 CSS-Tricks (@css) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/css\/status\/1254791680022069253?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"noopener\">April 27, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote> <script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n<p>Twitter is probably our largest social media outlet. Despite the fact that I&#8217;ve done absolutely nothing with it this year other than auto-tweeting posts from this site (via our <a href=\"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/support\/publicize\/?aff=8638\" rel=\"noopener\">Jetpack Integration<\/a>), those tweets do just about as well as it ever did when I was writing each tweet. These numbers are bound to change, but at the time of writing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-1 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-text-color has-background ticss-a5434594\" style=\"background-color:#1da1f2;color:#ffffff\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><h4 class=\"has-text-color has-text-align-center wp-block-heading\" style=\"color:#ffffff\" id=\"views\">Views<\/h4>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">102,501<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-text-color has-background ticss-3f9f2fbc\" style=\"background-color:#1da1f2;color:#ffffff\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><h4 class=\"has-text-color has-text-align-center wp-block-heading\" style=\"color:#ffffff\" id=\"followers\">Followers<\/h4>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">~446,000<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-text-color has-background ticss-e9013cde\" style=\"background-color:#1da1f2;color:#ffffff\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><h4 class=\"has-text-color has-text-align-center wp-block-heading\" style=\"color:#ffffff\" id=\"retweets\">Retweets<\/h4>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">108<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-text-color has-background ticss-dffa165c\" style=\"background-color:#1da1f2;color:#ffffff\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><h4 class=\"has-text-color has-text-align-center wp-block-heading\" style=\"color:#ffffff\" id=\"engagements\">Engagements<\/h4>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">3,753<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-text-color has-background ticss-54bea14a\" style=\"background-color:#1da1f2;color:#ffffff\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><h4 class=\"has-text-color has-text-align-center wp-block-heading\" style=\"color:#ffffff\" id=\"likes\">Likes<\/h4>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">428 (first tweet)<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-2 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:50%\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container\"><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-3 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/css-tricks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Screen-Shot-2020-05-06-at-8.33.34-AM.png?fit=948%2C1024&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"Tweet Analytics showing 102,501 Impressions, 3,753 engagements and a few other more fine-grained stats.\" class=\"wp-image-308350\" width=\"473\" height=\"510\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/css-tricks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Screen-Shot-2020-05-06-at-8.33.34-AM.png?w=1230&amp;ssl=1 1230w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/css-tricks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Screen-Shot-2020-05-06-at-8.33.34-AM.png?resize=278%2C300&amp;ssl=1 278w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/css-tricks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Screen-Shot-2020-05-06-at-8.33.34-AM.png?resize=948%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 948w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/css-tricks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Screen-Shot-2020-05-06-at-8.33.34-AM.png?resize=768%2C829&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/css-tricks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Screen-Shot-2020-05-06-at-8.33.34-AM.png?resize=1000%2C1080&amp;ssl=1 1000w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 735px) 864px, 96vw\" \/><figcaption>Twitter provides analytics on tweets<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Going off that engagements number, a little bit less than <strong>1%<\/strong> of the followers had anything to do with it. I&#8217;d say this was a <em>very average<\/em> tweet for us, if not on the low side.