Saturday 30 May 2015

Social networking

Today the prompt from Cate is this: Sometimes as bloggers we forget to tell people about the other spaces we occupy. Today, tell your readers about your social media spaces, and any other places you can be found.
Now, I have embraced the whole social networking scene right from what was, for me, the beginning.  Friends Reunited.  I loved that site!  It was such fun to contact people I hadn't seen or heard of for years.  It was the first way of reaching out to people and find them easily.  I reconnected with quite a few people from school and it was really lovely to share what we've all been up to in the last forty years.  We can't have been left school that long, can we?  Oh blimey, yes it is that long next year.  How did I get to be so old? 
Anyway, I digress (as is often the way of people of my advanced age)it was a quick hop, skip and a jump to Facebook.  I signed up for that when my daughter's friend went on a gap year after leaving school in 2004.  She said she would post photos of her travels on there and suggested that I join so I could see them too.  I know that Facebook was never really intended for anyone of my generation but we seem to be quite prolific there nowadays.  When they suspended my account for a few weeks due to some internal error a couple of years ago I was ridiculously upset.  I would see a friend who would talk about something that was being shared on there and I felt like a child who's not allowed to join in the fun in the playground. As it seemed impossible to find out how to fix it I ended up making a second account, a day later they admitted their mistake and reinstated my old one!  If you know me on my blog and we're not friends yet on Facebook, please do add me, I'm easy to find, just so long as you remember that my surname is Keyworth.  As their are two accounts, one with the name Deb and one with Debbie please choose the right (original) one!
 
'Join twitter' someone said to me 'it's amazing what's on there' and sure enough I discovered several tweeters (twits?) that I knew and it sure is a good way of finding out if there are problems on the trains!  I'm not much of a tweeter, but regularly check people who do.
'Text messaging is so old fashioned Mum' I was told as one of my children downloaded Whatsapp for me on my phone and the other one set up an account for me.  Now I use it on a daily basis, and it's great to be able to send photos for free.  Plus you get some really cute emojis. If I choose my 'frequently used' you'll see these
 
Does this tell you something about the messages I send?  I love the fact I can set up groups and send one message to several people.
Instagram.  I love Instagram.  It's probably my most checked app on my phone.  Although I do see more plates of food than is necessary for someone on Slimming World, it's such a fab way of photo sharing and I love using it.  That was probably the reason why I was sad when I couldn't access Facebook, as they own Instagram I was locked out of that too.  I think I missed Instagram most!  If you use it too, please befriend me there -  I'm debs14 - I can offer lots of pictures of a cute dog and once Rinda's Scavenger Hunt is underway I will be posting my finds there.
 
But here's the thing.  I like to keep all these things separate.  I don't link any account to any other.  You won't see my blog details on Facebook and I don't tweet about it either.  I don't know why, I just don't share my blog around. I'm more than happy to have people add me as a friend on any of those networks, if you see my name please say hello - but you'll never see a 'on my blog today ...' status update. 
Do you think I should share the blog around?  Do you link everything to every other thing?  Let me know, maybe it's time for change! 

5 comments:

joy said...

Having just read this, I'll be off in a moment to find you on FB and IG, but I don't do twitter. I always post my blog on Facebook as I'm not sure if anyone would read it otherwise.
I might have a look at whatsapp now I have a smarter-than-me phone, so thanks for the tip-off. I'm well into my 60s now and have made so many new real and virtual friends directly through social media, I love it.
Joy x x

Fiona@Staring at the Sea said...

It's an interesting subject. I know a lot of people have a bunch of social media icons on their blogs. I sometimes share my blog posts on FB, if I think any of my friends might be interested. Traffic goes up when I do, which isn't that important to me, but commenting doesn't tend to. I don't have my FB account linked from my blog. They are quite separate things to me and I wouldn't want just any random person who happened to read my blog as a "friend" on there.

Sian said...

I find most social media a bit overwhelming. I post links to blog posts on my blog FB page, but I don't use it in a personal way, unless sometimes tags me and then I sign in specially! My blog is the best way to find me.

scrappyjacky said...

I'm on Facebook, but don't often post....and don't want to connect it to my blog either....I put far more on my blog than I do on FB.

Cheri said...

It's funny because we all use it all for different things and in different ways. My Facebook account has family, extended family, old friends, current friends, co-workers and blog friends. It is quite the mix, so I have to consider the audience when I post there, which isn't often. My blog, on the other hand, is mostly blog friends and a few select family members who read it. My co-workers don't know about it and even most of my closest friends can't seem to be bothered to read or comment there although they know about it. With just my blog friends as the vast majority of my audience, I feel much more comfortable being "me" on my blog!