What Social Media Can (and Cannot) Do For You

Tweet, post, gram, rinse, repeat

Photo by Firmbee.com on Unsplash

Social media is a modern-day octopus, its long suckery arms tangled up in everyday life in a way almost unimaginable just a decade ago. I noticed today that I’ve posted more than 45,000 tweets, so while I make no claims to be an expert, I am obviously a heavy user. Here’s my current assessment of what social media can do — and can’t do — for you.

• Social media can keep you company. I joined Twitter in 2007. At that time I was living in a rural area, working at home. I had plenty of friends, but we lived so far apart that grabbing a cup of coffee was a two- or three-hour commitment. Most days, I couldn’t afford to spend that much time socializing. Besides, what I really craved was not so much the deep interaction with a close friend but rather the unplanned, ten-minute social encounters of an office, the off-the-top-of-my-head download with someone I knew but wasn’t necessarily a bosom buddy. Twitter had just launched, and quite unexpectedly I found it filled that gap nicely. I could drop in on Twitter, read my timeline, post whatever was on my mind, reply to a few people, and then get back to work. Visiting Twitter a few times a day made me feel less like I was alone on a spaceship orbiting the planet. I developed a posse of folks there with whom I chatted regularly — my virtual equivalent of office mates. So yes, social media kept me company and did a fine job of it. People like to complain that the relationships developed on social media are shallow, transitory, artificial. That would surely describe a lot of our social relationships, wouldn’t it? Don’t we need to fill out our Dunbar number (that supposed 150-person social network most of us maintain) with those kind of lightweight, low-demand relationships? (I say yes, firmly.) Would I have gravitated to Twitter if I hadn’t joined when I was particular isolated? I suspect yes, just because I like trying new things, but maybe not as early.
• Social media will not sell millions of your books. As I write this, I can hear the sound of dozens of publishers collapsing on the floor in horror. Well, wait up, hear me out. If you have a preexisting, active, engaged social media presence and you are publishing a book (or launching any kind of product), you indeed have a great opportunity for letting…