Social Media Management: My Social Media Experience ~ Part 1 of 2
By: Treathyl Fox
Tags: Technology, Social Network, Online Marketing, Networking, Social Media

Social Media Management: My Social Media Experience ~ Part 1 of 2

Friends who worked online advised me to create social media accounts to make more friends online. It was good advice.

It’s 2020 and the technological trend that began over a decade ago known as Social Media is not showing any signs of slowing down. Even with news about massive data breaches and privacy violations, people have not only embraced it, they practically live and breathe by what is posted on social media. Facebook was launched in 2004 but I did not start using it seriously until about 2007. It was the first social media platform I used. I just followed the crowd. Why not? Creating the account was free. The added benefit was that my account could be used for personal and for home-based business work. If you work from home and you’re trying to make money online, then establishing yourself on social media and using it as a marketing tool is very practical. After I got the knack of Facebook-ing, I started trying out the other popular social networks. Creating those accounts was also free and they can be used for personal and business/work purposes. Many people have multiple social media accounts. These are the platforms I have tried and a quick summary of my experience. I have tried several networks, so I am publishing this article in two parts. This is Part 1.

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1. Facebook

2. Flipboard

3. Google Plus

4. Instagram

5. LinkedIn

6. Pinterest

7. Plurk

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1. Facebook

If I use my “Facebook Memories” to calculate the amount of time I have had my Facebook account, it’s been about 10 years. Despite everything that was thrown at Facebook since Trump was elected to the office of US presidency from the Russians misusing FB to influence America’s elections TO data breaches TO high profile celebrities threatening to close their Facebook accounts, etc. … Facebook is still standing! Whew! What a relief! Because in addition to my personal profile which I also use this platform for my home business endeavors, I have 6 Facebook pages ~ 2 for online shopping, 1 for food lovers, 1 for healthcare, 1 for sharing work at home advice and tips, and 1 which was set up to help my husband with his real estate investing business. My husband is not in good health and is no longer active in this effort, so I no longer maintain that page. I also have Facebook groups for online shoppers and for sharing work-at-home advice. I’m happy Facebook is still hanging in there! I will hang in there with them.

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2. Flipboard

This is a tool that allows you to create a magazine. Technically it’s not a social media network. But if you have ever placed social sharing buttons on your website or blogs you will see that a Flipboard share button is included right along with the buttons for Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and all the other popular social sites. The site is popular in the following countries: United States, India, Japan, Brazil, and Italy. This magazine publishing tool is easy to use and good for researching topics. You can “flip” (share) your own blog posts, along with similar content published by others. The visual display in a magazine format is very attractive. Others publishers can also “flip” your content to their magazines. This is the same as people sharing your links via social media. I am currently publishing 7 magazines: My I Like Eating Channel; Love My Instagram; My Shopping Channel; Work-At-Home Tips; Rx4Wellness Healthcare Info; Cryptocurrency Nooze; and The Fox Web. It’s super easy to use, your magazines can be niches, and because the search engines like this site, it increases the chances of your content being found via organic searches. In other words, if people don’t find your blog, but they find a link to one of your blog posts that was flipped to one of your magazines and they end up at your blog … isn’t that what you want? Flipboard helps send traffic to your site.

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3. Google Plus

Google Plus decided to discontinue the social network for consumers or individuals. Businesses will still be able to use the network. The projected date for the discontinuance is April 2019. Hey! When it’s over, it’s over!

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4. Instagram

Facebook made a really savvy business move when they purchased Instagram. Even if Facebook went down, Instagram is one of the most popular social networks worldwide. I’m not an Insider so I don’t know if it was an intentional part of the company’s business plan or if the Lord was just looking out for Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook owner. LOL. At any rate, all the arrows are pointing to Instagram. It is predicted that in 2019 the platform will have over 100 million users; and that’s just the United States. Here are some interesting stats: 40+ INSTAGRAM STATISTICS & FACTS FOR 2020. I created two (2) Instagram accounts; one is personal/home business and the other is dedicated to online shopping where my affiliate product links will be shared. I confess to not being an expert on how to get the most from this platform. So I’m sharing these videos and hope you will find them helpful.

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5. LinkedIn

This site likes to distinguish itself by saying it’s a professional networking site as opposed to a social media site. Professionals are there for employment opportunities, to network with one another and build bridges, possibly create partnerships, etc. Anything work-related. I’m fine with however they want to describe themselves. I like this network for three (3) reasons:

Number 1: It’s a place to share (or advertise) your resume showing your work experience and useful KSAs (knowledge, skills and abilities);

Number 2: It’s a free publishing platform and you can publish your articles there; and

Number 3: It has an automated tool that allows you to share your blog posts, if you have a blog.

1) Displaying your professional resume at a respected site that prospective employers search for talent is a no-brainer. Make it public and if people want to contact you about a work opportunity they can.

2) Using a free publishing tool where you can showcase your writing skills by sharing the articles you write is fantastic of you are hiring yourself out as a writer. Also, LinkedIn allows you to include links to your official site, if you have one and/or your contact info as an author’s bio.

3) You can also use an automated tool that shares your blog posts. It’s easy to use. Just put the RSS feed for your blog, set it and forget it. Plus, if you connect your LinkedIn account to your Twitter account, your content gets posted on both platforms: on your LinkedIn profile timeline and your Twitter timeline. One expert once said: “Content Is King, But Distribution Is Queen And She Wears The Pants” No point publishing content that doesn’t get circulated. This automated tool save you the time of manually sharing your posts.

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6. Pinterest

My history with Pinterest has been one of growth. When it first started in 2010, I was approved to have a personal account. The beginning were kind of bumpy. My links were marked as “spammy” and affiliate links were not allowed. That was a bummer because I really wanted to use it for affiliate marketing. What I did was create boards related to my home business websites and blogs which had my affiliate links and linked to them instead. I also liked the fact that I could use it for organizing topics of interest that were not business-related. Just subjects I like such as “Legends, Myths and Folklore”. Not work-related. Just fun!

As the popularity of Pinterest grew, my collection of pinboards grew. My personal account was converted into a business account. Pinterest changed their rules and started allowing affiliate links. I created group boards and joined group boards, and my followers grew. It is proving to be a great SMM (social media marketing) tool. The owners of Pinterest had the right idea when they started this image-based platform. They understood the psychology of marketing and advertising and of online shoppers, especially housewives (and some househusbands). People love pictures!

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7. Plurk

This account proved not to be very useful. It had great features but in the end I found it difficult to gain followers. Also, it was not a US-based network. I tried this site for about a year and no longer use it. Most of my friends who were using it stopped. So I had no incentive to remain active. Also I found that it was really set up to work better on a mobile device and I have a laptop. Lastly, I am in the United States so the major social networks work better for me.” (Source: PLURK Social Network : Overview and Review)

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