Thursday, July 14, 2011

Is It Better to Contract or Expand?

A couple of weeks ago, I broke down and joined Twitter. Feel free to follow me...

My main motivation for this was the thought that maybe I could promote my Etsy store on there after I beef it up a little. And maybe someday, promote a book I write. I also felt a sort of duty to my job to round out my grasp of social media. Everyone is tweeting now, everyone is liking everything on Facebook.

The problem with adding another site to my collection of online endeavors is that I now have yet another time sucker to keep me from writing (or blogging or giving scalp massages to my new groom). And it has me wondering whether it's smart to expand all this Internet stuff—indulging hobbies on Etsy, documenting life on the blog, socializing with old friends on Facebook—or if I would be wise to simplify. Contract. Decrease.

I appreciate social media as a marketing tool. But in my effort to embrace social outlets, I'm worried I'm going to keep myself so occupied, I'll never actually have anything to market there.

So I'm wondering where you all net out with this stuff. A lot of you blog. Do you lose hours on Facebook? Do you tweet? And if you do it all, do you find it hard to balance? Is less more here or do I need to widen my perspective?

11 comments:

Nilsa @ SoMi Speaks said...

Here's my thing about social media. It definitely has a place. But, there is so much darn overlap now that it's just too much. Google + overlaps with Facebook overlaps with Twitter overlaps with blogging overlaps with Tumblr overlaps with Flickr overlaps with instagram. When does it end? Heaven help me or someone shoot me.

Right now, I regularly blog and use Facebook to keep up with friends. I also have a Flickr account where I store most of my photos, but do not share it on other social media sites.

Just the other day, Sweets and I were talking about some ground rules at home ... like, leaving our phones in a different room during dinner, because otherwise, we're gonna raise a kid who doesn't talk to us, because all we do is message each other on FB and respond with a text.

HunnerWoof said...

Divorcing facebook was the best thing I've done in a long time. And, I have no intention of ever becoming a Twit. While I can recognize some value in the marketing aspects, I also see it as a double edged sword. It seems these days every idiot with a computer or handheld device and a Twitter account can disproportionately and unfairly affect a company (just look at Delta and the anit-Semitic stuff recently...all untrue). Personally, I think everyone needs to calm the f**k down and get disconnected a little. Take a walk. Go relax at the beach and read a book. Get a damn life.

LesleyG said...

I just had a friend quit Facebook this morning. She was one to share a lot (not, like, "my dog just peed" a lot, but a lot of life detail) and I think it took it's toll on her. When you put something on the Internet, you are opening it up for judgement, plain and simple.

So.

My opinion on the Expand vs. Contract debate is---and I can't help but think of a waistband, so I'm going with it--- you have to stay at what is a healthy size for you. Yeah, just like a diet commercial would say. But, in the case of life offered up for the public, I think it's accurate. For some, letting it all hang out is not an issue. For me, I let it out in pretty controlled, thought-out bursts. So, yes, I am on a Social Media diet. And I am in no Google+ circle, and I am not ranked, and I "check in" absolutely no where, except maybe at a small sea side hotel for a weekend.

The End.

Mandy_Fish said...

I love my social media. You know that.

I don't think there's a hard and fast rule for everyone. I enjoy social media but it does not consume or interrupt my life.

I can't imagine having to quit social media or go on a social media diet. I usually don't go on the internet once I get home at night.

Maybe that provides balance?

Anonymous said...

Less is definitely more. Wait until your famous, then spread your social media wings. Why? Because by then you'll have lackeys to do it for you...

Anonymous said...

I'm all about contracting. Cull that which sucks time from your greatest passions!!

Jeff said...

I don't tweet and don't plan to. To me people who tweet are like the close-talkers who have no sense of personal space, and no filter. As far as FB goes, I primarily use it now to post links to my blog. I try not to spend more than five or ten minutes a day on it - which isn't that hard considering you can only read so many of those inane comments before you want to defriend everyone. And as far as blogging, oddly enough I wrote a blog post on it: http://rotationandbalance.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-post-is-here-new-post-is-here.html

Scribe said...

I joined Twitter specifically to promote my blog - hawking my wares so to speak. I've also started an online mag so it seemed like a great place to introduce that too.

I tend to limit myself to my blog (three days a week or less), catching up 10 minutes a day on Facebook and a tweet here and there. I leave my phone in another room and if I'm with someone whose constantly on their iPhone or Blackberry, I will take the device away and hide it until our visit is over.

Social media is good, it's got its place but sometimes face to face contact takes a back seat and that I can not stand.

Dingo said...

I've taken a much needed break from blogging and Twitter. I found so much more time to do other projects that I always put on the back burner. I miss my bloggy friends though (like you! I miss you!).

I think I'll jump back into social media at some point (I'm still a FB holdout - can't bring myself to join).

However, you have something to promote and I think social media the way to go. I popped over to your etsy site and love, love, love it.

Sizzle said...

The problem for me is that each type of social media seems to have its own following and if I want to keep up to date with people, I have to engage in multiple forms. I prefer Twitter and my blog but FB is where most of my family is and old friends so I keep a profile there. I used to use Flickr more but since Instagram I hardly every put photos there. I'm now on Google + but it will only really work for me if everyone from FB and Twitter uses it so I can downsize.

I have started to post less and that feels more sane to me.

Janice MacLeod said...

LeslieG is onto something with "you have to stay at what is a healthy size for you."

I find myself in an expand expand expand mode sometimes, which isn't why I started blogging in the first place. I've found myself having to reel it in. I feel I open up space for the projects that I adore... but then I see someone checking facebook on their phones and I want to wrestle them to the ground, take their phone and check my facebook.