Today’s blog
Lynn Murphy Mark
Social media
Last night I was talking to my friend, Sheila, who co-authored “Kaleidoscope Diaries” with me. Not to play our own horn, but anyone who has read the book really loves it. Some people have read it twice, some have given it away to others to read, and all the feedback we get is very positive. People say they both laughed out loud and sometimes cried. I suppose there might be people who read it who didn’t like it and are simply staying silent.
Anyway, Sheila and I have lamented that we do not have an agent to help get the book out to more people. That’s a problem when a book is self-published. We do have a website about the book that has all my blogs published. The webhost platform sends monthly reports about the effectiveness of the site and it consistently falls in the “average” category. I’m not sure what average means in this context. That’s how low tech I am.
Sheila, on the other hand, is a techie. At least she’s not afraid to learn as much as she can about how to use the WWW to its greatest advantage. So, as a result of our conversation last night she has schooled me a little bit about using Instagram to promote the book. One of her nieces told her about it as a platform for brief videos to promote any kind of product, including books.
Just so you know how out of touch I am, I told her I wasn’t sure if I have an Instagram account. As it happens, I do! I just never use it for anything mostly because I have no idea how. My account name is “Pettigoe”, after a small town in the North of Ireland where some ancestors are from.
Sheila says there are You Tube videos that explain how to use Instagram to its full advantage and she is going to send them to me. After we talked I looked up my Instagram account. A little research told me that I can link my FaceBook posts to Instagram, which means I could publish my blogs on Instagram as well. Who knew? Anyway, I look forward to learning some new tricks with this technology that is allegedly user friendly.
I know that in many ways, social media platforms are a source of bizarre topics, have been identified as cruel places where people can go after another, sometimes have inane postings, are a convenient way for a hacker to crawl into someone’s account, and all sorts of other ills. There is the danger of becoming addicted to spending time on social media leading to anxiety, depression and isolation. As a middle school nurse I witnessed the effects of cyberbullying of kids at my school, up to and including suicide attempts by preteens and teens.
Then there is the “dark web”, sites not accessible through Google and most other search engines. Criminals use the platforms, as do hate groups, child pornography groups, ransomware users, and the result is a platform for highly illegal activities. The advantage for users is that activity is made anonymous through encryption. The dark web is unregulated, and there is no one responsible for setting rules of use. This is the feature that appeals to criminals of all stripes.
Having said all that, I’m looking forward to the possibility of using the “Clear Web” – that’s the term for the sites that us regular people use – to promote our book. Sheila will figure it out and I will do my best to understand our next steps. I am so grateful for the people I know who are savvy users of the best parts of technology!