Guide to social media needed ???

[Satine]

Ok I’ve been wondering this for a while now. How do all of you navigate all the social media plat forms. I have no experience with this yet. What’s the difference in them all. I would like to use Raina as an example cause she has so many forms of social media and is the only example I can think of.

Ok so Raina has YouTube, instagram, Facebook, as well as a web sight for her mermaid business, a divan art, and a vero account.

I know now many other mers have many accounts just like this.

how do you manage all of them and keep the merverts away.

and do you also have account for your human self? If so how do you manage to juggle your mer accounts and your human accounts and keep everything strait?

Also I think adding to the confusion a lot of mers have business accounts and fan accounts. What is the diference between the two?

With so so many different forms and sub forms of communication for business personal fans and family

how do you all keep it strait? And with so many accounts how do you keep the merverts and unwanted people away?

I have heard you can also make money from all of your social media. But how do you do this?

Plus us what are the pros and cons of all the forms of social media you use?

im sorry if I’m annoying with these questions. I’m just not tech or social media savy yet still trying to learn

[Arking]

I have a few, and learned through work and communications in a position in the office what was up. First thing you need to realize is that Social Media is constantly adapting, you'll find specialized sites like this as well as broader platforms so you need to decide what you're wanting out of it all such as whether you'd like to communicate with fans, do you want to promote yourself or is it a means of just sharing yourself with no desire for feedback, how often do you want to engage, and what are you comfortable with.

Most social media sites have some semblance of connectivity. Tumblr, Discord, Instagram Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Flickr all seem to have the ability to cross promote each other so managing one can be as easy as managing others. For instance if you connect your Instagram to your Twitter handle, Facebook and Tumblr when you upload and submit a photo you and choose to post to the others at the same time. This way is by far the easiest means to communicate as you'll have different audiences on each.

I have a Twitter but never use it, my phone takes crappy photos and I have no app space for Instagram and so I'm out of luck there as well. But you may be able to manage multiple platforms through third party apps such as Hootsuite. Hootsuite will allow you to connect your social media accounts and upload media to them to release simultaneously as well as giving you the option to choose the time when those posts go out. That way you can create activity days and weeks in advance over the weekend buying yourself time to focus on other things while you're busy or away for a period and still maintain some activity.

I think breaking them up is a good idea though, you want to practice the dramaturgical approach in your social media life just as you do face to face. That is, you wouldn't wear your fins to a business meeting and likewise you wouldn't show up as if you were ready for a night about town with your friends either. The dramaturgical approach is our way of segmenting who we are in given situations, its a conscious decision to act a certain way and imitate our peers. That isn't to say that you aren't being yourself, but rather that you're being you in a different situation. So online you should practice this as well as it can prevent unnecessary drama and conflict, another good way to do this is either to have multiple accounts or be firm with others which accounts are for what. For instance you can have a LinkedIn account for your work, but refuse your employer access (friending them, making content public) to a private account about your family or your hobbies.

Pros and Cons:

Tumblr - Awesome to promote yourself but it's essentially LiveJournal on steroids. It's changing because it allows you to engage with people in comments now where before you needed to "reblog" others work. It's really just about you promoting you and putting your mind out there to communicate who you are. When it comes to engaging others it's not as straightforward and the chat feature leaves much to be desired. If you're savvy with web design though you can really turn this social media blog into something great. Like Facebook blocking can be linear but there are easy ways around it.

Facebook - Recent reports are saying that this is more appealing to an older demographic and that youth are now using snapchat, discord and other apps to engage with each other which is a big con. You also need to be wary of ownership of your own media as with all these sites but Facebook has received the most attention in this debate. It's great for talking to people though and creating Fan pages is incredibly simple to setup through your main account. If you get big enough you can also link in friends to help you manage those pages and engage with fans. A big downside though is that things have been changing and Facebook has been choking artists of their views lately so engaging is getting harder to do without paying for "premiums". You're also more likely to be tracked down on Facebook with your alternate accounts if you'd like to keep them separate, and sometimes using a pseudonym will cause issues as you can neither prove you are that person so other people are free to steal your images and create fake and copy accounts using your name with little you can do other than try and educate your fans. Blocking on this app is fairly linear.

