On Social Media

I’m trying, really trying, to get better about social media. I’ll admit that I still grumble somewhat because it’s time that takes me away from writing and my free time is limited enough that I hate losing out on even a few minutes of writing time. What I’ve found is starting to work for me (and the reason I share it) is using my phone for the majority of my updates.

This may be one of those “duh” things for you – but it was a revelation to me! I’d been doing the majority of my Facebook posts via my mobile for a long time. Facebook and the smart phone integrate happily and have never left me scratching my head trying to figure out how to use any of the features. I love that I can post on my author page through my regular Facebook app or, if I prefer, use the Facebook Pages app. The pages app is well worth the time it takes to download and configure (which is maybe three minutes, and that’s if you type your password wrong the first time) because it shows you all your stats and everything — just like your regular page view.

Twitter though…Twitter was continuing to be the bane of my existence. I know you need to tweet regularly, I know this. (I’m still not 100% sold on it because half the time-scratch that, 90% of the time- when I go to look through my Twitter feed my eyes start to glaze over and it just feels like one ad after another after another. Maybe I’m just not following the right people? Not sure. Either way, I’ll admit to being considerably lax when it comes to Twitter.

But! Now I have edits that I should be doing and suddenly there’s so much procrastinating that also needs to be done! So I was playing around with HootSuite in a little more depth — I downloaded it after Edie Melson did a series of posts on HootSuite (look those up, they’re fabulous) but then never really did anything with it. Until I found they have an app! And the app is really pretty easy to use – it’s another company that seemed to actually take a look at how smart phones work and then tailor their app to make sense.

Why I love HootSuite (and the app in particular) boils down to the fact that I can take a few minutes in the morning while I’m drinking coffee and the kids are zooming around on the floor making whatever whooping noise hasn’t yet driven me nuts but is sure to by the end of the day and schedule 8 or 9 tweets throughout the day – all from my phone. The scheduling thing – that’s gold. And it’s straightforward – it works just like you think it should. Then, by the time the coffee is starting to kick in, I’m finished with those tweets and can begin the day’s task of reminding my older son that he needs to stop <verb>ing his little brother.

So if you’re a smart phone kind of person and have been struggling to make time for social media in your life – I recommend those apps heartily. That way your at the computer time can be saved for important things like writing. And playing Candy Crush.