Letting Them Know

Introduction

I know this is a repeat subject of previous posts, but we are always getting new members on Vocal and when you come into something new, you are unaware of the effect that you may have on the situation. That is not a bad thing, we all have to learn, I think I have done on Vocal over my four years here.

The music I have included in "You've Got A Friend" by Carole King

Letting People Know

When I started on Vocal, the only way you knew that people had read your work was if they left a comment when you shared your story on the various social media groups such as these:

You could leave a heart, but that did not mean your story had been read and still doesn't. The problem is very often people think that leaving a Vocal heart supports the creator, but it doesn't really, unless you spend time reading the story. If you get a lot of hearts, you may place on the Vocal Leaderboard, but in theory, you could top the leaderboard as the most popular story and not get a single read recorded by Vocal. Unlikely but possible.

Vocal introduced notifications but they are unnecessarily flooded with publications by those you subscribe to, so it is highly unlikely you will notice that someone left a Vocal Heart.

The only way to let someone know that you have read their story is to leave a comment. While it is good to say something about the story that stuck with you, even if you just leave an emoji. If you are not sure how to do that, in the comment right click on your mouse and you get this and you can select a single emoji:

I have just found you can insert an image by copying and using Ctrl-V or Paste instead of saving then uploading. I don't think Vocal told us about this.

Just selected this random picture from the web, that is going to make putting stories together even easier.

Sorry I went off track there but that is an incredibly useful enhancement to the Vocal editor in my opinion. You know damned well this is something that I often do, but I don't think you can paste pictures into comments. That would be useful but I could see it open to serious abuse. Just tested and you can't which is probably the safest option.

Conclusion

When we write, we want to be read and share our work, and we want to know that we have been read (maybe that is just me). The thing is, if you leave a comment that is very likely to lead to a reciprocal read.

I know I can read all the stories that my friends write and I know damend well they can't read all of mine either, but if someone leaves me a comment once or twice a week then I feel very valued. There is one friend who seems to leave a supportive comment on almost all my stories, and I don't know how they find the time, I always comment on theirs but they often get top stories and lots of comments so while they don't need my support and know that my comments make them feel even more appreciated.

Thank you so much for reading this article, i hope you found something useful here.

I'll leave with this poem featuring some of my favourite Vocal Groups. If you are not a member, they are great to join to share your work, chat, and get support and grow your audience.