<\/p>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"the-instagram-post\">The Instagram Post<\/h3>\n\n\n<details style=\"margin: 0 0 1.5rem 0;\">\n  <summary>The Post<\/summary>\n  <blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned=\"\" data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/B_dvKIjgLew\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"12\" style=\" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:540px; min-width:326px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);\"><div style=\"padding:16px;\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/B_dvKIjgLew\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" style=\" background:#FFFFFF; line-height:0; padding:0 0; text-align:center; text-decoration:none; width:100%;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> <div style=\" display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;\"> <div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;\"><\/div> <div style=\"display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;\"> <div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;\"><\/div> <div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div style=\"padding: 19% 0;\"><\/div> <div style=\"display:block; height:50px; margin:0 auto 12px; width:50px;\"><svg width=\"50px\" height=\"50px\" viewBox=\"0 0 60 60\" version=\"1.1\" xmlns=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" xmlns:xlink=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\"><g stroke=\"none\" stroke-width=\"1\" fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><g transform=\"translate(-511.000000, -20.000000)\" fill=\"#000000\"><g><path d=\"M556.869,30.41 C554.814,30.41 553.148,32.076 553.148,34.131 C553.148,36.186 554.814,37.852 556.869,37.852 C558.924,37.852 560.59,36.186 560.59,34.131 C560.59,32.076 558.924,30.41 556.869,30.41 M541,60.657 C535.114,60.657 530.342,55.887 530.342,50 C530.342,44.114 535.114,39.342 541,39.342 C546.887,39.342 551.658,44.114 551.658,50 C551.658,55.887 546.887,60.657 541,60.657 M541,33.886 C532.1,33.886 524.886,41.1 524.886,50 C524.886,58.899 532.1,66.113 541,66.113 C549.9,66.113 557.115,58.899 557.115,50 C557.115,41.1 549.9,33.886 541,33.886 M565.378,62.101 C565.244,65.022 564.756,66.606 564.346,67.663 C563.803,69.06 563.154,70.057 562.106,71.106 C561.058,72.155 560.06,72.803 558.662,73.347 C557.607,73.757 556.021,74.244 553.102,74.378 C549.944,74.521 548.997,74.552 541,74.552 C533.003,74.552 532.056,74.521 528.898,74.378 C525.979,74.244 524.393,73.757 523.338,73.347 C521.94,72.803 520.942,72.155 519.894,71.106 C518.846,70.057 518.197,69.06 517.654,67.663 C517.244,66.606 516.755,65.022 516.623,62.101 C516.479,58.943 516.448,57.996 516.448,50 C516.448,42.003 516.479,41.056 516.623,37.899 C516.755,34.978 517.244,33.391 517.654,32.338 C518.197,30.938 518.846,29.942 519.894,28.894 C520.942,27.846 521.94,27.196 523.338,26.654 C524.393,26.244 525.979,25.756 528.898,25.623 C532.057,25.479 533.004,25.448 541,25.448 C548.997,25.448 549.943,25.479 553.102,25.623 C556.021,25.756 557.607,26.244 558.662,26.654 C560.06,27.196 561.058,27.846 562.106,28.894 C563.154,29.942 563.803,30.938 564.346,32.338 C564.756,33.391 565.244,34.978 565.378,37.899 C565.522,41.056 565.552,42.003 565.552,50 C565.552,57.996 565.522,58.943 565.378,62.101 M570.82,37.631 C570.674,34.438 570.167,32.258 569.425,30.349 C568.659,28.377 567.633,26.702 565.965,25.035 C564.297,23.368 562.623,22.342 560.652,21.575 C558.743,20.834 556.562,20.326 553.369,20.18 C550.169,20.033 549.148,20 541,20 C532.853,20 531.831,20.033 528.631,20.18 C525.438,20.326 523.257,20.834 521.349,21.575 C519.376,22.342 517.703,23.368 516.035,25.035 C514.368,26.702 513.342,28.377 512.574,30.349 C511.834,32.258 511.326,34.438 511.181,37.631 C511.035,40.831 511,41.851 511,50 C511,58.147 511.035,59.17 511.181,62.369 C511.326,65.562 511.834,67.743 512.574,69.651 C513.342,71.625 514.368,73.296 516.035,74.965 C517.703,76.634 519.376,77.658 521.349,78.425 C523.257,79.167 525.438,79.673 528.631,79.82 C531.831,79.965 532.853,80.001 541,80.001 C549.148,80.001 550.169,79.965 553.369,79.82 C556.562,79.673 558.743,79.167 560.652,78.425 C562.623,77.658 564.297,76.634 565.965,74.965 C567.633,73.296 568.659,71.625 569.425,69.651 C570.167,67.743 570.674,65.562 570.82,62.369 C570.966,59.17 571,58.147 571,50 C571,41.851 570.966,40.831 570.82,37.631\"><\/path><\/g><\/g><\/g><\/svg><\/div><div style=\"padding-top: 8px;\"> <div style=\" color:#3897f0; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:550; line-height:18px;\"> View this post on Instagram<\/div><\/div><div style=\"padding: 12.5% 0;\"><\/div> <div style=\"display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;\"><div> <div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);\"><\/div> <div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;\"><\/div> <div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);\"><\/div><\/div><div style=\"margin-left: 8px;\"> <div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;\"><\/div> <div style=\" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg)\"><\/div><\/div><div style=\"margin-left: auto;\"> <div style=\" width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);\"><\/div> <div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);\"><\/div> <div style=\" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/a> <p style=\" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/B_dvKIjgLew\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" style=\" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">There are alignment things to consider with lists like an &lt;ol&gt;. The markers and the content. Outside positioning does well. But it uses the edge of the box as alignment and renders markers outside the box which can be bad for getting cut off. There is a solution with custom counters and subgrid though!