Thursday, April 9, 2015

My Return to Facebook


Unlike a lot of people, Facebook was not my introduction to social media. I actually used Twitter first and it wasn't until I created a fan page for my employer that I started dabbling with Facebook on a personal level. Twitter quickly became my favorite outlet and, just as quickly, I came to see Facebook as a collection of photos of other people’s babies and cats. Lots of cats.

One of the purposes for my blog is to give readers an opportunity to learn more about me by providing access to my social media pages via the widget in sidebar. Until recently, I didn't include my Facebook profile on that widget because...well, there wasn't much to share. Not only have I not posted much to my Facebook timeline over the past few years, I rarely even look at it. Facebook was so unappealing to me that I turned off all notifications and didn't have the app on my phone.

“OH WOW” MOMENT

I was content with continuing this approach to Facebook until a recent reminder that lots of people (especially Boston Red Sox fans) use Facebook. There’s no denying the fact that Facebook is still the top dog and if I want to be known as someone worth his social media marketing salt, it’s would behoove me to get active on Facebook again - and fast.

WHERE TO START? 

I decided that my first step would be to boost my Facebook activity with a combination of manual posts and cross-posting from other social media apps like Instagram. Automating posts using IFTTT recipes has also helped.

Side note: it's been interesting to see how the cross-posting has helped me gain Instagram followers. Many are already Facebook friends.

STAY ACTIVE

Earlier in my career, I worked in a marketing role for a financial institution in south Alabama. Each week, the local newspaper featured interviews with citizens having fun at the Escambia County Senior Center. The questions were always the same, including one about the secret to a long life. So many of the responses explained that the key was remaining physically active.

I try to apply this mantra to a lot of areas of my life - including blogging. It makes sense to keep my writing muscles in shape. Even though I don’t really know Carson V. Heady, his recent tweet reaffirms this notion.


I have enjoyed my return to Facebook, even though I'm still seeing a lot of cat photos. That's OK - I look forward to catching up on some of the features that millions of other people have already discovered.

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