1 Write Way

In Over My Head … With Social Networking

To start off this post, please vote in the poll here and then read my post.  Please also share by reblogging, tweeting, etc.  Thanks a bunch 🙂

I think I’ve gotten in over my head. Maybe because I’m such an introvert, I think that having multiple social media accounts is going to make me popular. It could make me a pest. I’m always wondering if I have gone overboard, or if I have a good balance of accounts, or if I’m lacking. Here’s are the social media I have accounts and why:

1. WordPress: Well, this is a no-brainer. It’s my platform, my soap-box, my “self-publishing” vehicle. It’s given balance to my marriage (now I no longer complain when my husband wants to go out star-gazing. His absence is my opportunity to write).

2. Facebook: I only started a Facebook account once I realized that that was where all the pictures of my grandniece and grandnephews were going. More than half of my FB “friends” are relatives (I have a lot of cousins, really A LOT of cousins) and we’re pretty spread out geographically so I don’t feel I can let go. And then I got a FB page for myself. If you want to see it, just click on the Like button to the right of this post. PLEASE! Click on the damn Like Button! I know something truly amazing will happen once I get more Likes! FB promised me that I could do more (although I don’t have a clue what that more is).

3. Twitter: I started twitting (I know, it’s “tweeting” but I like “twitting”) a few years ago, got bored with the endless chatter about what everyone had for dinner and dropped out. But I’ve dropped back in and I think I’m getting the hang of it. I’m following a lot of indie publishers, self-published authors, and the such.  I really enjoy promoting other writers and artists.  If that’s all I do on Twitter, then right now that’s good enough for me.

4. LinkedIn: This has kind of been an albatross for me. Again, I joined a few years ago, thinking I would eventually find it useful for future job searches. But my account (and network) is currently geared toward my daytime work. I recently adjusted my profile to include my blogging as an occupation (a change which caused some in my network to think I had actually changed jobs).

5. Red Room: Now Red Room is something that my fellow writers may want to check out. It’s free and you can post stories, articles, etc. as well as your blog. Unfortunately, it doesn’t interface with WordPress, so I have to remember to copy and paste my blog posts.

6. Tumblr: Because I can send my blog posts directly to Tumblr as I can to FB and LinkedIn and Twitter. I haven’t been very active on Tumblr.  It’s not very easy to navigate and find people to follow, but when I do make the effort, it seems that Tumblr bloggers will reciprocate.

7. Google+: This is a frustrating one for me. On the one hand, Google+ allows you to create “circles” and you can select what you share with which circles. Sort of like the Groups feature on FB but easier. On the other hand, users seem to prefer that their Google+ connections comment on their original blogs (WordPress or Blogspot), not on Google+. And like StumbleUpon, I have to go back to my post and “share” it to Google+.

8.  And now, to add to this soup of media connections, I’ve signed up for Klout.  Undoubtedly, this will be just another way for me to agitate over my scores, my “popularity,” quantity over quality.  I read about Klout through Randy Ross’s blog The Loneliest Planet.  Randy provides a rundown of his social media accounts as well.  His Klout score (at the time of his post) was averaging at 53.  With just my Twitter account, Klout put me at 45 and I don’t have anywhere near the following that Randy does.  So this will be interesting.  Klout will take 24-48 hours to compile all my data and come up with a new score.  I’ll let you all know if I turn out to have as high as a score as my President 😉

I’m attracted to this sort of data mining because I am a nerd at heart.  Recently at my day job, I figured out how to write a stratified random sampling query in SQL Server 2005.  You’d think I had won the lottery I was so excited over this.  I guess you had to be there.

So what social media accounts you have?  Do you actively engage in all of them, or just some of them?  Outside of your blog, which ones, if any, have you found to be the most useful?  Nerdy minds want to know 😉

Marie A Bailey

,
, , , , , , , , , ,

44 responses to “In Over My Head … With Social Networking”

  1. Different accounts are for different purposes. I use LinkedIn only for professional stuff. Twitter just keeps me up on things like news, my daughter, some of the fashion industry and again some professional stuff. You have to learn that Twitter moves quickly. I see snapshots…not everything. I hate Google+. It just never took off among my friends like I thought it would. I have an account but rarely look at it and never post there. MySpace is much like Google+ to me. I spend most of my time and energy personally on Facebook. Probably too much time LOL! But it has been a great place to connect with friends and family. WordPress is a different kind of social connection. My two faves are FB and WP.

    I really dislike it when connections post exactly the same thing on a personal FB page, a business FB page, Twitter, LinkedIn, WP, etc. They are different groups and audiences. Be original. It takes time but if you don’t have time, pick one or two you can concentrate on.

