Ah yes. Social media. How do I use it?
For the most part, I don’t use it…at least not very much.
I was active on Facebook for almost nine years–from November 2008 to October 2017. Then, on October 5, 2017, shortly after the Las Vegas massacre, I deleted my profile. I didn’t just deactivate my profile; I deleted it and walked away from Facebook for good.
“But Facebook can be such a good tool to use to promote your business and network,” you say?
It is also a very dangerous tool, much like a circular saw. Like the circular saw, Facebook can be incredibly useful. However, also like the saw, it can hurt–very deeply.
I have been deeply hurt on Facebook by folks both known and unknown to me. I have lost friends due to Facebook posts. I have lost potential friends due to Facebook posts. I have connected on Facebook with people I really liked, only to read their posts and begin to dislike them. I know people who have had their families literally destroyed by Facebook.
What about Twitter? Yawn.
Instagram? Never used it; not interested. Snapchat? Never used it and never will because it looks so stupid.
The only social media site I use these days is LinkedIn. It took me years to learn how to create a good profile, but I am building quite a network over there. Some may say that LinkedIn is only akin to collecting baseball cards, but I know of other editors who have gotten a lot of work through it. And so I update my profile regularly and spend some time on the site every week, posting articles and parts of this blog and making sure to comment (intelligently) on other people’s posts (not every single post I come across, but the ones about which I can say something of value). If you are on LinkedIn, why not go over there now and search for my profile? Leave a comment as well; I would love to hear from you.