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A few things to consider: Why do you want to get good at social media? You mention spamming tags and subscribing to things that they don't care about. What is

by anw 6y ago

A few things to consider: Why do you want to get good at social media? You mention spamming tags and subscribing to things that they don't care about. What is the outcome you want from this? Getting a lot of likes/RTs? Getting a lot of followers? If that's the outcome you want, then it sounds more like you want some form of community where you can feel appreciated or encouraged. Social Media is a vacuum of constant churn, and you won't find fulfillment there. There are exceptions, but I strongly recommend thinking about what things you like to do and try to find your community in real life where the reward is so much higher. Join a tabletop game club, take French cooking classes, go to some Yoga meetups. I know now is not an opportune time to go out and meet people, but it's a hell of a lot healthier for your mind and body to be around real people when the time comes. Don't waste your time on social media right now. Build yourself up, learn something new, create something cool. If you get one of those things done, share it on social media if you want, and maybe you'll find some cool people who share your passions or interests.

klohto 6y ago
Pretty sure OP is trying to grow a community/following about a relevant subject so his marketing is effective.
qznc 6y ago
I get the vibes that thrwaway69 does it professionally. Maybe some social media manager job? In that case a tabletop game club will not be helpful.
thrwaway69 6y ago
No. I wouldn't use any popular social media if I could. It's for promotion of a project. To expand on the problem, I have only once or twice susbcribed to an email listing. I consider all the other spam, irrelevant and Will never check them unless forced (some sites do even when you pay them) and other missed to opt out. I don't like seeing people spamming follow me or subscribe to me everywhere either. I know the functionality is there and I would if I want to. I don't care about most of what brands post? I don't want to see a corporate puppy in my feed. I don't want to know that you have a discount running and retweeting this will give a hypothetical chance of winning a giveaway if I have no need for the product. I don't consider businesses intrusive tracking and analytics everywhere ethical. I don't want to participate in signalling that businesses do. Most businesses need to make money and pretending they care more beyond is ughh. Most social media UX sucks. It's unintuitive to use and horrible (see twitter). I have the google paradox, if you can easily find it on google why do I need to share it to you? This is wrong pattern of thinking but this does make me tired mentally when posting something. Obviously, the problem is entirely me I keep trying but deep down, I don't even want to support the platform by engaging on them. It just feels bad to have an ulterior motive behind posting a cute puppy pic.
- nl 6y ago
  > It just feels bad to have an ulterior motive behind posting a cute puppy pic Is your project about puppies? If not then don't spam it! It's low value marketing and you feel bad because you are deliberately trying to trick people. Maybe try to get your product in front of people who actually want it.
- P_I_Staker 6y ago
  I'm not saying "use Facebook", because that doesn't seem responsible these days. However, you can use it and tune out the puppy picks, and just use chat, events, and maybe picture sharing; ie. what Facebook should be for from the perspective of end-users.
- klibertp 6y ago
  Is your project something targeted at a general populace? How large the following do you need for it to succeed? As other commenters mentioned, all the puppies, celebrities, politicians, and everything else you see in the "social media" are precisely the things that work on the vast majority of people. Things that pull on the strings which seem to be directly attached to our most primal instincts. We all have those instincts, and we're all vulnerable to their exploitation. I think that the majority of people either are not aware or don't really care about being manipulated, as long as they get their fun in the end. If you're going to need the widespread support of tens of thousands or more, then you have no other way than to provide them what they - consciously or not - (came to) expect. In the infinite diversity of human characters, though, some people are aware of the hidden (in plain sight...) dangers and manipulation techniques and do not want to be targeted by them. They're a tiny minority (again, in my experience), but thanks to the Internet, you can find a number of them. I get the feeling that you're a part of that "crowd" and that you'd be happier targeting just them. Try to think it through. How many people do you really need in your network for the project to succeed? Can you get away with just the ones you share a mindset with? If so, don't bother searching for them in the mainstream. The time you'd spend feeling bad and hesitating to post another puppy can be better spent by looking outside of the puppy-infested hate-laden cesspool of popular opinion. This may sound elitist, but it's really not. Being in the minority and preferring to stay within that minority is a perfectly natural thing to do. You don't really have to do any coming out if you don't need it. Stay where you feel comfortable, or at least start from there. It could take you more time to accomplish whatever it is you want, but you'll be much happier along the way. My advice if you actually really need widespread support and fast: hire a firm which will do this for you. As many others said in this thread, they are pros at this game, and you're not going to get results better than them by yourself, even if you ruin your mental health many times over.
P_I_Staker 6y ago
People love to say stuff like this, but the truth is these things aren't mutually exclusive. Having a big network can help lead to opportunities to connect IRL. That (should be) the point of social media, or a big part of it. Where it's really useful is in connecting together casual acquaintances, in a way that wasn't really possible before. If I meet someone IRL, I can friend them on Facebook, interact, see similar interests, and meet-up. Before, this was much harder. I couldn't see that this one person I had a great conversation a month ago with is really looking for people to play board games. It's easier to know that an old friend actually doesn't live that far from you now. Obviously, there are issues with this (eg. MLM), and it doesn't always happen. However, Facebook at least, is clearly a useful tool. So I don't know what people are talking about when they say "don't social media, socialize IRL". Not necessarily what you were saying, and you were addressing specific statements from OP, but I thought this needed to be pointed out.

