Social media for someone who would prefer not to bother
December 17, 2017 8:14 AM Subscribe
I'm getting on social media for career purposes and am trying to find a way to be connected with as little time investment as possible. Any advice for creating efficiencies or services I could pay for to help me get set up?
Friends who are on facebook/instagram/Twitter spend a lot of time on social media, I'm trying to avoid that.
Friends who are on facebook/instagram/Twitter spend a lot of time on social media, I'm trying to avoid that.
I schedule “review/update social media” in my calendar. I slot 1/2-1hr in the morning to do that while I’m having coffee, emailing, reviewing my calendar, etc. And I cycle through platforms on a schedule, too. I also keep a document where I jot down ideas for posts when they come to me, and then save posting them for the times I have scheduled to deal with social media. When I started thinking of my social media use as a task on my “to do list,” I stopped treating it as a reflexive response to boredom or distraction and falling down its endless rabbit holes a little less often as a response.
posted by pinkacademic at 8:33 AM on December 17, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by pinkacademic at 8:33 AM on December 17, 2017 [9 favorites]
If you're mainly going to be putting stuff out on various channels, rather than reading and heavily interacting, there are tons of social media cross-posting services out there. I've used Buffer before to pretty handily manage multiple social media profiles.
posted by Happy Dave at 8:35 AM on December 17, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Happy Dave at 8:35 AM on December 17, 2017 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: (Assume I am good with tech but haven't used social media platforms, currently whenever I log onto facebook I'm overwhelmed by high school friends polls about what kind of cookies they like best and pictures of cute kids doing various cute kid things)
posted by stewiethegreat at 8:37 AM on December 17, 2017
posted by stewiethegreat at 8:37 AM on December 17, 2017
The "unfollow" button is your friend. If you uncheck that box you remain connected to people and can visit their pages whenever you like, but won't have their cat posts etc. cluttering up your feed.
posted by rpfields at 8:40 AM on December 17, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by rpfields at 8:40 AM on December 17, 2017 [2 favorites]
On FB, I also greatly enjoy using
'Hide all from X
Stop seeing posts from this Page'
It's a good way to limit your exposure to re-shared memes, clickbait, would-be viral content, etc.
posted by box at 9:16 AM on December 17, 2017 [1 favorite]
'Hide all from X
Stop seeing posts from this Page'
It's a good way to limit your exposure to re-shared memes, clickbait, would-be viral content, etc.
posted by box at 9:16 AM on December 17, 2017 [1 favorite]
Facebook Purity is a browser extension meant to tame all the FB nonsense.
posted by deludingmyself at 9:23 AM on December 17, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by deludingmyself at 9:23 AM on December 17, 2017 [1 favorite]
Don’t put the apps on your phone. Check in only once a day, only from a computer.
I disagree. I would actually argue that doing Twitter and social media on your phone means you can get in some time when you're otherwise not doing anything. Like standing in line or sitting on the toilet. So I would put the apps on your phone and check in during time you have nothing else to do. I don't know about Facebook, but Twitter is great on mobile.
posted by AppleTurnover at 9:46 AM on December 17, 2017 [1 favorite]
I disagree. I would actually argue that doing Twitter and social media on your phone means you can get in some time when you're otherwise not doing anything. Like standing in line or sitting on the toilet. So I would put the apps on your phone and check in during time you have nothing else to do. I don't know about Facebook, but Twitter is great on mobile.
posted by AppleTurnover at 9:46 AM on December 17, 2017 [1 favorite]
I should add, you can turn off notifications on your phone if you want, so you won't be pestered by the app and still have to manually check to see anything.
posted by AppleTurnover at 9:55 AM on December 17, 2017
posted by AppleTurnover at 9:55 AM on December 17, 2017
What "career purposes" are you hoping to get out of your social media usage? If you share a bit more about your goals here, folks may be able to help you better.
E.g., if you don't like social media and don't make time to connect with relevant folks and contribute to the relevant conversations to your field, you're probably not going to successfully network or expand your presence as a thought leader (if that's what you're going for). That said, if you just need a semi-active Twitter presence with at least ~500+ followers to show some basic social media chops and demonstrate a bit more legitimacy in whatever role you're in, that's a different goal that may be more achievable within your constraints.
posted by kylej at 1:10 PM on December 17, 2017 [2 favorites]
E.g., if you don't like social media and don't make time to connect with relevant folks and contribute to the relevant conversations to your field, you're probably not going to successfully network or expand your presence as a thought leader (if that's what you're going for). That said, if you just need a semi-active Twitter presence with at least ~500+ followers to show some basic social media chops and demonstrate a bit more legitimacy in whatever role you're in, that's a different goal that may be more achievable within your constraints.
posted by kylej at 1:10 PM on December 17, 2017 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Leadership in my organization is highly tuned into social media. Not much conversation, activity is mostly personal (ski trips, kid pics, etc.) Or professional (here's this thing I'm doing), and responses are chatty and supportive. Ideal outcome for me would be getting a daily digest (Anna went skiing, Barry's daughter had a cello concert, Charlie ran a field trip and accomplished X) and I could send a few quick responses (like, "she sounds great!", thumbs up) and could post a couple of times a week when i had relevant updates. I prefer to have relationships 1:1 so this isn't a natural thing for me, but it is a way my organization stays connected.
