Wednesday, December 16, 2015

The 50 Things I’m No Good At With Social Media

I am no good at a lot of social media things … which is a bit tough to admit as a social media marketer!

I don’t use a smartphone. I’m scared of Snapchat. I’m not entirely sure what WhatsApp does.

I can think of 50 social media things (and probably more) where I could improve. The things I am good at—mostly the things that Buffer helps me with, like scheduling, consistency, stats, analysis—make for a solid foundation, and I’m keen to make strides on the rest.

Step one: Admitting ’em all!

I hope this list inspires you or entertains you or helps you to know that social media marketers like me don’t always have our act together. And I’d absolutely love to hear any thoughts this brings up for you or any tips you have for ways I can improve.

Here goes!

50 areas to improve

1. I can do better with mobile social

I don’t use social media on a mobile device, which puts me squarely in the minority of all Americans and the absolute minority of people my age.

There’s this interesting stat from Marketing Profs, too: Among smartphone owners, 79 percent keep their phone with them for all but two hours of their day! And a full 1/4 of people can never recall a time when the phone was not close to them.

3021749-inline-i-3-10-surprising-social-media-statistics-that-will-make-rethink-your-social-strategy

GPOY: I’ve just gone to take a picture of my phone and I’ve no idea where it is!

Ah, found it. This is my phone:

image_23749050005_o

2. I can do better with Pinterest

When Buffer announced Pinterest integration (yes! awesome! woohoo!), I was stoked to get really good at Pinterest.

I haven’t yet.

A good microcosm of my Pinning problems is this one-word description I wrote for a pin.

pinterest caption

Wut?

I’ve been really bad at remembering to pin the things I find online. I’ve been bad at coming up with boards that reflect my true interests and aren’t there for search and keywords opportunities. I’ve been bad—as you can tell from my descriptions—at Pinterest SEO!

3. I can do better with sharing things that aren’t links

The last time I tweeted without a link (not counting retweets with comments, or replies to people) was September 23—80 days.

Phileas Fogg went around the world in less time!

4. I can do better at telling you more about me

I’ve taken a pretty strict approach to what I share to social media: It’s pretty much all my favorite articles on writing, blogging, marketing, and the web. It’s very little about my personal life, what I’m up to this weekend, the things I enjoy, the places I love.

Here’s a bit of a makeup list:

  • This weekend, I’m going to IKEA! Looking for a desk chair for the office. Any recommendations?
  • Fun fact: The nearest IKEA is six hours away from me, near one of my favorite cities in the world: Park City, Utah.
  • I think I might watch a Mystery Science Theater movie tonight. Love ’em!
  • There’s this place in Boise called Boise Fry Co. that I love, and yes, I will absolutely take you there if you’re ever in town!

5. I can do better at taking pictures of myself

I think there’s something beautiful and simple about wanting to be fully present in a moment and choosing to remember things vividly in your memories. And this might be why I haven’t shared any pictures of myself on social media in 2015.

6. I can do better at Instagram

This ties into the part about my being no good with taking pictures of myself. Reflecting a bit, I imagine there’s a bit of self-consciousness to it. I’d rather not put my face out there for all to see because I’m not sure what people will think of my face! (Wow, that sounds a bit raw. I’d love to know if that thought resonates with you at all!) (Not about my face but about yours, haha.)

Part two: I feel like a smartphone would be super handy to have here.

7. I can do better at Google+

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

(How does Google+ fit with your social media strategy in 2016? I’d be grateful to learn from you!)

8. I’m good at Tumblr, but not in a particularly useful way

One of the social networks I use most often is Tumblr, which I use to … get this … look at funny dog pictures.

tumblr screenshot

9. I can do better with figuring out what to share on Facebook

Ooh boy, I could spin this into a whole post on Facebook strategy given how much thought I’ve had here. What should I even be doing on Facebook?

What do you do on Facebook?

There’s the obvious (and probably correct) answer to just share about myself, which as you may have noticed from earlier in the post I’m not terribly good at. Someone who I think does this really well is our co-founder Leo.

Another thought I had: Maybe I could just share a certain topic or niche of myself on Facebook, like my thoughts and reactions to the books I read.

Or maybe I could share all those Tumblr dog pics I like.

And given whatever choice I make, how will it affect my personal brand?

And will I have to pay for reach anyway?

Analysis = paralysis

10. I’ve never taken a snap

If I could click my heels together and be a social media pro on any one network, I might just choose Snapchat. As it is, I’ve never gained the courage to dip even so much as a toe into it.

11. I imagine I’d be quite bad at sketching on Snapchat

Yep.

image_23381241869_o

12. I can do better at responding to mentions

I feel so fortunate to be connected with the Buffer brand and to have the chance to write for an amazing blog like this one. All of my social media growth can be traced back to this awesome opportunity with Buffer, and the growth has brought some incredible opportunities to connect with people around the globe.

I could be doing so much better at my stewardship of this awesome privilege.

As it is, I might go weeks without checking my Twitter mentions. Twitter caps the notifications icon number at “99+,” which is an amazing number to hit and I’m so grateful for so many people reaching out and I am just so bad at getting back to folks.

99 mentions

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Just the other day, looking through the mentions, I’ve missed all these amazing chances to connect with amazing people:

Thank you, thank you, thank you to those who have reached out!

I’d love to improve my engagement game. How do you all do it?

I’ve tried email notifications, but they tend to flood my inbox.

I’ve tried desktop notifications but found them too distracting.

I’m especially torn about how bad I am with responding because responding is one of the most vital things we tell brands and businesses to do on social media. And I don’t!

13. I can do better at Twitter chats

I have the wonderful opportunity to participate (and sometimes host) our weekly #bufferchat on Twitter. It’s amazingly fun, and I forget most all the Twitter chat etiquette the moment it begins.

  1. I fail to inform my followers that I’ll be tweeting tons over the next hour.
  2. I forget to add the #bufferchat hashtag (which is the entire foundation for how Twitter chats work!).
  3. I miss out on most of the conversation because I’m trying to answer the question and track my mentions, and by the time I might go out and see what people are saying, it’s time to answer things again!

14. I can do better at sharing other people’s content

My sharing ratio is off: I share way more of my own stuff than I do of the awesome things others make.

Particularly when it comes to those specific outreach messages from friends and colleagues who are excited for me to check out their latest article—in some cases, ones I’ve contributed to! I’ll add the article to Pocket, forget to my read my Pocket for a week or so, then not remember what I was supposed to tweet or share.

15. I can do better at following people back

In the last 60 days, I’ve followed a grand total of 40 people, and my sense is that a good portion of those people are new Buffer teammates we’ve added!

16. I can do better with notifications

I’m good at being notified (email notifications, in-app messages when I’m signed into Twitter or Facebook). I’m really bad at replying in the moment and then equally bad at remembering to come back and reply later.

17. I can do better with real-time events

I love watching sports on TV or the Oscars or lots of other real-time events where it’s so cool to engage and follow along with your social media friends.

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