by anw 6y ago

klohto 6y ago

Pretty sure OP is trying to grow a community/following about a relevant subject so his marketing is effective.

qznc 6y ago

I get the vibes that thrwaway69 does it professionally. Maybe some social media manager job? In that case a tabletop game club will not be helpful.

thrwaway69 6y ago

No. I wouldn't use any popular social media if I could. It's for promotion of a project. To expand on the problem, I have only once or twice susbcribed to an email listing. I consider all the other spam, irrelevant and Will never check them unless forced (some sites do even when you pay them) and other missed to opt out. I don't like seeing people spamming follow me or subscribe to me everywhere either. I know the functionality is there and I would if I want to. I don't care about most of what brands post? I don't want to see a corporate puppy in my feed. I don't want to know that you have a discount running and retweeting this will give a hypothetical chance of winning a giveaway if I have no need for the product. I don't consider businesses intrusive tracking and analytics everywhere ethical. I don't want to participate in signalling that businesses do. Most businesses need to make money and pretending they care more beyond is ughh. Most social media UX sucks. It's unintuitive to use and horrible (see twitter). I have the google paradox, if you can easily find it on google why do I need to share it to you? This is wrong pattern of thinking but this does make me tired mentally when posting something. Obviously, the problem is entirely me I keep trying but deep down, I don't even want to support the platform by engaging on them. It just feels bad to have an ulterior motive behind posting a cute puppy pic.

nl 6y ago
> It just feels bad to have an ulterior motive behind posting a cute puppy pic Is your project about puppies? If not then don't spam it! It's low value marketing and you feel bad because you are deliberately trying to trick people. Maybe try to get your product in front of people who actually want it.
P_I_Staker 6y ago
I'm not saying "use Facebook", because that doesn't seem responsible these days. However, you can use it and tune out the puppy picks, and just use chat, events, and maybe picture sharing; ie. what Facebook should be for from the perspective of end-users.
klibertp 6y ago
Is your project something targeted at a general populace? How large the following do you need for it to succeed? As other commenters mentioned, all the puppies, celebrities, politicians, and everything else you see in the "social media" are precisely the things that work on the vast majority of people. Things that pull on the strings which seem to be directly attached to our most primal instincts. We all have those instincts, and we're all vulnerable to their exploitation. I think that the majority of people either are not aware or don't really care about being manipulated, as long as they get their fun in the end. If you're going to need the widespread support of tens of thousands or more, then you have no other way than to provide them what they - consciously or not - (came to) expect. In the infinite diversity of human characters, though, some people are aware of the hidden (in plain sight...) dangers and manipulation techniques and do not want to be targeted by them. They're a tiny minority (again, in my experience), but thanks to the Internet, you can find a number of them. I get the feeling that you're a part of that "crowd" and that you'd be happier targeting just them. Try to think it through. How many people do you really need in your network for the project to succeed? Can you get away with just the ones you share a mindset with? If so, don't bother searching for them in the mainstream. The time you'd spend feeling bad and hesitating to post another puppy can be better spent by looking outside of the puppy-infested hate-laden cesspool of popular opinion. This may sound elitist, but it's really not. Being in the minority and preferring to stay within that minority is a perfectly natural thing to do. You don't really have to do any coming out if you don't need it. Stay where you feel comfortable, or at least start from there. It could take you more time to accomplish whatever it is you want, but you'll be much happier along the way. My advice if you actually really need widespread support and fast: hire a firm which will do this for you. As many others said in this thread, they are pros at this game, and you're not going to get results better than them by yourself, even if you ruin your mental health many times over.

P_I_Staker 6y ago

People love to say stuff like this, but the truth is these things aren't mutually exclusive. Having a big network can help lead to opportunities to connect IRL. That (should be) the point of social media, or a big part of it. Where it's really useful is in connecting together casual acquaintances, in a way that wasn't really possible before. If I meet someone IRL, I can friend them on Facebook, interact, see similar interests, and meet-up. Before, this was much harder. I couldn't see that this one person I had a great conversation a month ago with is really looking for people to play board games. It's easier to know that an old friend actually doesn't live that far from you now. Obviously, there are issues with this (eg. MLM), and it doesn't always happen. However, Facebook at least, is clearly a useful tool. So I don't know what people are talking about when they say "don't social media, socialize IRL". Not necessarily what you were saying, and you were addressing specific statements from OP, but I thought this needed to be pointed out.