Admitting what I will here, I know instantly stains me as some sort of a pariah. But, I am not ‘on’ any social media platforms. I am not a Facebooker. I do not tweet or twat, Snapchat, or post to Instagram. I even try to censor how much I text. Yes, I am better than you because of all this, more evolved, just that much cooler. Actually, that’s not true, I’m joking. You do you; I do me; I make no judgments how you come to spend your time as I do not want you judging me.
But what about one’s social media presence when it comes to business? Specifically, for our purposes here, what’s the skinny, the good, bad, and the necessary of social media when it comes to the writing business?
Yes, I am sure I am truncating my job prospects by not being ‘on’ any social media. I see plenty of job postings that ask for writers to create Facebook posts, help with Twitter feeds, but this is just not a playing field I play on or one I know of. While I understand the concept of how this all works, and I can get together click-worthy SEO copy (I do write a lot of blogs with this) I’m just not so well-versed; best leave that work for somebody who knows how to do it, and furthermore, wants to do it.
And that’s ok. I took this stance a long time ago and it’s the way I wish to conduct my life and business. As I say, you do you; I do me.
Image by Pixabay.
What I will conjecture about social media-ing for those of you who may have come here for some sage advice (or just to laugh at the crusty old curmudgeon I am) is that, if you are ‘out there,’ or social across that old Interweb thingie all the kids talk about, you are probably dealing with the double-edged sword I have noticed lots of my fellow social media savvy scribes deal with daily.
My buddy, fellow smut writer M. Christian says all the time, that he’s consistently balancing his social media-ing with the time to write. One can get all too easy sucked down the rabbit hole of endless hours spent chasing after tweets, posting, and staying on one’s phone through the night being ‘social.’ But if you are writing for a living, you need to have some writing from which to make your living. See what I am getting at?
Yes, many would argue that social media-ing, for any business, is presently part of how one does business. So even if you are writing, there are those who will tell you, you do indeed need to find that balance my buddy “Chris” consistently works hard to maintain but many a modern-day writer can’t. And for those who do get lost, where social media becomes more important in their day than anything else, science actually excuses you. The old dumb naked ape that we are receives an actual Dopamine surge when we hear a “Weewho,” feel our phone vibrate, or see we have a new ‘like.’ It’s akin to the same shot of chemicals that rush through of pleasure center when we are sitting at a slot machine, and the lights go off, and colors swirl when we ‘hit.’
My other caution here is that there is such a great glut of stuff out there—writings, music, political ramblings, videos—it’s a hell of a lot harder to be noticed above the din. You must ask yourself: Do I want to be part of all of that? And in becoming part of all that will I truly be lending my voice in some substantive manner to the wave, or will I get drowned under it?
Please don’t ask me the answer to that one, by reading down this far you must know what my answer will be. (My answer is: Why be just like everybody else?)
Photo by Prateek Katyal from Pexels
I have had experience in seeing, first hand, how spending hours and precious coin on social media did not mark any marketable turn-around in a publishing venture of which I was involved. In still others that I know of on an intimate level, I have seen social media bring near ruination. And indeed, I have met plenty of writers who are running around like dogs chasing their tails, not understanding why all their online chattering isn’t bringing them more readers.
I keep thinking all of this noise will reach a critical mass (if it hasn’t already), and as we have always seemed to, the culture will retreat en mass, take their collective interest in another direction. But this need to be heard (and it is truly more than the need to listen to somebody else) is an epidemic in modern society and seems to be increasing.
So, be cautioned about how much social media you let into your writing day. But then again…you do you, I’ll do me.
Featured Image by Kaboompics .com from Pexels
