Social Media

Happy Sunday! We’re actually seeing some sun here today and it’s great!  We haven’t had much precipitation, snow or even  rain this winter so far, but we do seem to have a lot of cloud cover much of the time.  It’s nice to see the sun today!

I was stumped for a blog topic today, but having had a great conversation about social media last evening, I thought it might be an interesting topic.  I was at an annual get-together at my friend Viv’s place.  Most of us are in the mid to late 50s range, although Viv is 90 and there were a couple of girls in their early 20s. I should point out that Viv does not even own a dryer.  She, as she says, is happy to have a phone and a flashlight.  She does have an LED TV now (because the old TV stopped working), but is happy to not have a computer or smartphone.  She doesn’t need them.

So, the conversation was amongst the rest of us, and many saying they have no interest in social media and do not understand the need for folks to post a picture of their dinner and need instant approval of what they are eating, or even where they are visiting, or whatever.  Many use it simply to keep connected to their family, which was how I got started a few years ago.  The only place I found pictures of my kids was on Facebook.

These days, Dad is even on Facebook, although my stepmother is much better at posting updates of their travels and at least that way, we know they arrived somewhere safely. My youngest daughter took herself out of most social media, because she was bullied through that means in high school.  My oldest daughter uses it for her hair styling business (particularly Instagram), where potential clients can see her work. So, there are lots of uses for it, or you can just ignore all of it.

I actually have a Facebook fan page, which I set up in the hopes of actually selling some of my books, but I now use it to post daily prayers.  I don’t have many followers, only 162 at the moment, but that is up 7 in the last week, so perhaps it is finally really growing, time will tell.

I also have Twitter, where I post mostly Bible quotes, but also other interesting and/or inspiring quotes, although it’s original intent was to sell books too! I also don’t have many followers there, only just over 7,400, but it is growing relatively steadily. This one is up over 100 over the last week, so perhaps this one is also finally really growing too!

I have a Pinterest account as well.  The intent here was also to sell my books (see a pattern here?), but I got pulled in finding all kinds of recipes, crochet patterns and craft and decorating ideas for Christmas.  I also find Bible quotes and great prayers here as well.

I am on Instagram, but I really stumble on this one.  I have never posted anything, but I do like to see what others post.

Goodreads is one of my favorites! Again, the intent was to sell books, but I like that I can keep track of the books that I read.  I even got a report at the end of 2016 that said I read 49 books! Not bad, considering everything else I do. I can get reviews of books I’m going to read, and post my own reviews.

I have LinkedIn, too, of course, but because I’m not looking for a new job, it isn’t of much use, but I do like to see updates from my colleagues.

And, that covers what little I know about social media, which obviously is not much!  I have found my own uses for it, but there so many more uses than what I get out of it!  I pray that if you are out there on social media, that you find it useful.  God bless!