Being more sociable on social media

Lately I’ve been thinking about my social media use (kind of thanks to my wife, who accuses me of spending more time with my phone than with her – which I guess is sometimes true) and I realised I’ve been spreading myself too thin.

This morning I read a post on Jane Friedman’s blog called “Beware of One-Size-Fits-All Advice for Social Media” and it made me take some long-overdue action.

The general idea of that post was to really think about the advice you’re taking on board with regards to social media and whether certain platforms fit what you do and what you want to achieve.

So I did sit down and think about it. I took stock of all the platforms I’m on and what I use them for and how often.

I currently have accounts for facebook (both a personal page as well as an author page), twitter, tumblr, instagram, wattpad, google+, linkedin and goodreads. (I think that’s all). On top of that, I have a mailing list I’m trying to grow (though not currently – those guys haven’t heard from me in a few months – sorry guys!).

When I really thought about what I used most often and why, it turned out that facebook is my absolute favourite place to be, and that’s not surprising considering it was my first foray into social media. I have more friends there than all of my other social media accounts combined and I love the interactions I have with people on there.

I’m on twitter infrequently, and even then, only really to get news about publishing and writing and sports. I don’t often tweet anything of my own on there – I tend to retweet things from other users, which is fine I guess.

Instagram is my other favourite thing, because I love posting random pictures and checking out hashtags to check out other user photos. I also post to twitter and facebook from there which is a great time-saver.

As for the other platforms (tumblr and google+ in particular), though I spent some time on them in the beginning, I’ve not made any real connections.

And therein lies the key for me I think. Readers and other authors have found me through facebook, which has allowed us to become friends over time. I don’t feel like I’m yelling into a void on facebook like I do with some of the other platforms.

So after much deliberation and thought, I’m going to make facebook my platform of choice. I’m going to close my author page there (I feel like I’m doubling up on posts when I cross-post) and I still have plenty more room for friends before I hit my personal limit.

I’ve also discovered that there’s a ‘follow’ feature that allows people to follow me rather than friend me, which is essentially the same as what they’d be doing on my author page anyway.

I’ll also be maintaining my instagram and twitter accounts, but I will eventually close my profiles on tumblr and google+. I’ll also not be signing up to any new fandangled platform that happens to pop up.

So if you want to catch me on social media, head on over to facebook and ‘follow’ me or hit me up with a friend request (be sure to add a message to your request though, as I don’t tend to accept requests from people who don’t have any mutual friends with me).

 

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