Twitter - Sadly I don't know enough to say but on it's own it won't be enough.

Pinterest - A great board to share your inspirations, thoughts, and creative side but not great for much else.

Flickr - Photos can be mass uploaded unlike some of the other sites and they won't be compressed! Sadly it's terrible for communicating with fans, but can be linked into some of the other media platforms.

Instagram - Like Twitter only for your photos. It's pretty easy to use and as I've mentioned before it can connect upon upload with other media accounts and post simultaneously for you to them. I've never had to block anyone on this app but from what I know it's easy to do and engagement is fairly simple must like looking at your Facebook comments on your images there. That said your work and posts can be shared by anyone who has access to them and it's hard to control where that goes and how it's used. More than any of the others I've seen people share and link back to Instagram accounts for contents related to fetishes and sexual objectification. That's not to say the others don't have this problem, but Instagram seems to be the most popular site for it.

That's all I've got...twas a long answer but Raina would probably have a better idea as she is currently in the business for it. :)

[Arking]

Sorry for my bad grammar. It's hard to type and sew at the same time ^-^. A word of caution for someone who started with one account that had family, work and hobbies all in one. I should have kept it simple and never engaged work and family into my personal life. People are diverse and they have diverse ways of seeing the world and engaging with it. I've gotten in trouble for just being shirtless in a Facebook photo with the people I chose to "friend". Now as I shift my career path and embrace my hobbies again I'm relegating people to different accounts and making this same change that you are. I find it easier to focus on the things I enjoy most and embrace that person more than the one that engages with family and work. Everyone's different you do what works for you and for those around you.

[AniaR]

I actually have a video about this and a blogpost hahaha

[Satine]

Thank you very much arking. Some of thows apps I’ve never even heard of before so I must investigate them. I’m also trying to learn YouTube lol. There is so much to think of with all of these new forms or communication and promotion !!!!

Oooo wow I didn’t know you had a vid or blog post Raina I shall go look for them now !!!! Thank you !!!!! It’s blog 26 facebook and Twitter right? I’m not sure where your regular blog is.

Arking pintrest twitter and flicker you also mentioned snap chat and tumblr. Do you find any of the pages more worth your time than others?

[Arking]

I actually have a video about this and a blogpost hahaha
Well there it is! :)

[Satine]

Arking have you had any problems with people finding your personal page through your public one if it’s not linked

[Arking]

That depends, if I'm silly enough to use the same photos on both pages I know that you can reverse image search and sometimes it'll pull up both accounts. That's the only loophole I know of, that and people who have access to both accidentally sharing the link to the other, or people finding out what your real name is.

To answer your question, yes though it's never been problematic as I'm not well known and people rarely connect with me for any other reason than to connect. :) If you get a bit of fame or popularity though than you have to be wary of it. I'm familiar with people wanting to feel like they own a piece of you by having access to personal information etc, and that can be a dangerous habit to indulge.

A lot of popular cosplayers I know and some minor celebrities like to let their fans know that yes while they do personally run their page, they do have a private FB account as well but they don't accept friend requests to that account. It's a good way of not looking like you're hiding things and letting people know in advance that it's off limits so not to be surprised when you reject solicited requests to connect on your private page. People do that to circumvent having to explain to fans why they were denied a friend request, which avoids hurt feelings, and the confusion from you as to who exactly it is that's contacting you. I know a few friends only send requests but never accept them that way they know who it is they are connecting and letting into their private life.

My issues stem from a reversal, nosey family and colleagues prying into my hobbies and then opening me up to criticism from them. :)

[Seaspray Mermaid]

I use my Instagram account to post on Facebook and Tumblr and then I do a different post on Twitter because I like the visibility of making a direct post. I also have different posts planned on my Tumblr account (a story) my Youtube (educational videos), my Twitter/Facebook/Instagram I use to target my market audience, I post schedule updates and have fun polls once in a while.
As far as dividing personal from professional, I keep my human self far from the mermaid for protection. I do share a lot of my Facebook posts to my personal page to generate interest.
With merverts, you have to use your own common sense and the "Guide to Merverts" thread on the Network. You can always ask about a person if you aren't sure.