I decided to write a post about social media and me, since I have been thinking about it quite a bit this week. Why? Well LinkedIn says it is monitoring my posts and comments across my groups (about 50 of them) because something I posted was either too irrelevant or too promotional for some group or groups. (No, they don’t tell you which one).
I use social media a lot. A lot! I use it mostly for my business, although obviously I use Facebook for my other life. I love social media. Social media has given an introvert like me a way to market myself while hiding at home behind my computer!
One of my best friends (Frances Caballo) is a social media expert. I spend a great deal of time on social media for both personal and business use. Does it help sell my books? I actually don’t know, but I assume so, since that is about the extent of my current marketing plan.
There are new social media sites popping up every day….but I stick with the popular ones: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest, probably because those are the buttons my web designer (Gil Namur) put on my page. But I must tell you about some issues I have had with social media. . . .
Facebook was my first try at social media. I originally went on to follow my daughter’s travels and to see her photos. Above five or six years later, I have over 1000 friends on my personal page and over 500 likes (probably not enough work there) on my business page. I am on Facebook a lot, but I don’t pay much attention to my business page, unfortunately, although I do always post these blog entries there. A while ago I was banned from making friend requests because Facebook thought I didn’t actually know the people I was trying to “friend.” Do you really think that those people with 5,000 friends personally know all these people? In any case, I am now more careful about whom I ask to “friend.”
I noticed something very interesting (and slightly scary) very recently. You know how Facebook sprinkles ads in your newsfeed and on the side of the page — and they are usually things you recently looked for? Well, I started getting ads for Fiat 500 automobiles. Coincidentally, I had just met a man who owned a Fiat 500. It took me a while to figure out the connection. I had looked at his website a couple of times. In his exceedingly long bio, he mentioned Fiat once. That is all it took. I experimented to see if it was the viewing of the website, and it apparently was. Facebook is watching us! Very carefully! The man is gone, but Fiat is forever!
I love LinkedIn, and I think it is the best site for me and my particular business. I belong to lots of groups and, although I don’t know if it has resulted in book sales, I get lots of good comments on my blog posts. However, I already told you I am being watched there too for promoting instead of discussing. I am presenting information, but because it goes to my website, it is considered promoting. So, I spent most of the day yesterday straightening out my groups and figuring out which ones I could post to!
Google+
I can’t figure out Google+. I have about three accounts — I don’t know why. I don’t know which is which. I can’t delete one of them that is empty because it is apparently connected to my YouTube channel (no, I haven’t gotten around to using that one yet). I hear Google+ has a big learning curve. I post my blog entries there, and that is about all I can deal with. A public relations expert told me that Google+ is the most important social media site to use. I don’t think I have time for the learning curve.
I have also been told that Twitter is the best social media site for me to use. I have been told to get as many followers as possible without buying them (yes, you can buy them). I started to do this, and I gave up. To me, Twitter is just a huge bunch of stuff. There is so much on there, how can you manage it? There are zillions of apps to help you, but…..and I don’t get hashtags and sharing, and the rest of it. Yes, I use Twitter. But I don’t know why. And I really don’t know how.
Nice pictures. Not quite sure about the business value, though. I have a board with my blog posts. I have some other boards where I collect hairstyles I like and mother-of-the-bride dresses I like. And I actually do use Pinterest for something else, which I won’t mention….I am not sure if I should be…..
Oh, here’s the good one. I had never been on Instagram….ever! I knew a little bit about it….like it was mostly pictures and mostly young people (as opposed to Facebook ,which is mostly old people like me). So, one day, I am talking to my 7th grade class about something on Facebook, and a student thought I said Instagram. I told them I had never used Instagram and had never been on the site. Imagine my surprise when a student showed me on his phone that I had an account, complete with a photo, followers, comments, and people that I followed! I had my daughter get into my Instagram account, since she is a member. I saw that it was all my students from the year before who were my followers and commenters. And the photo was the same one that is on my homework site. Hmmmm……..there were no negative comments on there, but it is still illegal to impersonate someone and create an account pretending to be them. So, I gave my school administration all the kids’ names. The culprit was never found, but I have my suspicions. I reported it to Instagram, but they needed a subpoena to track down the IP address it was created from. Whoever created the account took it down when they got wind that I knew about it.
