I have mentioned countless times that this blog‘s story and evolution will be told as it is being built. In itself, it can’t generate any traffic, because it is just a standalone website on the Internet amongst literally billions. Just like any kind of entertainment content, I need to increase its surface area of exposure. Therefore, any kind of social media platform allows just that and even better, it can create the series of chain reactions that allow increasingly more people to discover it. This post was published on August 8th, 2023, and that time, nobody is reading my blog nor following my social media accounts. Despite that, I still believe in their prowess and down below, you will learn why.
How My Social Media Usage Has Changed
Generally speaking, having a social media account is like an extension of ourselves into the virtual world. (the physical world being our direct surroundings and the people we encounter) I created my personal Facebook account back in 2014. That was the first account I ever created on a social media website if you do not consider any online video game websites as one. I have been very active on it ever since, because it was the only way to contact people for schoolwork especially. Nobody relied on emails for quick chats or projects. I remember at that time during high school, Facebook’s growth through word of mouth was so strong that everyone at my school was just talking about it.
“How come you are not on Facebook?”
“That girl is in a relationship with that guy. Have you seen their Facebook relationship status and picture together? Lovely!”
“Wow that guy just bought a new car! Have you seen his Facebook picture?”
The popular saying that the best startups grow by word of mouth was very true for it. Similarly with YouTube, I grew up watching a lot of videos on it and whenever I needed help in science, math, repairs, etc. , I would just watch tutorials on it. At the same time, there has been major backlash against social media over the years and a lot of mainstream media seem to urge us against it. We hear a lot about how they are weaponized to grab our attentions and keep us addicted. I want to admit upfront that I am not immune towards social media’s negative effects even for Facebook and YouTube. In fact, over the years, I have noticed my mental health deteriorate not only, because of all the negativity in my life, but also because many people around me looked down on one another based on their social media profiles. There are loads of undeniable evidence stating that it causes a lot of depression and bullying especially with kids. After reading and listening to it on countless podcasts and scientific research, I decided to put boundaries to temper my own depression and anxiety around it. More specifically, I make sure to use it without letting it destroy me by following these practices:
- Only logging into Facebook once a day before 12 PM to chat with some close people for 10 minutes maximum.
- Not using Facebook on my phone
- Only log into LinkedIn to send or accept connection requests, update my profile or reply to any potential messages (never got any though).
- Only using YouTube after uploading my own videos or as a reward after working on my own goals
- Only logging into Instagram to create posts towards my blog .
- Never scroll through any social media accounts for more than 20 seconds.
- Never follow anything that feels too negative or draining (news channel or people)
- Hard limit of 30 minutes a day to reply and engage with comments on all platforms
The only exception to spending more time replying to comments would be if anyone would give me feedback on how to improve the blog or anything. (but I know nobody or no one will be or is reading any of my content for likely many years probably. ) In the end, there is no right approach to using it healthily, because it depends on the platform and on the user specifically. I do not feel like I am missing out from not being on all of them like I used to. Before, I have created countless accounts on platforms like Discord, Slack, Asana, Reddit, Quora, WeChat, Math&Science Stack Exchanges, Pinterest or Tumblr, but I have since narrowed it down to only three. Being on social media just to feel like I belonged somewhere was the trap I fell for mostly from trying to chase the fad. However, I am glad I realized it somehow instead of remaining on them mindlessly.
Benefits
Despite all of the bad things about it, I am a firm believer that social media does OVERWHELMINGLY more good than harm. For almost everyone, it is a great way to show work and potentially let others know about the opportunities we seek. Even for anyone not making a living from it, it is still worthwhile to understand. For example, in one of my previous jobs, I had to handle a few social media accounts so without my personal knowledge about it, I would have struggled. The most successful bloggers I look up to all without any exception promote heavily their blogs on social media. Not just them, but I have also noticed many athletes and celebrities setup their own social media profiles to take ownership of their names and brands. By doing so, they get massive leverage when it comes to sponsorship deals, to get special offers or even free services and products. Because billions of people are connected on at least one social media platform, the odds that at least one person will discover any of your content are almost guaranteed. I am not suggesting you will become automatically and eternally popular from it, but it has a powerful network effect that is advantageous if used the right way.
Objective
My goal will never be massive popularity, virality or becoming a household name. It will be instead to have a loyal and engaged audience that I can build upon and financially thrive with. Any social media platform takes time to grow and get discovered just like my blog. This is especially true since I am not an impressive celebrity. I once tried sending 70 cold invitations to random people on LinkedIn and only 5 accepted them. Therefore, I understood that I do not have a choice, but to let it grow organically and do my best to promote it in-person. Like I stated previously, I don’t have to be present on ALL platforms. I would rather just use ones that I am very familiar with. For instance, I find Instagram to be very intuitive and simple. Similarly, I have been watching YouTube videos since 2007 so I might as well have a small YouTube channel. I do not use Facebook, because honestly, I do not like using it and it is energy draining. I am not suggesting that I will never use any other platform, but only for now, they remain on my radar.
Conclusion
I would encourage anyone to put personal boundaries around social media if they feel like it is ruining their lives. You do not have to adopt my practices, but only ones that suit your life best. I had to search other people’s social media consumption habits online to figure out mines so you might have to tweak this a little. I would not suggest deleting ALL of your accounts, but only the ones that are not used frequently or for actual useful purposes. For example, I created a Discord account to work on a group project for one of my classes, but I stopped using it after being done with that project. I once created Stack Exchanges accounts just to ask homework questions, but afterwards, I deleted them. I recognized it is a challenge, because a lot of social groups have online profiles to notify you of events or to organize gatherings so there are still compelling reasons to use it. No matter what, I am sure there is always a way around it without hindering your mental health. If you are one of those rare people that are unaffected no matter how frequently you use it or what you see on it, then more power to you! On the other hand, leveraging social media to promote content will be the key to effective blogging. It is a proven and probably the only way I am familiar with that can make this work. Acquiring only five people through it might not seem like much, but they are extremely valuable to create the necessary traffic growth momentum. It will take time to find my voice, brand, personality and ultimately my true life purpose, but let this serve as an experiment coming from a totally unknown, nobody born and brought up from the middle of nowhere.
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