    A friend wrote a great Social Media primer. Great reading if you are trying to sort it out.

    Like

    • Thanks, Pamela, for your comment and the link to the primer. I do have my WP blog posts connect directly to most of my accounts, and I’ve wondered if that is annoying for some people. But WordPress is my base and some of my “followers” only follow me on Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn and so they wouldn’t know of my posts without that direct connection. Still, there’s a feeling I have of being spread too thin with social media. As long as I have limited time to spend, it feels like a problem, although I’m hesitant to cancel any of my accounts. Thanks again for the link to your friend’s book. I need all the help I can get 🙂

      Like

  2. Thanks Pamela and Marie. I don’t feel so alone. It can be isolating the time spent on social media even though you are constantly engaged with others. I had a lot vested in Linked In when I was working in Nursing and doing Legal Nurse Consulting work. Since becoming an Independent Contractor in the Wellness industry I have pulled my profile and never went back to update it. (I did but ran into technical glitches that I could not get resolved. Apparently they won’t transfer your CV when you open a new account. I don’t really care, because I don’t do much in Nursing anymore but I wanted my nursing experience up there.)
    Facebook was something that I started years ago at the beginning FB for sharing pics with family. i have my blog linked to it now, but I think it might be a nuisance to some of my friends there who are tired of hearing about my book on my personal page. i have an author page, but whenever anything posts to my author page (like my blog as well as my posts) it automatically posts to my personal page. Goodreads is a select audience of readers and writers. Directed more as a place for readers to connect with other readers, but giving writers some authority to promote, I have found that as a promotional platform, it is one of the best. You can actually be rather passive and still get a lot of attention just by joining a few groups like Making Connections, where authors and writers share ideas through various threads. It is another place for your reviews to shine once you start publishing. I know that you can link your blog to it and do a lot more with it than I am doing, but it is all so very time consuming to keep up with and remain actively engaged in a web presence. I did away with everything else as I felt myself spreading too thin, but I may pick back up with twitter, don’t know yet, never really got the hang of it. Seemed pointless.

    Like

    • Thanks, Susan. I forgot to mention Goodreads. I have an account there. So far I’m just using it to leave reviews of books. I’ve grown to really like Twitter. Granted, I spend most of my time retweeting, but 99% of the people I follow have interesting tweets, relevant to writing and self-publishing. I need to do as Pamela suggested, get with Hootsuite and try to schedule stuff. It would probably make me feel a little less harried 😉

      Like

  3. Hi Marie – I’m back from the land of the writing dead, so I thought I’d contribute.

    I’m pretty much an introvert too, so some of the social networking is a mystery to me. I like twitter because it is short bits of information to share and I like that. I link my Twitter to my FB page for the D/A Dialogues. I link my WordPress page DA Dialogues to Tumblr, and then because only 15 of my FB friends are paying attention to the DA FB page, I share some of my DA FB posts on my regular Facebook page. If they’re really not interested, there are ways to avoid seeing it. I only really have time to do about 5 tweets a day and a half hour or so of FB – otherwise it’s a time drain and I don’t get anything else done. So I try to maximize the impact and get it in front of as many eyes as possible. Then I’m gone until the next day (Unless I’m really feeling like I need to procrastinate… like today! 😉 )!

    I actually like seeing the posts of the blogs I follow on Facebook, just in case I haven’t managed to weed through all my emails. It’s a good trigger, and I know that by my liking it, it gets even more exposure (not that much because I don’t have that many connections, but still). Still trying to figure out the Linked-in thing. The book Pamela linked looks great. I might have to invest in that.

    Like

    • Thanks, Katie. I have my blog posts go to Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Facebook page. From the FB page, the posts go to twitter. I understand Pamela’s point about each social medium having a different audience, but I have found that some followers seem to prefer reading my posts through FB than WordPress, so I don’t expect to make any changes right now. I also want to get the book she recommended too. Someday I’ll have a book to peddle and I’ll need the help 🙂

      Like

  4. Reblogged this on The D/A Dialogues and commented:
    A: Some interesting thoughts on the ways in which we network online. In this regard, I’m a neophyte!
    D: Just in this regard? Really, A?
    A: Wow, it’s just so . . . good . . . to be back, feeling the cantankerous love. Sigh.

    Like

  5. I use WordPress as my primary platform. I have WordPress set to post to my Twitter and Twitter set to post to my FaceBook.

    I have no idea what Google+ is supposed to do. It kind of feels like one of those gadgets advertised on late night TV that Dices! and Slices! and Makes Mounds Of Julian Fries! but once you get it home it just sits in cupboard and gathers dust.

