What’s Your Social Media Schedule?

Do you have a social media schedule? Is your morning coffee not the same without Facebook? Is Twitter an essential part of your commute home? (Assuming you’re not the driver, of course!)

I think to some extent we all have our own habits and routines, and in 2018 social media is very much a part of that. For example, here’s how my social media day looks:

Instagram (this has become my favourite platform, except for the follow/unfollow game, which I will address later): I check when I wake up, on my lunch break, after school, and a couple of times throughout the evening.

Facebook: I check when I get a notification, and maybe scroll a bit in the evening. I signed up for a personal account strictly so I could create my This Mom Loves business page, so I very rarely post anything for my friends, and also see little of what they are up to. I wish everyone would just join Instagram!

Twitter: I look at only if I get a notification, or occasionally at lunch if Instagram won’t load in the staff room! While I follow a ton of people, I actually have a much smaller “list” created of the accounts that I most want to stay up-to-date with, and that’s the feed I scroll through if I have a chance. I have really found interaction declining a lot on Twitter – I can post the exact same thing on FB or IG and get 30 times more engagement. I used to think I didn’t like algorithms (as used by Facebook and Instagram) but they may actually be working to my advantage. On a related note, I recommend you check out an app called Crowdfire; I sometimes check to see who has unfollowed me or what accounts have been inactive for months just to do a cleanout of my own account. My need to purge and organize extends far past physical items!)

When it comes to social media, something I want less experienced people to know is that posts can be scheduled! With blog posts and Facebook posts especially I program them to go live at the best times for my audience…I’m not actually doing it during class time! The WiFi signal in my room is actually so low (and seems to affect Instagram the most) that sometimes I attempt to post something on my lunch break and it doesn’t actually show up until an hour later when I’m back in class!

Now, for a little rant about the follow/unfollow game that many bloggers/businesspeople on Instagram seem to be playing:

I am totally okay with the fact that someone might follow me so I will follow back. I understand that when you’re running a business numbers matter (that could be a whole post on its own) though I really hope that people actually want to see my content as well.

What often happens, is that if I don’t follow the account back, they systematically unfollow. Even that doesn’t bother me too much, because clearly they didn’t follow me because of what I’m posting, it was just a selfish manoeuvre, I saw through it and didn’t follow back, and it’s a zero sum game, so to speak.

However, if I follow them, and then they immediately unfollow (which feels like a “Haha! Gotcha, sucker!” move)…well, that’s just not cool. Don’t be one of those people.

I use an app called “Unfollowers” to keep track of what’s happening with my Instagram account, and if I see that I’ve been immediately unfollowed, then I unfollow as well, and we’re even, but it still leaves me with an icky feeling.

When the new year began, I saw a lot of people resolving to spend less time on social media (ironically posting their intentions on social media, of course), and I do agree that it can quickly become a very unhealthy obsession, so I try to stick with the general schedule I’ve shared above…though when a notification comes in, all bets are off!

What’s your social media schedule? Which platforms are you digging (or ditching) now?