Social Media Fatigue
Do you have an account with any of the following services:
Twitter, Facebook, Mumsnet, Britmums, Linkedin, Klout, Google+, Pinterest, Foursquare, YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr, Blogger, WordPress, Flickr, Vine, AskFM, Kik…
If you have answered “Yes” more than four times then you are in danger of Social Media Fatigue.
I have accounts with 10 of these services, although I really only use Twitter, Facebook, Mumsnet, Pinterest and WordPress. I use Blogger to comment on Blogger blogs, and very rarely use YouTube except to watch videos. I realise that Mumsnet is not a typical “Social Media” website, but I included it as it is one of the ones that send most people to my blog, via the Bloggers’ Network.
Today I was reading an interesting blog post by Nickie on Typecast about her Great Klout Experiment. When Klout changed the algorithm with which they measure their users’ influence, there was a great outcry of anguish. Overnight, the Klout score of most users plummeted by around 10 points.
Now, if you don’t use Social Media much, you may be thinking, “Why on earth would someone get so worked up about an imaginary score that works out how influential you are in an artificial online world?”.
Good question, but when you start with all these things you get sucked in. Suddenly you are tracking your Klout score and comparing it to your PeerIndex (which I had forgotten – signed up for that one too), wondering why you are more influential on Klout than PI. Then you are tweeting and RTing, with an eye on your Klout score to see what makes a difference. You give K+ to people in order to boost your and their score.
It is all rather hard work.
And sometimes it seems like it is not worth the bother.
Do I care if I am seen to be influential? Is it important to me?
To be honest, I signed up to most of these websites in order to promote my blog. I have come to a point where that my blog is reasonably well read. I have around 6000 pageviews a month. It is not a huge readership, there are other blogs with many many more hits.
More important to me is the communications with my readers, and with other bloggers. I love using Twitter and Mumsnet to communicate with other bloggers, and to hear what others think of my blog. I get a little thrill when someone leaves a comment on the blog. That is what makes blogging fun for me, not a score on a website.
Over the past couple of days, I have seen a few tweets about Triberr. I had not heard of it before, but it seems it is a new service in which bloggers join a “tribe” to promote each other’s blogs. The tweets are scheduled automatically from Triberr, and although you can choose which content to tweet, you do run the risk of filling your followers’ timelines with links to blogs.
I think this is the point where we have to say, ENOUGH. This has nothing to do with blogging for the love of it, and everything to do with getting hits at any price. When I follow someone and they tweet a link to a blog post, then I want it to be because they enjoyed it and thought that their followers would too. Not because they are getting their blog publicised in exchange.
Google+ was a big disappointment. I was hoping that it could have been the place where I merged all of these groups so that the lines blurred. Since I can only do that within very limited parameters, it is not really working for me. Sorry, Google+. Its not you. Its me.*
When I realised that I spent more time promoting my blog, than I did researching and writing posts, I knew something had to change.
I am downsizing my Social Media presence. I will concentrate on Mumsnet, Twitter and Facebook, where I have built up a group of “friends”. People I actually WANT to listen to and hear about their lives, not people I follow because they will make me more influential.
What do you think?
Featured image used with kind permission of Kexino, see also their Flickr page.
16 Comments
@geekisnewchic
Great post, real food for thought.
GentleOtter
It is difficult to find the time when participating with the social medias, in my opinion.
The plusses are communication, feedback and support from people all over the world and yes, it is thrilling to read a comment and realise someone has taken time to read what has been written then express an opinion.
I often experience an almost moral dilemma, blog inside or work for an hour outside, twitter or vacuum, Mumsnet or sort out the laundry mountain…(guess which one wins there).
All things in moderation, whilst boring, can strike a balance so communication with the outside world and the mundane chores in the home are achieved with a sort of equilibrium.
MmeLindor
Yes, it is easy to get distracted and move from one SM point to the next. Before you know it, it is 6 pm and your husband is due in from work in an hour. Amazing how much you can get done in an hour, by the way.
LittleMe
Interesting post. I have all but abandoned Facebook except for sharing pics with my nearest and dearest. Twitter I am getting more and more into, but I don’t know how you manage to follow so many people as my feed goes so fast even as it is.
I completely agree that Google + is a disappointment, though I set up an account on that for personal use, not for my blog.
I have stepped away from most of the forums I was using, except for the Mumsnet Bloggers Network of course.
I set up Flattr yesterday and am curious to see how that works out.
MmeLindor
I have lists on my twitter feed, with “real people” separate from journalists and news channels etc. My RL timeline moves much slower and is easier to keep up with. And I don’t try to do so completely. I scroll down the last hour and reply to those posts that I see.
alex
This is such a helpful post. I’ve not properly got to grips with blog promotion/building up a following and I know for example that setting up a twitter account is pretty crucial stuff if you’re serious about blogging. But I do worry about how much time it will take up, I just don’t trust myself to prioritise well. This bit of your post particularly struck a chord:
‘When I realised that I spent more time promoting my blog, than I did researching and writing posts, I knew something had to change.’
MmeLindor
Twitter is actually one of the best mediums for blog promotion, as you can nip in and out of it. It does take a bit of time to build up contacts in the beginning, but eventually that gets easier and you can chat occasionally to your followers and bung a link to your blog in every so often. I check twitter when I have a moment free time so it doesn’t take over my day.
Aly
I’m a member of 12 of those you’ve listed including G+ and more.Not solely out to promote my blog as I’m a single parent with 3 kids and real life means more than the social media to me.But I do try to dabble in each one if not once a day then once a week.I haven’t used Pintrest in months saying that.G+ has big plans for next year and I have been using it since day one on a daily basis even if it’s to see how people use it.Next year is my third year as a blogger and most of the hits I get on my blog now are from google search as opposed to Twitter like last year.Now off to check the other networks you’ve mentioned and haven’t heard of.
MmeLindor
Oh, interesting. Will hold off on my de-registration with Google+ then.
MrsKwazii
Totally agree with the concept of social media fatigue. It just seems to continue to mushroom – but people’s time and enthusiasm for them has its limits. I think that more and more people will begin to rationalise their social media use, with many of the more niche sites falling away. Only the most useful will survive and reach critical mass – there are only so many hours in each day after all.
MmeLindor
That is true, I imagine that many websites will fail and just the really well used ones will be left.
Nickie
I see Klout (and all the other analysed metrics) as blog promotion tools too. Plus, I refuse to get hung up about any score anywhere. Sure, sometimes it appears that a measurement here or a mention there will show that I may be influential about something but there is always someone with more knowledge about that subject out there too.
As an aside, I think people will eventually choose Google+ or Facebook rather than run the two – many people using G+, FB and Twitter just seem to be posting the same thing on all three networks and that is getting slightly tedious already.
PS: Not sure how you feel about me leaving links in your comments but I’ve already written about Triberr (title: Is a Retweet an endorsement?) and nothing on this earth will convince me that it is a good programme to be a part of.
MmeLindor
Yes, I know that I will eventually have to choose between Facebook and Google+ as there is just too much overlap.
Do link up to your Triberr post, am always happy to have links in my comments, as long as they are relevant. I know you wouldn’t spam me.
Nickie
Fab – thanks. Here’s the link
http://www.iamtypecast.com/2011/08/is-retweet-endorsement.html
Michelle Twin Mum
I think you are completely right love. I certainly recognised I had this back in October and have limited my use considerably since then, it has been very releasing!
Mich x
MmeLindor
Yes, I feel that a lot of people are taking a step back.