The Crazy Bananas Social Media Guide (for regular adult human people)

The other day I was sitting in IKEA, Periscoping about social media.

If you’re thinking, “Um, what? That sentence makes no sense!” I’m telling you, you’re not alone! This whole world of social media is intimidating to me, and I do this for my job, for goodness sakes! So I thought it might be a good idea to put together a totally random, informative post for those of us who might not be social media experts, but would like to sound like we know what we’re talking about when we’re at a dinner party and someone asks us if we use Snapchat. Which I might add, actually happened to me!

Before I get started, I wanted to offer this little disclaimer…I am not recommending you immediately get on all these platforms and go social media bonkers! I have found in the last few years that what is most productive for me, both as a business owner and a regular adult human, is to focus on up to three platforms. Yes, I do have accounts on more than three social media networks, but I’m definitely not actively posting on all of them. I don’t think it’s feasible (or smart) to be posting everything, everywhere. Why would people follow you on Instagram if they were already getting all of your info over on Twitter or Facebook? What’s even the point? So I tend to lean toward the social media channels that are most fun and engaging for me, and while I have accounts on the others (mostly to reserve my profile name so no one else snags it and pretends to be me), I’m not consistently posting to all of them. Cool? Cool!

Okay, let’s do this!

Instagram (follow me on Instagram!)
This my very favorite of all social media! I seriously adore Instagram! It’s definitely where I have been placing more of my focus lately, both personally and as an entrepreneur and business woman. Instagram allows users to share photos or images with their followers, along with captions.

Being a visual artist and photographer, Instagram was made for me! It has also served as a wonderful community, as I have found tons of my local, creative friends networking through Instagram. Many businesses keep multiple Instagrams, one for personal and one for their businesses, but I have found the most luck keeping everything under one account. In the next year, I plan to be posting more and more to Instagram, and less to my other platforms. So if you’re a fan, get on over to Instagram and follow me over there! I wouldn’t want you to miss anything!

Sidenote: I’m actually running a giveaway over on Instagram RIGHT NOW and the winner will receive a $100 gift card to Amazon. So get over there, already!

Facebook (follow me on Facebook!)
I feel like Facebook is probably a no-brainer for most of you…it seems like even my least tech-savvy friends are on Facebook these days! Facebook has become a gathering place for friends, collegues and family. It’s a place to share photos of the first day of school, news and silly stories. I love Facebook because the Groups application allows me to gather groups of friends with similar interests and share specifically with them. For example, I have a neighborhood group, where we share info about block parties and news from our street. Facebook has also become an important place for my recovery, as I have a fantastic support group there. Facebook has been great for my business, in that I share my work and then it spreads throughout my community, and the communities of my clients.

Downsides: Oh, is there an election happening? I didn’t notice. Can you guys sense sarcasm through your screens?! Facebook seems to be the place for people who need to vent or spew their negativity…for that reason, I sometimes steer clear. Also, Facebook’s algorithm has made it fairly difficult for small businesses (like mine) to get their information seen unless I pay to do so. I understand why Facebook has to do this, but I don’t like it! (See how to ensure you don’t miss any of your fave business posts on Facebook by clicking here)

Periscope (follow me on Periscope under @crazybananas)
This is a fairly new social media channel, but I am really enjoying it! If you’ve been following for a while, you might remember I was super interested in video blogging, but it wasn’t sustainable for me to continue producing videos with everything I had on my plate. Enter, Periscope! Periscope connects with Twitter (so the usernames are the same, yay!), and users create videos using their smartphones, which are streamed live, and then a rebroadcast is available to watch for 24 hours after the original post. Periscope is revolutionary for business, with many of my favorite entreprenuers basically sharing mini-webinars through Periscope. I have been posting regularly, and have loved the engagement from the community as well. Viewers can ask questions in the chat box during the live broadcast, so many users answer questions live! I’m hoping Periscope grows and stays relevant, because I think it’s an awesome (free!) tool.

Twitter (follow me on Twitter!)
I was an early Twitter adopter, and even though I’m rarely over there anymore, I still love popping in from time to time. Twitter allows users to “tweet” short sentences (no more than 140 characters), links or photos to their followers. Twitter was also at the forefront of the hashtag trend, where people place a # symbol before words to make them easily searchable. For example, I could post:

Great day at the zoo with the family! #blessed
Or
My kids are acting like hyenas today! #help

Hashtags now come up in Google searches, so it’s really useful for businesses. When I place the #kansascityphotographer hashtag in one of my posts, if someone searches Google for “Kansas City Photographer,” my tweet is likely to come up, and lead that searcher to my website and information. I was more involved in Twitter when I worked a desk job nine hours per day, as I checked in often for both personal and business purposes. Now I still tweet, but I have definitely shifted my focus from this particular platform.

Snapchat
Okay, I’m not gonna lie…I really still have no idea what I’m doing on Snapchat. But one of my favorite bloggers, Alison of The Alison Show, made this awesome video that explains it fairly well.

If you want to follow me over on Snapchat, you can find me under crazeebananaz (yes, I know it’s ridiculous)!

Pinterest (follow me on Pinterest!)
I was a big fan of Pinterest in the beginning, especially as an organizational tool. Pinterest is like a virtual inspiration cork board, where people “pin” their favorite things to save for themselves and share with others. When I have the time, I love perusing Pinterest for ideas from everything to style to decorating to parenting…but I find it to be a total time suck! While I wish I could spend more time over there, there are only so many hours in the day. I still love to check in, and if you follow me, you’ll probably notice I won’t post for ages and then I’ll post a hundred times in a row (which is such a social media no-no). Ironically, this blog actually gets a ton of traffic from Pinterest, so if I find a bit more time, I hope to invest some of it in my Pinterest account.

Honorable Social Media Mentions
There are a few platforms I used to love, or I’m still waiting to try, so I can’t offer a resounding endorsement. But you’ll want to know these exist in case you’re at a dinner party and you want to sound like a social media pro!

Vine – I was obsessed with Vine for about two months when it first came out, because I thought the idea of sharing short, looped videos was interesting and I saw so many creatives using it…but then Instagram started offering video. I have friends that still love Vine, but since Instagram is so similar with their videos (and I want to spent time on fewer platforms), it had to go.

Ello – This platform seems so cool and hip (it’s basically the anti-Facebook), so it makes sense that I have NO CLUE how to use it. I do have a profile, and plan to get into it at some point, but right now the app is sitting unused on my phone.

LinkedIn – I was very in to LinkedIn when I was working a corporate job, but now that I’m a creative artist and freelancer, it doesn’t make too much sense for me to invest time in LinkedIn. I do keep my profile updated, as when potential, future employers look me up, I want it to show the breadth of my experience. LinkedIn sort of serves as an online resume, where people can share their corporate experience and triumphs. Definitely not a focus for me right now.

Google+ – I wanted to love Google+, but so far, it just hasn’t worked for me. However I have friends that use Google+ and LOVE it, and also get a ton of business through their Google+ profile. So the potential is there, but I am not utilizing it at this time.

So that’s it (at least for now)! I hope this silly social media guide helps you, the normal human person, utilize social media to the fullest for your life and business. Do you have a favorite social media channel? What are your top three? How do you choose which channels work best for you?

(Header photo via Ashley Ella Design)