The Atlantic story in photos

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The more I write, especially when using social media, the more I realize how much more people respond to pictures than text. For example this photo that I posted on Facebook, which shows my Atlantic article on the front page of the Atlantic’s global section, elicited more likes than when I simply linked people to the article:
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It makes sense: the article’s super long, and folks can’t “like” the article without reading it first. Likes are easier to garner for statuses people can instantly support.

In any case, it’s been a nice last couple of days professionally (minus the horrible news of the Zimmerman trial). I want to thank you, my loyal readers, for being there for me. Many of you have helped me along the way, and are helping me get the word out about this article (hint hint: share, comment, and like away!). Your interest in my work means a lot to me.

To close things, here’s a sweet photo from my parents. They took a photo of their iPad, where my article ranked first in the global section yesterday:

View from iPad of Atlantic's global section, 7/13/13. My article's at the top!

View from iPad of Atlantic’s global section, 7/13/13.                                 My article’s at the top!

Photos and social media

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I suppose this should come as no surprise, but images seem to be way more popular on social media than text. Whenever I post a photo of somewhere I’ve been, or just a photo of an article I’ve written, I get a whole lot more “likes” than my regular, text-oriented posts.

For example I posted this photo, and it got a whole bunch of likes. It was just three words: “Old City spice.” I saw this impressive castle of spices while walking through the old city in Jerusalem and took a photo of it:

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Photos help make a message shorter: as they say, a picture is worth a 1,000 words. So photos greatly aid social media because people like messages that are easy to absorb within the status update itself. If someone can understand something and like something within one or two sentences, that’ll produce way more likes than a lengthier post, or a post that links to content the reader must consume. This is why social media platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest have become so popular.

I’m going to admit that I’m not great with social media. Does anyone have tips for how to maximize social media’s impact, especially for those of us who are writers?

Cover of the Jerusalem Post Metro!

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The article I recently published about the mixed Jewish-Arab neighborhood in Haifa made it to the cover of the Jerusalem Post Metro!

Metro Cover- Haifa's Florentin

In addition to the whole cover story thing, I took the photo on the cover, as well as the photos in the article itself. This is the first time in my professional life that I’ve gotten paid for photos, so that was a nice experience.

Haifa's Florentin Article

Thanks everyone for your interest in my work and your support. It means a lot.

Next week I have at least one, if not a few stories coming out. Stay tuned.