Thursday 6 February 2014

Is Social Media Not Social Enough..?

Recently I have set up a new blog, you can see it by following the link above (please go look, the rest of this blog will rant as to why).
Once it was set up I had to start the hoop jumping, getting it out there and getting it seen, and so I went with the usual go to for anyone trying to start up something shiny and new. I got straight onto social media.

When, eight years ago, I started out as a performer it was fairly easy to connect to other performers, promoters all over the world, companies in need of models and so much more. I made many friends and connections and this helped me to get myself out there just before the Burlesque Boom hit.
I've relied on mediums such as MySpace (yes, I've been doing it THAT long) and emails for the first two or so years, before moving onto Facebook after being told repeatedly in Paris that "all the Parisians use facebook now, MySpace is dead".
At first Facebook was on the more quiet side and only a few others had migrated over there. This meant you could really see everything and connect with people in a better way, it was great for those first 4-5 years.
As well as Facebook we started to switch up between there and Twitter, where no one understood how to reply to each others tweets, and it was a stream of out of context sentences. Ahh those were the days. Shortly after Twitter, Instagram popped out it's head and we marveled at posting photo's of our pets, before upgrading to turning the camera onto our own faces and birthing the "Selfie".

Soon we were juggling between the many various social media outlets, plus emails (I have three separate email accounts), websites, Facebook profiles (two), Facebook pages (four), Twitter accounts (three), Instagrams (three), Blogs (two, of course, I already said that..!) and now, Vine, Bloglovin, Polyvore, and so many many more.
Are we juggling too much?

Trying to keep everything constantly updated, fresh, eye catching and informative while over so many different platforms is a job in itself, and these days it actually can be a job, but with everyone trying to push out so much information in the same places meaning it's all getting too lost?

As part of my building interest in my new blog, I decided to try out the facebook adverts because even with how many people liked and followed the page, I could see that the posts were still only being viewed by a very small number of people due to facebooks new privacy settings meaning posts only reach people if interacted with.
For a new site and a new page that's not likely at all.

Most adverts you could post for £3 to get a few more views and interactions, I've tried this on a couple and it does boost the number of views but even if it's been seen over 1000 times, the interaction numbers are still low. Today I tried to use the targeted adverts, aimed at women only, in a certain age bracket, who are interested in fashion, style, tattoos, high street etc.
I hoped this would help more people to find the page and boost interest in it too. Once the promotion was complete I can see a break down of how the advert helped.

 
32 interactions, may I add that this post had over 1000 views in the time it was live, and for every thousand this is what you may expect for your advert costs.
The costs of this advert? £5.00.

I decided to try this as more of an experiment than to actually get it out there as it is something I have noticed for a while. Companies asking people to change their setting so their posts can still be seen, people asking people to comment so they know who can actually still see their updates and many more similar. I can't see updates from my friends or companies I follow, but I see plenty of posts I'd rather not see with "shock value" and moanings of people I've never even met.
I have no problem with facebook moaning, I'd just rather know you first.

So is social media too full? Is there too much information on our many open tabs (I currently have eight tabs open this very second, and I'm also using my iPad) constantly streaming, so we pay less attention to the content trying to take it all in? If someone see's a sponsored post for all of one millisecond have they really seen it, and therefore that's seen as a success worth charging for?

Twitter these days feel like shouting in an empty room, Facebook shows you various strange and weird updates while the ones that may be of use or importance to you are hidden away, also MySpace is definitely dead (R.I.P) so is social media broken?
Do we need a new outlet, a new way of connecting with those we want to connect to?

What was once a great way to find others with similar interests, expand your mind with interesting discussions and articles, and stay in touch with your loved ones in a more relaxed environment has now turned into one giant loud rave like party, and those people you want to reach? Well, they're on the other side of the Rave.

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