Folks, I suck at social media and I would like to follow you

[Abernovo]

If you see you've been added to a 'Chrons' list on Twitter, that will probably be me. It has most of the active (and some less, or even no longer, active) members that I know the twitter handles for. If you ever wish to be removed from it, just say.

 

[Astro Pen]

I don't do social media but I have PM'd you my website.
Warning: It includes me singing a couple of my songs

 

[The Big Peat]

I see a lot of comments about the anger, but I find Twitter gives you far more robust control of your timeline and what is served you. Certainly it's got better ethics than anything Zuckerberg owns.

Yes and no. Yes, muting words gives you some fairly robust control. But the way Twitter has been pushing its loudest content, and some of what it's trying to do with artists, is dodgy.

Me, I heavily recommend an app I use called Tweak New Twitter to help control some of that. I got rid of the sidebar of misery for one thing.

 

[Ray Zdybrow]

My opinion only: it's a waste of time.

But I thought this IS social media!

 

[HareBrain]

Whenever I see the words in the thread title "Folks, I suck at social media" my brain seems to automatically remove some letters and the word "at".

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I enjoy Twitter and it’s robustness. I do find block is my friend though

 

[Abernovo]

Block and mute are definitely my friends.

I use Tweetdeck, as well, so I can concentrate on Lists, or certain people/interests, and less on the tweets which are of no interest.

 

[BAYLOR]

Mostly I just like writing and my second fav is to hang out on the chrons and help people out or get help. But I guess I should be "sociable".

Honestly, I don't know how important a social media presence is, but I gather it is. Important that is.

I have a twitter account: https://twitter.com/stice_s and a facebook author page: Log in or sign up to view and I blog here: The Black Deep

If you all have social media accounts author pages and blogs, I'd like to follow you. Please post them here and I'll follow you.

Sincerely
- The Virtual Wall Flower

I don't have a Twitter account nor Face book. I have no use for either of them. If you say the wrong things , the whole world will know about it and never let you forget it and , it could be costly in other ways . It's not worth it.

 

[Dave]

If you say the wrong things

Then don't say the wrong things.

I see a lot of complaints there from people who have lost their accounts and had to start over again, but they lost them for using bad language and making libellous remarks that they would never do to a person's face. There is some kind of switch that gets thrown when people are online that says, now you can't see me, I can behave differently to normal and be totally obnoxious. If you behave you won't get banned.

I guess it is slightly unfair when some prominent people don't seem to get banned for the racist/homophobic/misogynistic things they say, because they are too popular to loose, but that too seems to be changing.

People are quick to jump on mistakes, even genuine ones, or to jump to conclusions. I do see that. If I was to Tweet that "grass is green", there would be at least someone tell me that some grass can be red. That kind of thing. You just develop a thicker skin, and as Jo said, you use Block and Mute.

 

[BAYLOR]

Then don't say the wrong things.

I see a lot of complaints there from people who have lost their accounts and had to start over again, but they lost them for using bad language and making libellous remarks that they would never do to a person's face. There is some kind of switch that gets thrown when people are online that says, now you can't see me, I can behave differently to normal and be totally obnoxious. If you behave you won't get banned.

I guess it is slightly unfair when some prominent people don't seem to get banned for the racist/homophobic/misogynistic things they say, because they are too popular to loose, but that too seems to be changing.

People are quick to jump on mistakes, even genuine ones, or to jump to conclusions. I do see that. If I was to Tweet that "grass is green", there would be at least someone tell me that some grass can be red. That kind of thing. You just develop a thicker skin, and as Jo said, you use Block and Mute.

Over the years ,ive gotten into more then few knock down drag out arguments with people online and at worst , maybe called them foolish, small minded and out of touch with reality , and been snarky or sarcastic in the bargain . That's as far as I go. For the most part, if im mad , I walk away from the keyboard until ive cooled down a bit. But that said, Im still not going anywhere near Twitter or Facebook.

 

[Astro Pen]

The folly of internet arguments is that no one ever changes their mind.
Once you realise that, you don't bother, just note peoples positions.
When did you last hear "Oh you're right, I never thought of it that way." ?
(Even here, with the ban on religion and politics, I have still had to block people who seemed to be spoiling for a fight rather than a conversation)

 

[Laura R Hepworth]

I have mixed opinions about social media. I understand how they 'can' be helpful, but, at the same time, I absolutely hate them because just when you think you've figured out how to reach people, they change their algorithms to bury you again. They are a ridiculous amount of work to try and maintain on any regular basis. I'm on many, though some of them (I'm looking at you Twitter) I've largely abandoned. Here are the ones I still (at least somewhat) use though: Facebook, Instagram, website/blog, and Patreon (I post a lot of public and early access stuff; it's basically a second blog for me).

 

[Steve Harrison]

Something I do like about Twitter is that it gives a terrific insight into unfiltered thoughts. Lots of people feel free to express themselves in ways they never would in person - thank goodness - which is endlessly fascinating and probably a safer outlet for a lot of hostility and rage than the real world.

I don't block people and follow a lot of people I don't agree with - ever - because I don't want to end up in an echo chamber. I often get into interesting arguments and, like here, I use my real name, which encourages me not to write anything I wouldn't say face to face, and operate under my two 'Twitter rules':

1. I refuse to be insulted by someone who doesn't know me. (If only I could get the people who do know me to stop insulting me...)
2. I consider everyone on Twitter to be an idiot, including myself. (I apply the same logic to driving)

 

[Luiglin]

I'm less on Twitter since they expanded the number of characters you could... used to find it a challenge getting the perfect message without left over.

Has some fun on there in the early days with back and forth tweets with Eric Idle and Al Murray. My two tweet claims to fame are getting replies off Mark Hamill plus, the one and only, Bruce Campbell.

I'm @dracoxv . I'm also on Facebook and Instagram, although despite being an IT nerd, I just can't get to grips with the latter.

 

[sknox]

My opinion only: it's a waste of time.

Some of the most valuable things in the world are often called a waste of time. It doesn't have to be useful. It doesn't have to translate to sales. It's a way for authors to connect with readers, even if those readers can be counted with no more than fingers and toes.

And, if nothing else, it's another form of writing, an activity I seem compelled to do.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

I'm on facebook and have a blog. That's about my lot. And mostly I use my facebook to show new book covers as they come out. And at the moment it's going wonky for me. But you're welcome to take a look. Greg Curtis

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Deke]

Im afraid that once I publish my first novel on KDP I know I’m going to have to make a Facebook and *gag* look at it.

I deleted my Facebook and Twitter like two years ago and it has been the most healthy thing I have done for my mental state lol. But one must market their book so I suppose I will have to crawl back into the sludge pen that is social media on my belly and hiss at all the other reptiles in order to succeed.

 

[sknox]

You don't need to have that FB or Twitter, but if you are doing it with marketing in mind, the thing to do is to get active now. Join communities, as you've done here. Participate. Get to know which groups to belong to and which to avoid (talking FB here). Find your way around Twitter, which takes time. For myself, I looked around and decided not to play in that park. I do have an FB account and I'm in four or five groups, but I don't market there, not least because running FB ads can get expensive.

I'm in a couple of reader groups on FB. It's interesting to hang out there, to see not only what people are reading and what they think about it, but also to see the kinds of questions that get asked and how people talk about books. I honestly don't find FB to be a sludge pen (although a pen that uses sludge for writing is sort of interesting). But I also don't engage in arguments there.

Twitter I found to be too noisy and too shallow to feel like it was worthwhile. Maybe if there were people I wanted to follow I'd feel differently. But really, all of it is just us being us. It's global gossip.