Should You Quit Social Media as a Blogger?

  February 25, 2022 blogging tips 🕑 5 minutes read
Andaman Sea, Phuket, Thailand

Andaman Sea, Phuket, Thailand

 

I wanted to update this post because pulling back from social media seems as important as ever to me these days.

 

Even though I appreciate sites like Twitter and Facebook as communication channels I intuitively know that building my blogs and blogs owned by my friends sits at the top of my blogging to-do list.

 

However, do what feels good to you. Listen to your intuition. Some bloggers deeply enjoy connecting with readers on social media. Other bloggers feel a strong intuitive pull to work sites like Twitter or Facebook.

 

I merely share my thoughts to help you be aware of the pros and cons of social media sites.

 

Social Media Pros

 

Pool of Readers

 

Social media gives you access to billions of human beings.

 

No other channels boast as large a user base.

 

Ease of Use

 

Social sites are easy to use.

 

Anyone can load an app and be up and running minutes later.

 

DMing, Messaging and overall engaging on social media sites is easy.

 

Social Media Cons

 

Turbulence

 

Social sites seem to become more chaotic by the week.

 

The reason: fear.

 

Social media site owners largely use fear to separate people, to create a combative environment and to profit through conflict. Look no further than the Twitter decision to post inflammatory news stories on the home page. Imagine if you had access to a little under 200 million people. Would you shovel that shit into their mouths?

 

Obviously, all fear-based environments eventually collapse under the weight of dissention, battle and utter chaos. Facebook and Twitter may not be on the way out particularly soon but their collective credibility, massive influence and monstrous user base have all dwindled over the prior few years.

 

Turbulent platforms are terrible foundations upon which to build the bulk of your blog marketing campaign.

 

Pay to Be Seen

 

Gaining even modest visibility in terms of targeted human beings demands you to invest money in a paid marketing campaign.

 

The time and energy investment in using free marketing methods to be seen has reached absurd levels.

 

Of course, investing money is blogging success is not specifically a downside but when you can use free marketing methods like guest blogging and genuinely blog commenting to make as powerful an impact as paid social media marketing, which also boosts your organic reach, using paid marketing through social seems like a disadvantage.

 

The Answer

 

Do you need to quit social media as a blogger?

 

No. But pull back significantly on your social media campaigns.

 

Pulling back from social media dramatically seems wise because of the shaky nature of each platform. Social media is an illusion. Use the illusion to befriend and help people. See social for what it is. But pull back on using Facebook and Twitter extensively because bloggers should spend most time blogging. Bloggers blog. Bloggers do not use social media for hours daily; that is the domain of social media experts.

 

By pulling back, I simply mean spending less and less time on Facebook and Twitter to spend more time on:

 

  • blogging
  • guest blogging
  • genuine blog commenting

 

to build blogging real estate that you own and to build blogging real estate that your friends own.

 

Do not quit social media outright as a knee jerk reaction to turbulence, narratives and other social media stories unfolding from 2020 to 2021. People seem to dislike social for appearing to remove their freedom of speech. But billions of ways to speak and connect online and offline exist and social media still works as a platform for working your blogging niche.

 

Imagine being a blogging tips blogger. Even if Facebook or Twitter does not support your political views you’d be unwise to write off each network as a means of sharing blogging tips value, making blogging tips blogging buddies and driving traffic and profits through each platform. Perhaps you feel enraged that Twitter and Facebook ban users who share your political views but if you can grow your blogging tips traffic and profits just put your ego to the side and succeed blogging-wise through each platform.

 

Ego will be your biggest enemy in this venture. Ego feels hurt that social media site owners present a specific narrative. Guess what? Social media owners own their sites. Each owner has every right to share a specific narrative. If you disagree with political or news narratives on social media sites just use social media sites 100% for working your blogging niche. Talk politics and news on other social sites tailored toward your news and political views.