    Like

    • Oh, that is a great analogy! I just haven’t had time to look deeper into Google+. The upside is I have found bloggers through Google+ that I can follow and who follow me back, but it still seems kind of convoluted. Thanks for commenting!

      Like

  6. I use WordPress (duh!), Facebook, and Twitter. WordPress is the best, hands down. I joined a FB writer’s group, which is fun. And then I have my twitter account linked to my blog.

    Like

    • I think these are the key three social mediums: your blogging platform and then Facebook and Twitter. The others might get you a bit more at the margins, but I don’t know if the effort is worth it (plus having to keep track of all those account logins and passwords). Thanks for commenting, Briana 🙂

      Like

  7. I gave up the facebook account. It only made me feel more alienated because friends and family didn’t seem interested in my creative work. I liked to see pix of what everyone was up to but, overall, it only depressed me. That’s what I love about wordpress: you find supportive, fellow creatives who are willing to share, support and offer meaningful comments.

    Like

    • I often wish I hadn’t opened a Facebook account for the very reasons you mention. But the pictures of the kids is what keeps me there, as least as far as having a personal account. No one in my family and few of my friends are interested in my writing. It’s always been like that.
      I am very happy with WordPress and the generous, supportive community I’ve found here. It definitely compensates for the din of silence I get from other venues 🙂

      Like

  8. I am very confused on how to use Face Book. I have about 40 friends and have not done a good job in attracting more. I have a “Like Me” widget on WP but so far no one has used it. I think I will start posting links (great Idea) and see what happens. Great post!!!!!

    Like

    • Thanks, John! I’ve gotten a boost in my FB likes from joining the World Literary Cafe. Basically, you like someone’s FB page and then they reciprocate. It took me a while to get the hang of it though. You have to like someone with your personal Facebook account, otherwise the Likes don’t count. I find it awkward to have to juggle two Facebook accounts, but maybe someday it will pay off 😉

      Like

  9. Great post, Marie. I’m pretending that I’m at cafeteria and tasting a little bit of everything. I’ll go back and fill my plate on whatever tastes the best:>)
    That made me hungry. Lunch time!
    Patti

    Like

  10. Great post! I laughed out loud to “click the damn like button”. 🙂
    It’s all just overwhelming, isn’t it? Your review was helpful – thanks!

    Like

  11. I started into social media when i started my blog to get a platform for my book. I’ve been doing it for several months now, and I’m barely to the point where I don’t feel as overwhelmed. It’s a crazy road, for sure.

    Like

  12. Shoot, Marie, I should have mentioned this post in the one I wrote today about the same topic. It’s great to see that the consensus appears to be that the whole concept is Looney Tunes. 😉

    Like

  13. I have a WordPress blog, I’m on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads (though I haven’t done much with that), and Linked-in. I signed up for Pinterest, but my computer is so old, the boards load verrrrrrrry slowly. Twitter and Facebook are the most useful.

    Like

    • Thank you for your comment. So far, it seems like Facebook and Twitter are the most utilized outside of one’s blogging platform. I have a Pinterest account, too, but am not very active on it. My computer is not so old, but it still does load slowly.

      Like

  14. What a great debate. I use WordPress, Twitter and Facebook although most of my stuff is done on WordPress and linked to FB and Twitter. I have no idea what I am doing with Goodreads or Google + although I have accounts for both of them. I’ve not ventured anywhere near LinkedIn or Pinterest or any of the others. I really don’t know about social media and its benefits. The problem I have is that it takes up such a massive chunk of time just to keep up to date on here, let alone writing the posts etc… and I can’t imagine how I would go about managing all of the accounts mentioned above. It would be really useful to know how successful others find social media in our line of work and if we are spending too much or not enough time on it to reap the rewards. Really brilliant post – and don’t get me started on having to remember all the logins and passwords! Lol. 🙂

    Like

    • Thanks for mentioning the logins and passwords, Jade! Having to remember all those accounts, much less post separately to them, overwhelms me. Kevin Brennan also posted about social media earlier this week (I think July 22) so check out his blog for another take. I’m seeing more people say that these accounts can be great for developing a community, but not so great for book promotion. I have “found” people through these different accounts that I want to follow, that I wouldn’t have found with WordPress alone, so for now I’m maintaining all my accounts. How long I can keep that up, in a meaningful way, is anybody’s guess 😉 Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Like

  16. I have been surfing on-line greater than 3 hours today, yet I by no means discovered any
    interesting article like yours. It is lovely worth enough for me.
    Personally, if all webmasters and bloggers made excellent content as you did, the net will probably be
    much more useful than ever before.

    Like