Social Media

In today's society, it is hard to escape from the influences of Social Media, and yes I am aware of the irony that this blog is a type of social media. Evolving from forums and chat rooms, it has become so much more than its initial conception of a place to find friends and post amusing images. But is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Just think about it for a second. There was no real social media (as we currently understand it) until the invention of smartphones. Now I'm not bashing mobile phones/cell phones because it's a useful piece of technology. What I mean is we don't go anywhere without our phones and as a result our access to social media. We sit on the bus looking at our phones, in waiting rooms, when we're bored, at the dinner table, and even when we're watching television. Now I am completely guilty of this too (except for at the dinner table), but is this an obsessive nature of not wanting to be left out.

I remember reading a short article about talking to a friend online, and yet if we were to pass them on the street we wouldn't say hello. In fact, some people even try to ensure that the other person doesn't see them so they don't have to engage in awkward small talk. What does this say about our online friendships and interactions? Do we prefer the impersonal connections social media can engender; no matter how convivial, compared to conversing physically? Maybe yes, maybe no, and maybe both.

I am guilty of most of the above, due to becoming ever so slightly isolationist, but I am working to remedy that side of myself. But social media does have its advantages and benefits. It allows you to stay in contact with friends around the world, share memories, arrange events and get-togethers, and more. But it is now more than that, so much more. It is a place to promote, advertise, showcase projects and work. People make their living from blogging, advertising for companies, playing games, creating whole video series on youtube. Where and how does someone hope to break through into this industry?

For myself I prefer to focus on imagery and writing; I don't have the face or voice for video; in my opinion, or a likely topic for a youtube or podcast series. So blogging is the route for me, but how do I use social media effectively to try to push my content out into the world? Every time I write a post, I post the link through my twitter, Instagram and Facebook page. Now going by my follower counts for each media, Instagram has the highest, Twitter second and then Facebook last. So where do I focus my attention in attempting to promote my content? Do I concentrate where I have the higher following or on the lower base?

The next issue is content. Normally when I make a post, I post the same on each media to spread it as far and as wide as I can, and mostly it's just a picture with an amusing comment, or a picture, description and a link to an article or blog. It depends upon the content available on each media. Facebook has the advantage where I can share from anywhere to my page, and the same with twitter. However twitter often posts the link without the accompanying picture, and Instagram requires an additional app to be able to do this.

Thirdly, how many hashtags is too many hashtags? If you post without using hashtags, the only people who will see it is the people who follow your account. Maybe more if it is shared or retweeted by one of your followers. However, add a hashtag and now the image becomes searchable and available to a wider audience when they are searching for a particular topic. So it would follow that the more tags you use, the wider the net you cast to attract more followers to past and future content. But what tags to use? You use those associated with the image or post content, but what if you use some that aren't associated with it? You cast an even wider net, but is it under false pretences, false advertising? Sometimes it is effective, but where do you draw the line?

Personally, my tags are always associated with what my content is about. Now talking personally, Facebook is for me is a bit of a glorified forum, I have followers there, but the majority if not all of them are my friends, and to be honest there is little interaction or back and forth. Twitter, where I have more unassociated followers, I get fewer likes but maybe more post-interaction. Now the majority of my activities on twitter consist of liking and commenting on friends posts, retweeting for competitions, and retweeting things that interest or amuse me, along with promoting my own blog posts. Instagram, where I have my most followers generally consists of pictures I've come across trawling the net and other social media, liking and following other "content creators". My most popular post was one on an ambiguous math equation with 89 comments debating which answer is the correct one. I had other users commenting and claiming that they are right and others are wrong and dumb (people can be mean online, it arises from the anonymity).

My actual content focuses around situational irony, sci-fi, selective gaming, by blog, movies and to be honest anything that catches my eye at the moment. So it is a bit disjointed, but it is my kind of disjointed. So where do I go from here? Do I keep being me and play to my strengths (even though it's disjointed), or pander to a possible larger audience with content that appeals to them and less to myself. To me the answer is obvious, stay true to myself. Post what interests me, otherwise, it becomes more of a chore.

Ha! Maybe I just need to buy Social Media for Dummies and go from there. I think this post has probably gone on for long enough and is probably a great example of my disjointedness (not a real word). Do I dislike social media or not? The answer is Yes. I think it is a great thing, but we do need to disconnect sometimes. I know, rich coming from someone using it to pass along my thoughts. But that is it, I'm now done.

Thanks for reading if you managed to make it this far, and leave a message with any advice or comments that come to mind and as always...

Catch you later!