 

11 Fundamentals of Successful Blogging Audio Course

 

Do not quit social media sites like Facebook and Twitter because you disagree with the political views of Facebook and Twitter owners. Use Facebook and Twitter to help people and make friends through your blogging niche. Spread love on each platform. I use each platform to share blogging tips and mindset tips. Sharing both types of tips attracts people who crave blogging tips and mindset tips hungry folks. I simply grow my tribe by seeing social media as a meeting place for people intrigued by my blogging niche.

 

Do I mind what Jack and Mark think about anything? No. I allow site owners to do as they do and use their sites to connect with my blogging readership. Removing my emotions from the process allowed me to benefit from using Facebook and Twitter independent of political, news and government narratives associated with each site.

 

Step Out of Negativity

 

I stepped out of that world by stepping into the world where my readers live on social media sites. Never write off meeting places where readers congregate solely because owners who manage these meeting places share different life views than you. Every person you come across shares at least some different fundamental views than you. Dear friends of yours share different fundamental views than you yet you remain friends and still meet.

 

Frame social media in a similar fashion. Pull back from Facebook and Twitter turbulence a bit but never write these sites off all together if each vibes with you on some level and also provides your readers with a meeting space.

 

You can watch the video here:

 

Should You Quit Social Media as a Blogger?

 

eBook

 

I wrote an eBook to help you navigate turbulent social media waters.

 

Check it out here:

 

How to Stay Connected Online in a Volatile Social Media World eBook

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  1. Sue-Ann Bubacz says:
    at 10:51 pm

    Hi Ryan:

    I like social media for business purposes. As such, political and other socio-economic discourse isn’t really what I’m interested in (on my social channels) and not particularly a factor in my use of social media platforms.

    For awhile it felt as if stepping away made sense while fears of death and the craze of pandemic overtook social and then politics high-jacked it as well. If you still wanted to talk about business and blogging then, you were accused of being tone-deaf.

    The truth for me is I never want to discuss politics on social. I enjoy social media work I do for clients (even though I never expected to do social) and I attract and interact with positive and forward-moving folks who, like me, (and you) are interested in business and content and love sharing and interacting on those topics.

    I honestly have little to no problem with haters and don’t attract political friction because it’s just not what I’m about or what social media is to me.

    Have a super fab week and thanks for the post on this very current topic of discussion and consideration. Have fun and take care.

    Sue-Ann

    • Ryan Biddulph says:
      at 10:58 pm

      Sue-Ann you are a pro’s pro on using social media the right way. Why? You keep it positive. Using social media to uplift fellow human beings is the foundation for doing it right because when you keep it positive and share content related to your business you cannot help but to succeed. Keep on shining!

  2. Naved Khan says:
    at 12:35 am

    Great post. I agree with you, social media’s do consume a lot of time but many as a newbie in blogging, I get most of my traffic from social media’s sites only like Facebook and Twitter. It’s nearly impossible to depend on SEO as the competition is so tough but I still try my best improve my search rankings.

    • Ryan Biddulph says:
      at 9:30 am

      You are doing a great job Naved. Keep up the great work brother.

  3. Tanish Shrivastava says:
    at 2:20 pm

    I know that a lot of these sites have negativity. But the sections where I spend most of my time, most people are rather chill. It also helps I don’t talk much politics. (That is true in the real life. I keep my opinions to myself.)

    I do think that they do play a bigger role when you’re starting out, since you don’t have any audience. As someone who is still trying to grow his audience can tell you, growing an audience in the age of video platforms isn’t easy, since you’re basically starting out from zero.

    Anyway, I do hope these ramblings make sense. I’m going to sleep now.

    • Ryan Biddulph says:
      at 6:40 pm

      Wise move Tanish. Social can actually be quite helpful if you engage in high energy spots where you can meet, greet and bond with readers, fellow bloggers and anyone intrigued by your niche. I still use Facebook a little bit and Twitter more than a little bit to keep bonding with folks who enjoy what I do, blogging-wise and travel-wise. Good point too on not trying to master video as a newish blogger. I too face stiff resistance on the platform compared to a more seamless social media experience. I still cannot gain traction on YouTube. Rumble seems more favorable to me.