Hey, whatever happened to MySpace, anyway?????????
By now, you have probably seen the new Weird Al video “Word Crimes,” a grammar parody of Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines.” It is fabulous and is putting grammar on the map. Even CNN is talking about it and showing it. If you have’t seen it yet:
It’s always interesting to hear what other people are doing with social media. It makes me feel less anxious about what I am (or am not!) doing!
I recently came to appreciate Twitter, after many years of having an account with just one follower (my husband) and feeling, as many people do, that I just didn’t get it. I decided to try to build my follower base in advance of another novel I am hoping will come out next year. I have been trying to do this with a personal touch by directly thanking new followers. I’ve discovered that I actually enjoy crafting my presence on Twitter. I think of it like a branding platform: the things I tweet, the tweets I favorite, and conversations I have, all add up to something that will–I hope–reflect who I am and what my writing is about. And by following people and businesses who are interested in the same things I am, I discover new bits of information I might not have come across otherwise.
By the way, Twitter doesn’t allow you to self-promote in direct messages by posting urls. At first this annoyed me, but then I began thinking it’s a good idea. Who wants to get a direct message with a suspicious link?
Thank you for your comments, Audrey!k I probably don’t like Twitter because I don’t understand it. For example,I don’t even know how to thank my new followers. I am not good with # and @!!! I will once again go through my friend Francis Caballo’s Social Media Just for Writers book (highly recommended) and figure it all out!
Greetings from Beijing, Arlene:
I have suffered the same fate as you with regards to LinkedIn groups. The most maddening is LinkedIn won’t reveal the error, nor will the “offended” group manager revel what was amiss, with the exception of “Behind The Wall.” The only indication of an irrelevant post appears as a notice in blue prominently situated to the right of the posting.
How to differentiate information from promotion is becoming a key factor in the overcrowded social media area, or ecosystem, as it now called. We must stay with the new lingo otherwise we are chastised for being to old, too out of the picture, or not with it.
Hope you get rich in selling your books, Arlene.
They are worth every dollar for their clarity, wisdom, and encyclopedic knowledge contained in each.
Be well.
I thank you so much for the positive comments about my books! Much appreciated. I know. LinkedIn won’t give you a clue…I even posted to the groups asking the to just tell me if I violated their rules. I ended up going to every group and seeing where my posts ended up. Some had them in Discussions, some had put them in Promotions, and some didn’t put them anywhere, which is I guess the worst….probably called them spam. I now have a list of the groups I think are OK to post to. There is a very fine line between promotion and discussion on social media!
Hi, Arlene,
I do like LinkedIn (have to update my profile, and join more groups), and am considering making a Business Page on Facebook. I do not like the Big Brother implications of social media people monitoring what I’m doing. And as for Twitter…oh, God, I’m way behind the times. I still think of Twitterers as Twits. LindaJay
If I could I would “like” you a billion times! Well said! I’m told I have a Facebook account because I have Google+, but I use neither and have never created an account with them. Crazy world where people need perfect stranger tell them they like them to feel good.
Thanks for the comments!I don’t know about any connection between Facebook and Google+, but I do know that if you have Gmail, you automatically have a Google+account, like it or not! Our school e-mail accounts are Gmail, and some teachers were surprised to find out they suddenly had Google+ accounts with all kinds of personal info in them that they hadn’t created!
Re your “Fiat experience.” I rarely use Facebook, but there’s a college reunion coming up, so I engage with these folks. One man, a guy I knew 40 years ago, Friended me, and I then started getting suggestions to join these autism support groups. I discovered later that his brother is autistic. That’s all it took.
Wow! Amazing, isn’t it, how they are tracking us! Sneaky!!
I enjoyed reading of your experience. I’m sure there are some illegal sites out there purporting to be mine, but are not.
I also question the intrinsic value of social media. So much puffery. I sort of like the idea of having multiple social media person,through I believe what I’ve been told – no one gets rich by blogging – ha…but If you figure out a way, let me know.
Eric Silverman
Thanks for your comments. I think some people get rich my blogging, but I don’t know how….I am going to get rich by selling my books! LOL