WritingThoughts

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Are rapid-fire social media changes making you tired? If you’re like me, you wish the big social media platforms (Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and Twitter) would stop changing things. Of course, they won’t because they’re all in competition with each other.

I wondered how the social media changes were affecting other freelancers, so I asked my Twitter and Google+ friends to answer the following question:

Do you use social media more or less than you did a year ago. Why, or why not?

(BTW, thanks to everyone who participated.)

Involvement from Twitter Followers

Here is how my followers answered the question:

• @kenyafreelancer: Less… more work.
• @meganwrites: Yes, because as a freelance writer, I need to market myself more. I have a Facebook page and Twitter acct. for business.
• @AngieMangino: As a freelance writer & book reviewer, I find social media is essential & I am using it even more than last year.
• @rzive: Definitely more. So much more. Launched my blog, and poof–a watershed of social media!
• @NataliaSylv: I’m using it less, not because it’s not as valuable to me, but because I used to think that if I wasn’t constantly on it…..I’d become disconnected from the network I’ve found. Now I realize that true, quality connections don’t just disappear……if you go from updating compulsively every 5 minutes to having a healthier, less obsessive relationship with social media.

Involvement from GooglePlus Followers

Here is how my GooglePlus followers answered the question (keep in mind they had more characters to use in their responses):

• Syed Obaid Hassan Raza: I use it more. I have a blog up running. After each update on it, I post it on Twitter, Facebook and Google plus.
• Harleena Singh: Much more!! I guess with new things like Google+ and the G+ pages also coming up now, it just adds up. I really wish at times we were living in the age old era when there were just a handful of social medias and we were happy with those as well. I guess the time always does fall short to handle and manage everything. Thus, we can’t really be everywhere–all the time. Yet we do our best and keep trying to keep updated.
• Alexis Rodrigo: I’m using more social media platforms, but not necessarily spending more time overall. Just spread myself more thinly, which is probably not good.

The Bottom Line

While this is a fairly unscientific poll, I think it probably reflects the varying attitudes towards social media. To me, it appears as though the rapid-fire changes haven’t made much of a difference. If anything, most freelancers are using social media more.

There’s always room for one more opinion, though. Add yours in the comments.