      I find myself wrestling with cutting it out entirely to focus extensively on my blog, guest blogging and blog commenting. I am being ruthless with my energy and want to build Blogging From Paradise into something with genuine scale. Doing this means being posturing. But I honestly think social will be some part of that expanding campaign, albeit, a lighter social presence.

      Everything you are sharing makes perfect sense my friend. Have a great night’s sleep. Chat soon.

  4. Phillip Dews says:
    at 3:16 pm

    I was just curious if this was a recent post or an old one but updated. I may have to add a new section at the very top showing the original date it was published and the date it’s been updated.

    I loved the video btw, it’s a very funny start to it. I would invest in a separate HD 1080p camera for it fella but at least it gets your message across. This is one of those posts I just had to leave a comment on as it especially pulls at my heartstrings, especially after all of the books I have been reading of late. Talking about books the first one I recommend is…

    Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now
    by the exceptional Jaron Lanier. It’s funny actually as this is a guy who was at the heart of it all working in Silicon Valley as a computer scientist. Of course, as bloggers and online business owners doing that could be suicide for the blogger and online business owner.

    The Social Dilemma
    Not a book but a docu movie on Netflix explaining how we as humans have now become a currency to be traded and how the big social media outlets use sophisticated psychology to keep us addicted especially millennials and Gen Z.

    These are the two things I recommend for everyone to read/watch. As you know I have deleted all but one of social media on my mobile devices and tablets. I also use the brilliant News Feed Eradicator in all the browsers on each of my computers. Put simply I still want to use Social Media but not be bombarded with the crap that people spew out on those platforms. In the six months I have been social media app free on my phones I feel that I have become a happier and more generous person. What others think of that statement remains to be seen.

    Ther is one social media app remaining on my mobile devices and that is Goodreads. This site embodies what a social media app/website should be. Its members are thoughtful and helpful and it restricts what we can post on there, simply book reviews and book progress updates. yes, we can message and like what other members are posting and we are not bombarded with advertisements all the time that Twitter and Facebook are known for.

    A lot of what I have said above I have eluded too in my own couple of recent posts and I stand by the effectiveness in things like the News Feed Eradicator. I want to leave you with this brilliant quote by Confucius…

    The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.

    Take from that what you will.
    Phillip

    • Ryan Biddulph says:
      at 6:35 pm

      Great value here in this comment PD.

      I do have a 1080 P cam and have published 100’s of these videos but love the rough and ready sometimes, too. The challenge is in finding solid upload speeds for some of my longer videos in various regions where I happen to be.

      As for the date updated, that is one idea to explore. Could be helpful for readers to have a sense of context. I added a little bit of text to the beginning of some posts I uploaded but also see the more seamless nature of coding it in, for an organic process.

      The Confucius quote sums up why I deleted apps and use social media sparingly but publish a ton of helpful content here and through guest posts and blog comments. Everything changes when we speak less and help more. All changes when we share more value and give less energy, attention and time to value-less, vacant activities. The only reason why I uploaded Facebook today was for quick photo shares on the road. I usually delete after a few hours when I get settled in to a new location. These sites can actually be helpful if you use each to connect solely with readers in positive spaces. But the bombardment you speak of commences between uninformed, wildly emotional users and also Facebook and Twitter algorithms thriving on division, fighting and emotional push buttons, and all goes to custard.

      Look at how much helpful content we are creating and adding to Blogging From Paradise, Phill. You and I having a fun, helpful chat here instead of on Facebook builds this platform versus building Facebook. I am not competing with anyone of course but why not help all the folks here who come across this post? We need to have more posture as bloggers. This is why I am blogging, guest blogging and commenting genuinely on blogs more than ever.