My Social Media Skills Suck
Some got it. Some don’t. I’m one of the ones that don’t, and I’ll be the first to admit it.
Maybe it’s because I’m different. I’m a throwback to the days of individuality, when being yourself was not only accepted but encouraged.
It probably wouldn’t have mattered, though. Because when people tell me to sit down, I stand up. But only when I feel the need to stretch my legs. Otherwise I’ll just ignore them and keep on keeping on with whatever I’m doing. I’m THAT guy.
I almost never go with the flow of popular opinion. It’s not that I intentionally disagree. Rather, I just see things another way. Like I said, I’m different — an acquired taste. Thankfully my wife can put up with me, at least to a point.
Hopefully you can, too, because here you are.
It’s gotten worse in recent years as my activity out there in the “outer world” has diminished with my decreasing health and increasing age. I’ve become somewhat of a hermit, less by choice than by circumstance.
Besides, they don’t let me out much these days anyway. No national speaker tours for me any more. I guess my get up and go got up and went. Retirement will do that to you.
So you’d think a smart guy like me would figure out how to use social media more effectively than I do. But nooooo. Because I suck at it.
While I have profiles on a number of platforms, I do a terrible job of sharing my writing and podcast. Thanks, God, for automation or no one would see them.
But worse than my failure at sharing is my inability to take sides in the petty conflicts and other crap that fills my social feeds. Instead, I often try to illuminate underlying issues and processes for those who are ready to see. Unfortunately, for those who are caught up in one side of the fight or another, it tends to stir things up and piss them off.
And when I do say something that challenges whatever person or interest they hold dear (like I said, I stir things up), lookout. You can probably feel the flames from there. I liken it to bees swarming to drive away intruders from their nest. They lie in wait, just waiting to pounce on an unwitting commenter. And I fall for the bait every time. Trying to bring sanity to the discussion only makes things worse.
As a result, most of my followers arrive at my material directly. Bookmarks. Typing the URL into your browser bar. Google searches. Click-throughs from the newsletter. Links shared by a friend. You know, the kind of things even I find hard to screw up.
I blog and subscribers (it’s free) get it delivered straight to their inbox. And away we go from there
So if you like what I write, please share my newsletters with your friends. Not only will it make this old man happy, but it just might help them in some small way.
By the way, thanks for reading. Forgive me my colloquialisms, for I’m too set in my ways to mince words any more.
God bless you indeed.