Friday, March 17, 2017

Is it Necessary for Writers to be on so many Social Sites?

Everyday I see that more and more writers and other people have joined so many social media sites: Blog, Facebook, Pinterest, G+, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Goodreads, Snapchat. I am astounded at the number of applications people download on their cellphones and the id’s they create on so many sites.

 It’s mindboggling to have so many accounts on different networking sites, to update them, follow people, see their updates, comment, like and share. Where does one get the time to focus on their work?

I’m a lazy social networker. If I am tweeting regularly, you can rest assured that I have ignored my blog and FB page. And If I’m blogging regularly, it goes without saying that my Twitter and FB accounts have been sent on a short holiday. I’m personally unable to handle so much social media all at once. My MO is a little at a time.

As it is I feel I am losing my writing focus from the past few weeks. And as I review books for the newspapers, I have a steady list of books on my desk at any given time. And on top of that if I had to handle an avalanche of networking sites I would go bonkers.

Whenever I see other writers managing so many different accounts and quite well at that, I feel a little envious and I wonder how do they do it? Do they have a secret ability that I haven’t got? Are they better multi-taskers than me? How are they able to juggle so many things, and work on their books, unlike me?

I barely manage to meet my writing deadlines, almost always missing my personal writing goals for the day. I sometimes feel I should just deactivate my 3 accounts for a few months and get some serious writing done.

How do you all cope with so many social media sites? What is your routine like? Any tips for a hopeless creature like me who is unable to manage her Facebook, Twitter and Blog and work on her books at the same time?


10 comments:

  1. I so agree with you on this, Rachna. I used to spend more time reading blogs, but that's about all I did with my free time. Now I really want to get on Facebook more but can't because of reading the blogs I do for my own blog. I think lots of people just schedule posts for things like Twitter without really interacting to be on so many sites.

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  2. Some sites you can preschedule posts or have them go automatically, like Twitter. But otherwise, I don't know how people keep up with so many. I keep up with blogs and Twitter and my Google+ just kind of sits there.

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  3. I blog and I'm on Goodreads, that's it. I enjoy both and so I hope that comes across in what I'm writing/doing on them. That's key for me. :)

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  4. I'm using Facebook less and less, sans Messenger. I don't use Twitter a whole lot anymore, and my blog mostly just gets posts as required for class. I would (hopefully) post occasionally if I didn't have to post once a week for class though. That being said, I still don't get a large amount of writing done, often. I have experienced and understand how social media can sap all of your time.

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  5. I'm sure some of the people who use social media to their advantage pre-schedule content. I've cut back on social media quite a bit as it does cut too much into writing/editing time.

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  6. I was on 25 social sites when my 5-book series first started coming out. Too many! A person can only manage about 3 effectively.

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  7. I've been off FB for four months and limiting my usage of Twitter. I am not on Instagram. I think social media drains you of energy and it can be quite time consuming. Just deactivate the account for a month and you will see the result. Social media is too much to take and counter-productive, as well.

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  8. I don't use Twitter that much, but I am on most other sites.

    www.ficklemillennial.com

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  9. Very difficult to use so many soocial networking sites, but I suppose one chooses best that works for an individual:)

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  10. I'm on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Goodreads, plus my blog, and that's already more than I can handle. I just limit my time on the Internet and do what I can in that budgeted time.

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