Social Media Mania

Welcome to the first That Time of the Month linkup! I'm co-hosting this venting session with HoHo Runs! The purpose of this link up is to give bloggers a chance to vent about something that's bothering them! The rules of the linkup are simple: keep it clean (my mom reads my blog), play nice, read at least 2 other posts in the linkup, and link back to the hosts! Thanks for partaking in what should be a fun linkup! Please join us every 3rd Saturday of the month and let it all out!

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What's eating me lately? I'd have to say that I'm feeling overwhelmed by social media these days. While growing this blog is one of my goals, I've had to expand my social media reach in order to get more exposure. With all the different social media channels, there has been a learning curve for me. And some growing pains. Lots of growing pains.

I started blogging about 18 months ago, and started my Facebook page at the same time. Facebook (FB) continues to be one of my biggest sources of blog readers, and I don't have many issues with FB. We've got a really great community of runners on FB, and I've enjoyed interacting with them and meeting and befriending a lot of them. While I've mostly had a great experience on FB. I've had a bit of link dumping--weight loss products I'm talking about you-- and spam, and when I see those, I just delete and block those folks from my page. Who needs them? Who wants them? The one thing that FB has recently started doing, and something I find really annoying, is posting in my personal feed when my friends comment on anything. So that means all my friends get to see everything I comment on. Which is a lot, because I like to support my fellow page admins. I find FBs sharing of everyone's likes a bit intrusive. I'd rather just read what I want to read. I don't care what other people comment on. The other thing about FB that has been challenging me is trying to maintain some distance between my personal life as a nurse practitioner and my blogging/FB personna. I would love to deactivate my personal page, but FB doesn't allow you to have a page without a personal page. Those of you who follow me on both pages may have noticed that I've changed my name on my personal page, and that's to keep the creepers away--I've had a lot of friend requests from people I don't know--and to keep patients and parents from contacting me. I've been getting more and more messages from patients, and not only is it an invasion of my privacy, it is also a HIPAA violation for me to provide any information to them via FB. It's also unprofessional. I never thought I'd have this issue, but in this day and age of oversharing, it's very real.

So many food pictures!

Instagram (IG) started out to be pretty fun, but as my reach on that platform has increased, I've noticed some troubling trends. When I initially signed up for IG, I signed up for a private account, again trying to maintain some sense of privacy. I thought this would enable me to approve my followers. But I soon learned that wasn't going to work so well for me if I wanted to grow my blog, so I opened my account back up. 90% of the people who follow me are legit. But there have been some weird followers... people who have no followers of their own...people who post sexy pictures...a guy whose description says he helps people fire his boss...someone promises me they will grow my IG but has no posts of their own..oh, and those people selling seaweed wraps--you get the picture. I've blocked some of the really questionable accounts. I have to be pretty diligent. I do check all my likes and follows. I don't want to invite trouble. And then there's that whole other animal, the follow/unfollow folks, who do it just to build up their numbers, not because they are interested in anything I post. Did you know that you can pay for IG followers? That there's a "bot" you can install that will follow and unfollow for you automatically? Seriously! But as more advertisers want bloggers with lots of engagement, yes, this is what people are doing to get campaigns.

And you wonder why I waited to long to join Twitter...

And then there's Twitter. I resisted joining for so long, and I just recently took the plunge. So far, so good. Yes, I'm getting more hits on the blog, which has been great. My most recent book club author retweeted my review, along with the reviews of everyone who linked up with me. That's really cool! I also loved being able to retweet all the book reviews of everyone who linked up. I like the idea of being able to tweet about a blog post I read and sharing it with like minded followers. But on the other hand, I'm still trying to figure the whole thing out. I was being followed by someone named Sex Toy Diva who was retweeting my tweets. Some might think any engagement is better than none, but you know that saying that you're judged by the people you hang out with? Sex Toy Diva? Oh, hell no! I figured out how to block her. I don't get why she'd want to follow me. I'm all running all the time--and that's all I tweet about. I've been added to "lists" and I don't understand what it means to be added to a list. Some dental company added me to their list. Why? I have heard that runners have bad teeth, but I don't think that has anything to do with this add. So I figured out how to get off the list. I have also gotten a large number of followers of companies promoting their products and services. Do I follow them back? Most of them, I have not, because I'm simply not interested in what they are promoting. Stay tuned...

I've been on Pinterest for a long time, and in the past, I always used the site to store all the running memes that I came across. I'm kind of a hoarder like that. But more and more bloggers say that Pinterest is a great way to spread the word about their blogs. I have to admit that I don't really look at Pinterest very often. There's just too much information--it's like a bulletin board where you just tack up everything you don't want to lose track of. I'm sure if I sat down and got more organized, I would get more out of it. But who has time for that? Out of all the social media channels I've dabbled in, I would say that Pinterest is the biggest time suck of them all. I will say that I have made some pretty amazing desserts from some of the recipes I've found on there.

There's are other social media sites that I'm not as involved with...Google+, You Tube, Tumblr, Snapchat, and the newest one that's got everyone all abuzz...Periscope. Too many social media channels and too little time. I'm just trying to put out quality content on my blog, and that takes a good deal of time. I love the reciprocity of the blogging community, and how most bloggers will come back to your blog to leave a comment if you've left one on theirs. Speaking of that, I read every comment posted on my blog and I respond to all them. But lately, I've noticed a trend of some readers not seeming to read my blog before commenting. Hey guys, I can tell. Just last week I posted about being inspired by my son and his rugby teammates, and by my friend Michelle who ran an Olympic distance triathlon. No one mistook me for my son, but several people congratulated me on my triathlon and complimented me on my trikit. That's just sad. Although Michelle and I kind of laughed about it!

I didn't expect this to get so long winded, but hey, it's venting session, right? For better or for worse, there's a lot of options available if you want to connect with like minded people. I'm not sure I like all of it. I have met some amazing people through Facebook and blogging, and for that I'm grateful. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out in the future!

What are your thoughts on social media? What platforms do you participate in? What is your favorite place to post? Do you get a lot of spam? Do you block people?

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