<\/a><\/p> <p style=\" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;\">A post shared by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/real_css_tricks\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" style=\" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Chris Coyier<\/a> (@real_css_tricks) on <time style=\" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;\" datetime=\"2020-04-27T00:44:08+00:00\">Apr 26, 2020 at 5:44pm PDT<\/time><\/p><\/div><\/blockquote> <script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n<p>Instagram is by far the smallest of our social media outlets, being newer and not something I stay particularly active or consistent on. No auto-posting there just yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-4 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:25%\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-very-dark-gray-background-color has-text-color has-background ticss-845e9dd4\" style=\"color:#ffffff\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><h4 class=\"has-text-color has-text-align-center wp-block-heading\" style=\"color:#ffffff\" id=\"followers\">Followers<\/h4>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">~2,800<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-very-dark-gray-background-color has-text-color has-background ticss-845e9dd4\" style=\"color:#ffffff\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><h4 class=\"has-text-color has-text-align-center wp-block-heading\" style=\"color:#ffffff\" id=\"likes\">Likes<\/h4>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">308<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-very-dark-gray-background-color has-text-color has-background ticss-845e9dd4\" style=\"color:#ffffff\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><h4 class=\"has-text-color has-text-align-center wp-block-heading\" style=\"color:#ffffff\" id=\"reached\">Reached<\/h4>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">2,685<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/css-tricks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/IMG_3047.png?fit=473%2C1024&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-308351\" width=\"397\" height=\"859\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/css-tricks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/IMG_3047.png?w=1125&amp;ssl=1 1125w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/css-tricks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/IMG_3047.png?resize=139%2C300&amp;ssl=1 139w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/css-tricks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/IMG_3047.png?resize=473%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 473w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/css-tricks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/IMG_3047.png?resize=768%2C1663&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/css-tricks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/IMG_3047.png?resize=709%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 709w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/css-tricks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/IMG_3047.png?resize=946%2C2048&amp;ssl=1 946w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/css-tricks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/IMG_3047.png?resize=1000%2C2165&amp;ssl=1 1000w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 735px) 864px, 96vw\" \/><figcaption>Instagram provides analytics (&#8220;insights&#8221;) on posts.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Using Reach, that&#8217;s <strong>96% of the followers<\/strong>. That&#8217;s pretty incredible compared t 1% of followers on Twitter. Although, on Twitter. I can easily put URLs to tweets and send people places, where my only options on Instagram are &#8220;check out the link in my profile&#8221; or use a swipe-up thing in an Instagram Story. So, despite the high engagement of Instagram, I&#8217;m mostly just getting the satisfaction of teaching something as well as a little brand awareness. It&#8217;s much harder for me to get you to directly do something from Instagram.