Thanks for the advice so far.
posted by stewiethegreat at 2:36 PM on December 17, 2017
Thanks for the advice so far.
posted by stewiethegreat at 2:36 PM on December 17, 2017
If you aren't wanting to "unfollow" people, because you want to keep in the loop socially, you can always "hide all" from a specific page by clicking the top right (of a post - it's sometimes invisible until you mouse over it). This is great for those people who are always sharing posts about animal abuse or propaganda news. Just "hide all" from the pages that are so offensive or prolific, but not the person who shares them. It's also great for hiding those stupid games that keep posting automatic scores on a person's page, too.
posted by itsflyable at 5:16 PM on December 17, 2017
posted by itsflyable at 5:16 PM on December 17, 2017
Are you going to focus on any platforms in particular? I have a different sanity approach for each one.
Twitter includes TweetDeck and lists of accounts and specific searches to quickly find content. Buffer with browser extension for curating and sharing. I grab interesting content as I come across it, Buffer it in the moment, and watch it drip over the next days and weeks.
On Facebook, various extensions can hide the Newsfeed or you can use apps to access specific, limited parts of the platform, like Groups. Get to know the privacy settings. When you follow a person or page, decide your setting: do you want to also get notifications from the page or person? Do you want the person to see everything you post? Create groups from the start and keep your people organized. You can also post to FB from Buffer (nice way to hit post 1x for both platforms) but iirc the formatting and post metadata aren't as extensive and you can also schedule within Facebook.
You can do automatic crossposting, ex what you post on Instagram also goes to FB, but I don't usually rely on it. Prefer to do separate posts since each platform takes a different feel. However I have friends who have their Insta linked to their Facebook and it seems to work for them.
I do use IFTTT for a few things related to automation, like an autopost to Twitter when I post to one of my Instagram accounts.
Internet moderation tools like Freedom can whitelist and blacklist sites to keep you honest about when and how often you go to the websites.
Currently I check Facebook weekly. Back when I used it daily, I set a time to intentionally NOT use it -- a tech Sabbath. I have just a few apps and don't let them give push notifications. I check in with myself to make sure social media is a net benefit to my life. Think about exactly what your career goals are, and design and adjust your use accordingly.
You will take a privacy hit. If that concerns you, read up before starting, and stay informed as the platforms shift their terms and options over time.
posted by rockyraccoon at 7:30 PM on December 17, 2017
Twitter includes TweetDeck and lists of accounts and specific searches to quickly find content. Buffer with browser extension for curating and sharing. I grab interesting content as I come across it, Buffer it in the moment, and watch it drip over the next days and weeks.
On Facebook, various extensions can hide the Newsfeed or you can use apps to access specific, limited parts of the platform, like Groups. Get to know the privacy settings. When you follow a person or page, decide your setting: do you want to also get notifications from the page or person? Do you want the person to see everything you post? Create groups from the start and keep your people organized. You can also post to FB from Buffer (nice way to hit post 1x for both platforms) but iirc the formatting and post metadata aren't as extensive and you can also schedule within Facebook.
You can do automatic crossposting, ex what you post on Instagram also goes to FB, but I don't usually rely on it. Prefer to do separate posts since each platform takes a different feel. However I have friends who have their Insta linked to their Facebook and it seems to work for them.
I do use IFTTT for a few things related to automation, like an autopost to Twitter when I post to one of my Instagram accounts.
Internet moderation tools like Freedom can whitelist and blacklist sites to keep you honest about when and how often you go to the websites.
Currently I check Facebook weekly. Back when I used it daily, I set a time to intentionally NOT use it -- a tech Sabbath. I have just a few apps and don't let them give push notifications. I check in with myself to make sure social media is a net benefit to my life. Think about exactly what your career goals are, and design and adjust your use accordingly.
You will take a privacy hit. If that concerns you, read up before starting, and stay informed as the platforms shift their terms and options over time.
posted by rockyraccoon at 7:30 PM on December 17, 2017
If there are specific people you want to follow/interact with on Twitter for business purposes, add them to their own Twitter List. That way even if you're following more accounts on Twitter, you can just check in there to see the recent updates from the people you're there to interact with and you don't have to go hunting through your whole news feed.
Nthing IFTTT--you'll want to be careful about what recipes you have set up, but setting up something like the recipe for posting Instagram photos as native Twitter photos is a good one.
If you're considering scheduling software, Hootsuite's free version is pretty robust and has a lot of useful tools.
posted by helloimjennsco at 11:18 AM on December 18, 2017
Nthing IFTTT--you'll want to be careful about what recipes you have set up, but setting up something like the recipe for posting Instagram photos as native Twitter photos is a good one.
If you're considering scheduling software, Hootsuite's free version is pretty robust and has a lot of useful tools.
posted by helloimjennsco at 11:18 AM on December 18, 2017
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posted by something something at 8:30 AM on December 17, 2017 [4 favorites]