Guest Post: Navigating Social Media

Kari Holloway is a native to Leesburg, Georgia and graduate of Lee County High School. She attended Georgia Southwestern State University and completed her course of study in Psychology.

She grew up on her family's farm, a fourth-generation operation that plays some hand in her Laughing P series. Her mom was a collector of animals from simple cats and dogs to iguanas as long as a man is tall, emus who ran and danced through the yard, to a wild turkey that decided their home was his, and so many others.

Her days are filled with two kids and baking, but her hobbies include, with camera in hand, aquariums, theme parks, museums, and zoos.

I will be reviewing her book Cracked But Never Broken in the spring. If you'd like to learn more about her then check out her website here: http://kariholloway.wixsite.com/fiction

Or her book here: http://amzn.to/2h6rlO1

Navigating Social Media by Kari Holloway

We post ritually. We scroll multiple times a day. We see friends post and never see family. Why?

Social media, mainly Facebook for this article, run with multiple algorithms to make our lives simpler, but how does it choose what we see?

Infinity. Open your friend's list. Have you ever wondered why they aren't in ABC order? Facebook looks at the people you like, comment, share, and even share groups with to determine what to show you.

The average person's friends post sixteen thousand posts a day. You can change your newsfeed setting to recent (either manually or with programs such as Facebook Purity). Instead of posts you might like, you see every picked nose, snotty child, work is a beast, and every bathroom selfie a friend took.

The average person checks Facebook six times a day; do you want to waddle through all that every time?

Facebook looks at factors: things you liked recently; people you interact with, even if it isn't on your timeline or theirs; how often they posts; the weight of the post (in order of importance: Facebook Live, Video, Photo, Text, and finally links to outside Facebook.) The list is long.

You log on, and Facebook goes to work. Three hundred plus post within seconds. You interact with them, and you refine your circle into a tighter and tighter ball until every time you log in it is the same people--the people you click to interact with.

Go back to your friend's list. Scroll to the bottom. As you scroll, these are the people you have less infinity with. You don't like, comment, share their posts so Facebook stops showing you their posts.

How does this help you get your posts seen? How do you make it to the newsfeed wall? How do you break the cycle of only sixteen percent of your friends seeing any post? As John-Erik Moseler says, "by thoughtfulness."

Interacting with them will make them show up on your newsfeed but how do you show up on theirs. I could give you the default answer of "by interacting with them," but there's more than that.

Click on your profile and look at your posts. Have you made it to a post that isn't depressing, angry, or a share? Still need time to scroll? Why should someone see something that isn't giving them a happy feeling or knowledge if a majority of your posts aren't that?

By creating "original content" you create a story where people can interact with you. When they interact with you, you show up on their wall.

Original content doesn't mean you can't share the cute cat video; it means comment with your shares. Does this remind you of your boss? Does this remind you of a pet you had growing up? What makes this important enough for you to share it?

That's the easy part. The hard part: realizing your posts, whether it is in a group or on your page or your user profile compete for the same newsfeed space (not talking about comments on posts).

Ideally, if you want something seen these are the quick rules for it:

A) post at least twice a day

B) leave three hours between posts

C) short posts in the morning, longer posts in the evenings

D) the most important post should be after 9pm.

E) if you are a multi-poster

2x a day = before 9am and after 9pm

3x a day = before 9am, after 9pm, and at 1230pm

4x a day = before 9am, after 9pm, 1230pm, and 6pm

5x a day = before 9am, after 9pm, 1230pm, 6pm, and possibly after dinner

If you are posting more than five times a day, you are competing with yourself for newsfeed room, and you begin to run the risk of people unfollowing, selecting hide posts, or see fewer post from.

Navigating social media fluctuates with every update and every action you do. If you post thoughtfully, create reasons to communicate, and don’t treat social sites as your own personal ad, then your posts will go as far as your thoughtfulness to others will carry.