A Question About Social Media

Hey Kristen,

I wondered if you would maybe do a post on the various social medias and the benefits of each for those of us who are a little challenged in that area.   I don’t have the time nor the inclination to stay on social media all day, so wondered the benefits of the various outlets.   And you always do such a good job of explaining things.   🙂

Addy

 

Sure thing!   I’m not an expert, but I can certainly give you my take and share my favorites.

Every social media platform is less time-consuming if you are careful about how many people you follow, so that’s my number one piece of advice: Limit the number of people you follow.

To minimize the time I spend on social media, I am super duper picky about how many people I follow.   I routinely unfollow/hide people if I feel like what they’re posting isn’t helpful/relevant/interesting.

As soon as my feeds start getting overwhelming/time-consuming, I give my list a once-over to clear it out.

And my other piece of advice is: be social on social media.

It is so, so easy to fall into a pattern of merely producing posts/content without showing love to other people as well.   Don’t just click a like button…leave a comment for at least one person every day! It only takes a minute, and boy, a comment brightens people’s days way more than likes do.

Facebook (me on Facebook)

This is not my most favorite platform, largely because it’s cluttered and noisy and Facebook shows me SO MUCH STUFF that I don’t want to see.

(No, I don’t care that a friend of a friend liked someone’s post.)

Also, Facebook tends to be more political and drama-filled than some other forms of social media.

So, I don’t have Facebook on my phone, and I usually just give my feed a quick scroll through on my computer once in the morning and once at night.

Except for sharing blog posts on my blog’s Facebook page, and commenting on other people’s posts, I’m a Facebook lurker.

Instagram (me on Instagram)

Instagram is my favorite social media platform by far.

I love that every post has a picture, that it’s less cluttered than Facebook, and that it tends to be a pretty positive place.   Sometimes people are mean on Instagram, but there’s a lot less ranting/complaining/politicky stuff on Instagram.

 

I’m pretty active on Instagram, so if you want more peeks into my daily life than you get here on the blog, Instagram is the place to follow me!

Twitter (me on Twitter)

Twitter posts are a bit like Facebook posts, except way shorter (140 characters!).   Twitter used to be my favorite, before I tried Instagram.   Twitter is simpler and less complicated than Facebook, which is great.

But since it has fewer pictures, I just cannot love it as much as I love Instagram.

I use Twitter a lot less now that I have Instagram. 😉

Pinterest (me on Pinterest)

Pinterest isn’t a very social form of social media, but it usually gets lumped in with the rest.   I use Pinterest to save things like recipes, craft ideas, hairstyles, and decorating ideas, but I don’t spend tons of time on it.

I am ever so grateful to those of you who pin my posts on Pinterest, though.   Thank you so much!

Periscope

Periscope is really new, and it’s a live video-streaming social media platform that only works on mobile devices (as far as I know).

I did sign up and I did a few periscopes, but you guys, I kind of have stage fright about it.   I am so so so much more comfy writing than speaking, which means Periscope is hard for me.

For now, I’ve let that one fall to the wayside, and I spend barely any time watching other people’s Periscopes.

Video isn’t my favorite medium for producing OR consuming!   I like to write my own stuff and I like to read other people’s stuff.   Watching isn’t my jam.

I’ve thought about maybe doing some live Q&A periscope sessions because that would be slightly less scary than having to talk for a while all by myself.   😉

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There are other social media platforms (Google+, for example) but here I’ve just covered the ones that I personally use.

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Readers, what are your favorite social media platforms?   Where do you like to spend your time?