<\/p>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"the-youtube-video\">The YouTube Video<\/h3>\n\n\n<details style=\"margin: 0 0 1.5rem 0;\">\n  <summary>The Video<\/summary>\n  <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XFXVJBzsMCA\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n<p>YouTube is in the middle for us, much bigger than Instagram but not as big as Twitter. YouTube is a little unique in that there can be (and are) advertising directly on the videos and that get&#8217;s a &#8220;revenue share&#8221; from YouTube. That&#8217;s very much not driving motivation for using YouTube (I make 50 cents a day, but it is unique compared to the others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-5 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-text-color has-background ticss-fc39dab1\" style=\"background-color:#ff0000;color:#ffffff\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><h4 class=\"has-text-color has-text-align-center wp-block-heading\" style=\"color:#ffffff\" id=\"subscribers\">Subscribers<\/h4>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">51,300<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-text-color has-background ticss-4f9ce406\" style=\"background-color:#ff0000;color:#ffffff\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><h4 class=\"has-text-color has-text-align-center wp-block-heading\" style=\"color:#ffffff\" id=\"likes\">Likes<\/h4>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">116<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-text-color has-background ticss-c4400308\" style=\"background-color:#ff0000;color:#ffffff\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><h4 class=\"has-text-color has-text-align-center wp-block-heading\" style=\"color:#ffffff\" id=\"views\">Views<\/h4>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">2,455<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1870\" height=\"1096\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/css-tricks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Screen-Shot-2020-05-07-at-6.26.49-AM.png?fit=1024%2C600&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"YouTube analytics page showing 2.4K views, 192.8 hours of watch time, and a chart showing a graph that this video has more views than typical over time.\" class=\"wp-image-308450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/css-tricks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Screen-Shot-2020-05-07-at-6.26.49-AM.png?w=1870&amp;ssl=1 1870w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/css-tricks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Screen-Shot-2020-05-07-at-6.26.49-AM.png?resize=300%2C176&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/css-tricks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Screen-Shot-2020-05-07-at-6.26.49-AM.png?resize=1024%2C600&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/css-tricks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Screen-Shot-2020-05-07-at-6.26.49-AM.png?resize=768%2C450&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/css-tricks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Screen-Shot-2020-05-07-at-6.26.49-AM.png?resize=1536%2C900&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/css-tricks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Screen-Shot-2020-05-07-at-6.26.49-AM.png?resize=1000%2C586&amp;ssl=1 1000w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 735px) 864px, 96vw\" \/><figcaption>YouTube provides video analytics<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"facebook\">Facebook?<\/h3>\n\n\n<p>We do have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CSSTricks\/\" rel=\"noopener\">a Facebook page<\/a> but it&#8217;s the most neglected of all of them. We auto-post new articles to it, but this experiment didn&#8217;t really have a blog post. I published <a href=\"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/video-screencasts\/185-inside-aligned-lists\/\">the video to our site<\/a>, but that doesn&#8217;t get auto-posted to Facebook, so the tip never made it there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I used to feel a little guilty about not taking as much advantage of Facebook as I could, but whenever I look at overall analytics, I&#8217;m reminded that all of social media accounts combine for <strong>~2%<\/strong> of traffic to this site. Spending any more time on this stuff is foolish for me, when that time could be spent on content for this site and information architecture for what we already have. And for Facebook specifically, whatever time we have spent there has never seemed to pan out. Just not a hive for developers.<\/p>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"codepen\">CodePen?<\/h3>\n\n\n<p>I probably should have factored CodePen into this more, since it&#8217;s something of a social network itself with similar metrics. I worked on the examples in CodePen and the whole video was done in CodePen. But in this case, it was more about the journey than the destination. I did ultimately <a href=\"https:\/\/codepen.io\/chriscoyier\/pen\/mdemZaw\" rel=\"noopener\">link to a demo<\/a> at the end of the Twitter thread, but Instagram can&#8217;t link to it and I wasn&#8217;t as compelled to link to it on YouTube as the video itself to me was the important information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If I was trying to compare CodePen stats here, I would have created the Pen in a step-by-step educational format so I could deliver the same idea. That actually sounds fun and I should probably still do that!<\/p>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"winner\">Winner?