With social media fragmenting, I’m bringing back my old “You Tell Me” Wednesday discussions to try to get good old fashioned blog conversations going. If you’re reading in a feed reader or via email, please click through to the post to leave a public comment and join the discussion!
There’s so much pressure on authors to be Very Online and connected to the internet. To build a social media following, to be abreast of technological changes, to do whatever you can to reach future audiences.
Yet, in a fragmented social media landscape, it can be hard to even know where to go. And that’s setting aside whether it’s even pleasant to be Very Online.
Where are you spending time online these days? Have you noticed your habits shifting?
I’ve dialed back my social media usage very significantly in the last few years, but as much as I have beef with its owner, I must confess I still check in on Twitter, which remains the only social media site where my feed is consistently funny.
What about you?
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Art: Rosenzweig mit Käfer und Biene by Rachel Ruysch
I’ve totally deactivated twitter/X. I just can’t. I am on Bluesky and Threads. Bluesky is better of the two, but, damn, I really miss the heyday of Twitter. I’m sad that it’s gone and probably forever. Elon, you ruin everything! Instagram gets a fair bit of my time. I probably spend too much time on Reddit reading about people in terrible relationships (get out now, girlfriend), Survivor, other tv shows, and true crime.
I still have a twitter account because sometimes I need to go there for writing community reasons, but it’s definitely not a place I enjoy being. I’m mostly on instagram and threads, which feels very different and much better most of the time, those and discord I actively enjoy! I also have Bluesky because just in case, I guess…and facebook because you have to, and a lot of writers’ groups are functioning only there.
I’ve entirely abandoned Twitter. I’m on Facebook (because family and IRL friends), Mastodon (because I think their approach toward social media is the way it should be), and Threads (because I don’t have enough reach with the previous two alone, and I need ways for people to find my services). Of those, Threads feels the most like the way Twitter used to be.
Yeah, I’ve abandoned Tweeter like so many others here. Right now I’m using YouTube as a way of finding interesting writers, then following their Substacks. I have accounts on BlueSky, Insta, Spoutible, and Mastodon (Where SF/F folks can be found), but it’s Just Too Much Effort to keep up with all of that. So mostly I’m sticking to a small handful of specialized Discord communities.
I’m off Twitter. I miss the writing community there, but I still have a bit of that on Facebook. I love Instagram for mindless fun, and for my audiobook work I’m on Facebook because that’s where my colleagues are. I have accounts on Threads and TikTok and sometimes I’ll have a look, but I’ve never posted on either.
It’s interesting to see what everyone else is looking at!
Discord and Substack for me.
Also, Nathan, my son and I were in the library today and ran across Jacob Wonderbar on the shelf! Can’t tell you how happy that made me.
Oh that’s amazing!
I love Flipboard. I find most of the social platforms insulting to the brain with the two largest run by a megalomaniac who forgot his morning meds and a CEO who abandoned public service for pure profit and the ability to watch and record every page I view. (Hover over a cute cat video for a few seconds and watch the kitty litter ads start to populate your feed) I love reading profiles and interviews with writers of fiction. But it took a while to figure out which sites weren’t paywalled, so I created my own magazine on Flipboard: Meet the Writer, with hundreds of paywall free interviews, profiles, and tips on craft from LitHub, LA review of Books and other sources. Find it here https://flipboard.com/@gregfitzger2023/meet-the-writer-paywall-free-7q7iis9hz?from=share&utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=curator_share and let me know what you think.
I have accounts in Threads, BlueSky, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Mastodon. I also belong to communities in Slack, Discord, and Medium. I left Xitter the day it was swallowed up by EM. Never really got into Tumblr.
I’m only *active* in some of these platforms (mostly Facebook, Instagram, Discord, Substack). The rest are just places to crosspost links to my blog, newsletter, and book trailers/marketing content.
I enjoy having exchanges with other writers and editors, publishers, readers, and I have diverse interests which end up being anchors for my writing and film projects, so it makes sense to find those “tribes” and share interests.
I just cut way back on Threads recently, however, after the moderation went down the toilet over the summer. Meanwhile, I’m seeing an uptick in BlueSky that’s likely Threads refugees.
My Facebook was taken away from me (after 15 years!) by a hacker/data breach via Instagram (mistake), so I no longer connect any of my Meta products because that was a painful hit with thousands of lost followers.
All this to say that once you find a comfort level, everything can change in a heartbeat. You don’t always own your social space; it could disappear JUST LIKE THAT. Less true for blogs and Substack (although these can be hacked as well).
For this reason, I’m trying to migrate off social media as a writer (just use it for stupid entertainment instead) as it doesn’t really move the needle that much in terms of book sales for all the effort I’ve put into building relationships (however parasocial) there.
I’d rather put more effort into groups in FB, Slack, Substack or Discord where chances are good there will be actual face-to-face events. Even LinkedIn groups have been better than microblogging like Threads or Xitter.
I find the more concentrated communities (and fediverses) are better for me at finding and keeping readers and like minds without all the interference of social media moderation, which is lopsided and often driven by bots, AI, and politics. If you belong to a marginalized community, you know how it can be such a “silencing” or shadowbanning kind of place as well.
Ultimately, I don’t think having a big social media presence does anything to sell books anymore. Maybe during the pandemic, but not now. I just offloaded several hundred accounts of writers in Threads that I used to follow with large audiences because they don’t engage at all.
Listen, people… I’m not there to be your fangirl, I’m a legit writer looking for other writers who actually care about their readers, who might also be writers. If all you want is followers and don’t care, then you lose people like me.