Social Media: What I've Learned So Far

I’m fairly new to the ~~social world of media~~ world of social media. I always knew that I wanted to write but, since the desire far outweighs the talent, I don’t feel that I can tackle writing a book at this point. So, instead, I started this blog. What I didn’t know is that I would spend more time on “other stuff” than on writing articles. Most of that “other stuff” is social media.

Now, for someone who is a bit behind the times when it comes to technology—I say a bit because to my friends I’m a tech-geek— the world of social media (and its corresponding technology) can be quite daunting. In my previous post, 5 Signs That You’re Outdated, I shared some of the ways I came to realize that I needed to update my social media and tech knowledge.

In the almost one month that has passed since I wrote that post, I’m happy to report that besides Twitter (@TheOpinionista), this blog now has a Facebook page (facebook.com/TheOpinionista), a Google+ page (Opinionista), and a Pinterest account (Pinterest.com/theopinionista)—all created by myself. Now, normally I would have put links to these pages. Wait, in the interest of full disclosure, I did, but then I thought I might actually be linking to my admin pages and, well, I broke the links—on the post and to my patience. To be honest, at this precise moment, all I want to do is to take this laptop and throw it in the waste bin.

You see, I had told myself that I would keep things simple. I would only have an RSS feed and a Twitter button on my site. This way, I could grow my audience slowly but surely, without too much pressure. But no, I had to be the usual over-achieving-tech-clueless fool who had to open as many social sites as possible, because I believed all those blogs on “How To Increase Your Blog Traffic” or “How To Get More Followers.” After reading so many of them, I must have fallen into some frigging delusional “build them and they will come” social media haze and started signing up on all these sites.

Never mind that I can’t even figure out how to put the damn “follow” buttons for Facebook and Google+ on the blog. Yes, I KNOW about the plugins and the widgets, but the buttons need to go next to the search bar like the Twitter and RSS buttons. Since I had someone else install those for me, and he’s not currently available, this is the result of my social-media-sign-up frenzy: I have 1 person who put Opinionista in her Google+ circles (God bless her soul), 3 “Likes” on Facebook—one mine, one the husband’s, one the best friend’s— and 1 follower on Pinterest. Oh, yeah, I’m social alright. F#%@ it. The first thing that I’ve learned about social media is that too often it makes me feel deeply anti-social.**

Like the time I read that in order to get more followers on Twitter THE thing to do is to start an online newspaper (paper.li is one that is highly recommended, for instance). The idea is that you put together content from different sources and make it interesting for your readers. Once you get recognized as a kick-ass “content gatherer,” they will come in droves. Right, and when exactly do I get to do this? I’m already posting, commenting, tweeting, “facebooking, google+ing and pinteresting.” When exactly am I going to have the time to write my blog articles? WHEN?

Well, that question brings us to the second thing that social media has taught me: I don’t really need to write a blog. Look, social media allows you to have a voice, be an influencer. Apparently, you can do this on Twitter in 140 characters or less and on Facebook and Google+ with a bit more characters. On Pinterest, all you need to do is pin stuff you like on boards, write in short comments and you’re all set. In fact Pinterest is so easy, so user-friendly, that as you pin, re-pin, and become influential, you also start feeling that you are much more social-media savvy, you know, more “21st centurish.”

So, what will I do next? Apparently, in order to be really social, I also need to be LinkedIn and I need to have Reddit. I need to Digg it and to have a lot of Klout. I am told I will Stumble Upon great stuff (as opposed to my usual state of just stumbling along).

In that case, forgive me if I stay a bit anti-social for a while longer as I focus on my blog.

**Update: I was finally able to connect with my IT guy (I call him God), and he was able to put up all the icons. Oh, and I now have 13 LIKES on Facebook! Starting to feel social…