Saving My Spoons! Social Media for the chaotic Author
Ok, so a while back I decided to be more intentional about what and where I posted on social media. I developed a couple of flavors of posts I felt comfortable with, and (and this is important) that I enjoyed. I upgraded to a Facebook professional account and became verified. I started posting on Instagram, Facebook, Threads, and BlueSky. Those were the places I had the biggest audience, and the biggest reach.
No, I was more intentional, but I still posted mostly text and picture posts, thoughts off the top of my head. Anyone who’s paid any attention knows that there’s not a little bit of feral chaos in what I post. That is because I enjoy it, and if it becomes part of my brand (ick. I’m sorry), so be it. I’ve seen my audience grow and get more engagement, and I’ve actually seen a growth in book sales, which was not necessarily the goal, but was a nice side benefit.
So, after a couple of months of this, I’ve noticed a few things. My percentage of engagement comes from Facebook. That’s where I’ve built the most relationships. I don’t have a really high number of followers, but they’ve grown lately, which is nice. People who follow me on insta are almost exclusively people who also follow me on Facebook. By cross-posting, I am basically spamming them twice. That’s unnecessary, and annoying. I have friends who get a lot of traction on insta, but they also post reels and have a more aesthetic feed than I do. And are more plugged into bookstagram, which has never felt natural for me. They also tend to write YA and cishet romance. I know there are queer authors doing well on insta, but I don’t think I’m destined to be one of them. The vibes are off. So, going forward, I’m pretty much going to abandon posting on insta. I will use it to collect hot guy thirst traps (don’t judge me) which is its greatest utility to me anyway.
Which brings me to threads. Ah, threads, we had such high hopes for you. But honestly, the place is as toxic as twitter ever was. I have a lot of followers, but they are not people who fall into my natural audience. It’s mostly newbie writers and people with hot takes. The algorithm pushes conflict, and I find myself constantly annoyed and in internet fights which are a waste of everyone’s time. Theres a lot of performative everything. I don’t think it’s doing me any good in any capacity, so today I took the step of removing it from my social media home screen. I can go into apps and look at it if I really want to punish myself, but I needed to get out of the habit of checking it reflexively. Honestly, if I never look at it again, I will probably be much happier. So, I’m tossing that site into the bin.
BlueSky, I adore. There’s been a lot of ‘BlueSky is dying’ handwringing lately which I just don’t get. I have 1500 followers there and fairly good engagement. Also, I’ve had great conversations there with people I would otherwise never have met, and isn’t that what social media is supposed to be for? It’s less of a ‘hot take’ factory. It’s unhinged at times, but more contemplative. And the threads book drama is largely absent, thank dog. Also, BlueSky is the online home for a massive number of Queer nerds, and they are my people.
Now, the social media site I vibe with the most is definitely Tumblr. It seems like I would be made for that platform. As much as I love it, though, I never get any traction with anything I post. It’s actually heartbreaking. It’s like I’ve been rejected by the weird kids. But I’m going to keep trying because maybe one day something will hit.
Now, by focusing on three sites: Facebook, BlueSky, and Tumblr, I’m hitting three distinct audiences. There’s very little overlap, so I can cross-post and not worry about wearing out the same people who already saw my posts on one of the other places. This will save me a lot of mental energy and probably annoy fewer people (That number will never be 0).
So that’s what I’m going to do moving forward. Don’t look for me on insta and threads, but the chaos will continue on Facebook, BlueSky, and Tumblr. Those are the places I feel most at home, anyway.