<\/h3>\n\n\n<p>Eh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The problem is that there isn&#8217;t anything particularly useful to measure. What would have been way more interesting is if I had some really important <strong>call to action<\/strong> in each one where I&#8217;m like trying to sell you something or get you to sign up for something or whatever. I feel like that&#8217;s the real world of developer marketing. You gotta do 100 things for someone for free if you want them to do something for you on that 101st time. And on the 101st time, you should probably measure it somehow to see if the effort is worth it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s the very basic data together though&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><thead><tr><th><\/th><th>Followers<\/th><th>Engagements<\/th><th>%<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Twitter<\/strong><\/td><td>~446,000<\/td><td>3,753<\/td><td>0.08%<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Instagram<\/strong><\/td><td>~2,800<\/td><td>2,685<\/td><td>96%<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>YouTube<\/strong><\/td><td>~51,300<\/td><td>2,455<\/td><td>5%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>One interesting thing is that I find the effort was about equal for all of them. You&#8217;d think a video would be hardest, but at least that&#8217;s just hit-record-hit-stop and minor editing. The other formats take longer to craft with custom text and graphics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These would be my takeaways from this limited experiment:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>You need big numbers on Twitter to do much.<\/strong> That&#8217;s because the engagement is pretty low.<strong> <\/strong>Still, it&#8217;s probably our best outlet for getting people to click a link and do something. <\/li><li><strong>Instagram has amazing engagement, but it&#8217;s hard to send anyone anywhere.<\/strong> It&#8217;s still no wonder why people use it. You really do reach your audience there. If you had a strong call to action, I bet you could still get people do to it even with the absence of links (since people know how to search for stuff on the web). <\/li><li><strong>While I mentioned that for this example the effort level was fairly even, in general, YouTube is going to require much higher effort.<\/strong> Video production just isn&#8217;t the same as farting out a couple of words or a screenshot. With that, and knowing that you&#8217;d need absolutely massive numbers to earn anything directly from YouTube, it&#8217;s pretty similar to other social networks in that you need to derive value from it abstractly.<\/li><li><strong>This was not an idea that &#8220;went viral&#8221; in any sense.<\/strong> This is just standard-grade engagement, which was <em>good<\/em> for this experiment. I&#8217;m always super surprised at the type of developer tips that go viral. It&#8217;s always something I don&#8217;t expect, and often something I&#8217;m like <em>awwwww we have an article about that too! <\/em>I&#8217;d never <em>bet<\/em> on or expect anything going viral. Making stuff that your normal audience likes is the ticket.<\/li><li><strong>Being active is pretty important. <\/strong>Any chart I&#8217;ve seen has big peaks when posts go out regularly and valleys when they don&#8217;t. Post regularly = riding the peaks.<\/li><li><strong>None of this compares anywhere close to the real jewel of making things: blogging.<\/strong> Blogging is where you have full control and full benefit. The most important thing social media can do is get people over to your own site. <\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a little experiment, I shared a development tip on three different social networks. I also tried to post it in a format that was most suitable for that particular social network: On Twitter, I made it a thread. On Instagram, I made it a series of images. On YouTube, I made it a video. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":310132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"sig_custom_text":"","sig_image_type":"featured-image","sig_custom_image":0,"sig_is_disabled":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"c2c_always_allow_admin_comments":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[4],"tags":[604,921],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/css-tricks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/twitter-instagram-youtube.png?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"featured_media_src_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/css-tricks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/twitter-instagram-youtube.png?fit=1024%2C512&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307952"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307952"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310115,"href":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307952\/revisions\/310115"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/css-tricks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}