I know, I know...I haven't posted in weeks! Don't feel completely blown out of the water, I am behind on ALL of my social media!. Keeping up with Social Media alone is a full time job. There is Facebook (my business page, I don't even remember if I HAVE a personal page!), Twitter, 2 Blogs, G+ ( the new kid in town), a Newsletter that I don't have a lot of people signing up for (sigh), and my new website. Yes, I am making a new business website that I thought would be a snap. Until I realized that it would NOT be because I wasn't making it on iWeb again. I decided to join the big shrinks and (take a deep breath now...) do it on WORDPRESS to make it look more professional.
If you are reading this, it probably means you may be blogging on Blogger and that is how you found me. If you are on Blogger you made a choice to be here. It's quick. Easy. And you don't need to know code. Wordpress is none of the above. It is difficult, slow, and you can do it without code, but you don't get a very creative website.
I found a theme (which of course was NOT free) which is easIER (not simple of course) than the typical WP themes. But it has taken up a HUGE amount of my time and I am not finished yet.
So I have spent a HUGE amount of time working on the new and (hopefully) improved website, as well as helping my darling daughter with her IB project on The Girl Effect (which means I am macraming my arthritic fingers to the bone to make bracelets, necklaces, and the occasional lanyard. All made with hemp and expensive beads!
"What does this have to to with ignoring The Couch Trip", you ask? Well what happens when you are trying to build (or in my case REbuild) a business - every article you read includes two words:
SOCIAL MEDIA
Excessive and CONSISTENT involvement in Social Media is the ONLY way to market any more (I know-what ever happened to running a paper ad?). And you can't just do one, you have to be actively involved in it all...Facebook Business Page, Twitter, Newsletters, Blogging, Google+ (which I love btw - it is kind of like Facebook for Grownups), LinkedIn, and a whole host of others that I have dropped the ball on and am not involved in.When real life occurs, or I have patients, or I'm being a Mom, or a Web Site Developer, how do I keep up?
I have been "silent" on my Facebook business page for about a week. I checked my impressions : (FB can tell who has read your post, where it went, how many people shared or liked it, and practically WHERE they were when they read it!) I posted yesterday. ONE person read it. ONE!
Now I probably should have written a Mea Culpa or at least told them I was on hiatus building a site and macraming but everyone else seems to be able to juggle a job, single parenting, and writing copy for 4 or 5 different social media sites, why can't I?
I've thought about this a lot. Because while I have been struggling to create an amazing shrink-site, I realized the cost. I may have to start completely over on Facebook, Blogger, and Twitter to rebuild an audience. Not to mention if I don't get another newsletter cranked out soon there may be a full blown mutiny!
Or, perhaps I over estimate my existence...maybe no one even noticed I was off line for a while?
When did Social Media take over our lives? Remember that woman that was in jail for playing a game on Facebook and got so involved that her child drowned! Have you ever been busy with life that you couldn't tweet or blog? What happens? Do people write and ask if you are OK or do they blow you off? And does it make a difference if you are doing this for fun, or as a marketing tool. Now for me, it is kinda for BOTH. I love writing. I used to have a blog when I was very sick. I wrote about Knitting as an escape from Lupus and extensive hospital visits. But is it becoming excessive (and yet this shrink is CONSTANTLY preaching from her Shrink Chair about SHADES OF GREY! "It's not Black or White...look for the GREY!" )?
Physician heal thyself!
So are YOU involved in Social Media? In ALL of it or just one piece? For fun or business? And what happens when life interferes? How do YOU deal with it? In order for me to write or tweet about something behind the scenes, that 140 character blurb equals an hour of reading articles to find one that is worthy of people reading, and I have to sum it up in 125 characters + the link to the article. And if you are posting different places you can't just post the same thing every where - you need to be creative, post different places (more reading, sorting, deciding, summarizing).
It all reminds me of the scene in The Devil Wears Prada where Ann Hathaway is standing in Meryl Streep's office wearing a "lumpy blue sweater." Meryl gives Ann a brutal lecture on how many hours and dollars went into creating that ugly blue sweater, which was chosen for her by the people in that very room they stood in as Ann snickered about thinking she was so above this "fashion" thing.
Oh, if you want the link for Macrame Bracelets (many made by this very shrink) go to: Smoky Hill Girl Effect. I know, a shameless plug.
Until I can get another blog cranked out,
Dr Karen
4 comments:
RLOL! Got alot of chuckles from this post as I can sooo relate. Social media...I often wonder exactly what social experience there is in social media...not face to face where one can read the body language, not the intonations of the voice (well yes there is written intonations I realize), nor the joy of looking into the eyes of another face. Mmmmm....social networking is missing something in my humble opinion. And after being in the corporate market for years, my two cent advice would be to pick your one major venue and link that to all the other medias. For example this blog...if that is what you want your main focus to be....continue with it, make a facebook page for it and friend others through that facebook page, create a twitter account for it and maybe tweet that a new post is out on twitter but I would never let this social media robe me of my true love...living face to face with the world at large.
@Deb aka murphthesurf
Tee Hee I was afraid people were going to be angry bc this was more of a ...Psychology of Social Media INSANITY post, as opposed to strict psychology!
Then I realized that YOU are probably the only person reading...maybe I should just email you, and screw the pretty pics and spell checking!
I agree with your ideas and that is what i try to do. I will tweet about this, and FB about it. NOW...how many people will READ IT (since my readers think I have found a new career no doubt) THAT is another issue!
If you are on Facebook, check out Mari Smith. She is the FB Guru (she is also on Google+, has 49,000 followers on FB, over 12,000 on Twitter. She is into Social Media BIG TIME (and is funny as heck).
If you need something to take your mind off the pain...check out her on any of the above.
Oh if you are on Google+ (Dr Karen Hoving) or Twitter (@drkahoving), FB (www.facebook.com/drkarenhoving)
check me out!
Namaste,
Karen (your own personal blogger)
@Dr Karen
I am the entertainer,
The idol of my age.
I make all kinds of money,
When I go on the stage.
Ah, you've seen me in the papers,
I've been in the magazines.
But if I go cold,
I won't get sold.
I'll get put in the back
In the discount rack,
Like another can of beans.
Billy Joel, "Entertainer", Album: "Streetlight Serenade", Columbia Records, 1974.
Yes, 1974. The medium has changed, but the challenge remains.
(the benefits of social media can be a blessing; the demands, a curse.)
thanks, Karen!
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