I’m questioning social a lot these days. Are you?
Yes, I was dragged into social media kicking and screaming. But, after a lot of experimentation, learning, and working, social became crucial to my digital presence. Essentially the turning point to getting readers to see my hours and hours of writing work finally; social media also drives traffic to my websites, videos, and podcasts.
And, I make friends there, along with creating business collaborations and gathering research. Most importantly, social media creates awareness leading to new business.
That said, lately, social media feels hard, no fun, taxing, and ungratifying all-the-way-around. I understand things change, of course. But social’s climb towards evil feels like a freefall to all my years of hard work on those platforms. It leaves me questioning myself as well as the big tech social platforms we’re all helping to build.
Social Sadness
Some of it outright angers me. How about you?
Social media as a way to bring people together is deteriorating to tear people down and apart instead. Recently in my own small suburban community, the tragic death of a teen over mean ugly abusive words on social still brings me to tears. What is going on?
Things are so bad I mention (or at least allude to) politics in this podcast. Yikes, I’m breaking my own decades-long rule never to mix business and politics. I still feel that way.
WARNING: This one’s pretty off-the-cuff about a few things bothering me…
Thanks for so much feedback on social and elsewhere on this one! It seems like no one minds my little trip off my usual content-type and topics. If you haven’t, please take a listen. I’d love to know what you think, and thanks as always.
It really comes down to the same old thing in finding where you fit in. You want to create relationships with people and grow your business for sure! However, how much are you willing to sell your soul, or at least your data, possibly your peace-of-mind? Are you questioning social right about now, too?
And, in one word, why I’m having fun staying social: Agorapulse!
Interesting Data:
From Pew Research: “In a year in which big tech companies faced growing scrutiny, nine-in-ten Republicans – and around six-in-ten Democrats (59%) – said it’s likely that social media sites intentionally censor political viewpoints. Overall, around three-quarters of U.S. adults (73%) said in June that it’s very or somewhat likely that social media sites censor political viewpoints they find objectionable.”