N S Ford

10 things I’ve learned about social media in 1 month

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I joined Twitter on July 27th. The week after, I set up a WordPress blog. This was all relatively new to me and I’ve already learned a lot in a month…

  1. There are so many friendly, kind, supportive people out there – including YOU, the reader! Willing to give advice, to support newbies and discuss random things, these folks make the internet a happy place.
  2. Cats rule Twitter. Not really surprising, as they rule everywhere else. And why not?!
  3. It’s easy to find and make connections with other social media users who have similar interests, such as book reviewing, writing, mental health awareness and… cats.
  4. The laughing/crying emoji appears everywhere on Twitter. By the way, I knew emojis as ‘smileys’ or ’emoticons’ until recently.
  5. Some people on social media are very popular and have thousands of followers. Assuming that each one of their followers is a real person, it’s incredible how the following has been built up.
  6. Memes are often used in addition to, or instead of, written comments. I’ll play the GIF when it’s in a reply to me, but otherwise I’d rather read original thoughts. Just my preference…
  7. It’s impossible to keep up with all the stuff constantly updating into my feeds. The more accounts I follow, the more content there is to catch up on. But it’s hopeless already, I’m certain to miss a lot of good content.
  8. Email notifications for WordPress are useless. I can’t deal with all the mail generated by the blogs I follow. Instead I keep on top of it by checking my WP Reader once a day.
  9. Twitter is good writing practice because it encourages people to be concise when expressing thoughts (unlike Facebook, where people can ramble and rant for longer).
  10. Some people are putting pressure on themselves to gain a certain number of followers or views and to produce a certain amount of content. I don’t want to have targets like this, because then blogging will become a chore and it won’t be fun any more. The exception would be if I was making money from the blog and then of course I’d have deadlines.

I know there’s still a lot to learn. It’s been a brilliant first month of Tweeting and blogging. Roll on September!

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Comments

16 responses to “10 things I’ve learned about social media in 1 month”

  1. FictionFan avatar
    FictionFan

    Glad you’re enjoying it so far – keep up the good work! 😀 (<– my most-used emoji! 😉 ) In terms of number of followers, as an old-timer I pay no attention to that. Over time that builds and builds but most of them never visit or interact. The people I value are the ones I chat to and who chat back! And good for you for deciding not to put pressure on yourself over self-created deadlines – that can make the whole thing begin to feel like work after a bit…

    Reply
    1. nsford avatar
      nsford

      Thank you! I like interacting with people on the blog and twitter. I might never ‘meet’ them in real life but they are still my friends 🙂

      Reply
  2. Fictionophile avatar
    Fictionophile

    Wow, one month and already you sound like a ‘pro’. Welcome to blogging!
    One thing I did want to mention just in case you were not aware…
    You said “Email notifications for WordPress are useless.”
    Go to your WPReader – then Followed Sites – then Manage
    Did you know that you can set your email notifications for Instantly, Daily, Weekly, OR if you want you can toggle the switch and not get them at all.
    I follow over four thousand blogs in my reader so of course I’d be nuts to get email notifications for them all. I try to visit them occasionally via my WPReader and only get email notifications for my very favourite blogs – even then I opt for ‘Weekly’ in most cases.

    Reply
    1. nsford avatar
      nsford

      Thanks for the tip. I meant currently the notifications are no use to me, they are of course useful to others. I only check my emails once a day but sometimes not even that, so at the moment it’s not practical to have any notifications! But I might change it in the future.

      Reply
  3. Thingsinherhead avatar
    Thingsinherhead

    Wow, you really did learn a lot in 1 month.. Some sentiments here are easy to relate to.

    Reply
    1. nsford avatar
      nsford

      I like to learn! 😉

      Reply
  4. Jee Wan avatar
    Jee Wan

    Yeah pressure does take over pleasure sometimes…especially when you’re about to post a review (an unfavorable one especially)…But, that’s all part of the learning journey 🙂 Look at how much you’ve learned in just one month! And putting all that into writing make your experience more concrete and not just fleeting moments 🙂 Bravo to you 🙂

    Reply
    1. nsford avatar
      nsford

      Thanks very much! I’m enjoying writing the blog and hope I always will 🙂

      Reply
  5. Michelle - lazydayproject.com avatar
    Michelle – lazydayproject.com

    These are really good observations. I had to turn off all of my wordpress emails too because it was too much and I am one who likes to keep my inbox empty. I have ahard time keeping up on Twitter also, but I was thinking of making lists to sort it all out, so when I want to see blogs I follow I can find them easier. A rainy day project, maybe… I especially love your #10. I completely agree. I don’t want to think abotu followers or keep a schedule. I want to have fun ?

    Reply
    1. nsford avatar
      nsford

      Thanks for your comment! Yes I agree blogging should be fun. Lists are a good idea but definitely a project for a rainy year, let alone day, for me…

      Reply
  6. Norrie avatar
    Norrie

    Emails from wordpress are a pain! ? It feels like i can never stay on top of them.

    Reply
  7. sammers65 avatar
    sammers65

    Congrats on one month! I concur with you on cats overtaking the internet and the endless amount of WordPress emails, haha. I second #10 as well–blogging should be my little nook of happiness where I can gush and rant for my own enjoyment, not to be the most popular or whatever. lol. Great post!

    Reply
    1. nsford avatar
      nsford

      Thanks for your comment! Yes, it can seem like a popularity contest but I would rather blog about what I want to and if people like it, that’s a bonus!

      Reply
      1. sammers65 avatar
        sammers65

        Exactly!

        Reply
  8. Tanaz Masaba avatar
    Tanaz Masaba

    Ahhh yes. Book Twitter is amazing. Twitter itself is amazing. Blogosphere is even better. I find it hard to keep track of good content too–there’s always so much to read. And I have stopped subscribing to blogs via email because I only have one email account and the amount of emails WordPress generates is crazy. SO I usually just use the WP reader or the links bloggers share with me in groups such as in the Discord server chat. Great post here!

    Reply
    1. nsford avatar
      nsford

      Thanks for your comment! I am in the Discord group, at some point will go through and follow people from there when I have time. Agree it is all amazing! 🙂

      Reply

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