Battle Of The Platforms

[Addison]

Every writer has their own experience with social media. Yet everyone has their own reasons for avoiding and using certain platforms for marketing and promotion. While several use a combination of platforms, everyone has that one GO TO platform.

But overall, from the words of writers, which one is used most?
Take the poll, post your opinion, think of this as Battle Of The Platforms.

 

[Addison]

Personally, I prefer Pinterest. It's a way to connect, explore, research, without being put out to the internet like an Open Season ground. I mean seriously, IMHO, Twitter and Facebook seem like a watering hole/buffet/speed dating for all kinds of killers and creeps.

I can see the benefit of such sites to connect with potential readers, but I feel like once you make such a page on those sites you're opening yourself to be judged and such....like you made a Yelp page for yourself.

 

[Insolent Lad]

Everything except Instagram, which doesn't seem very useful for what I do and is too much geared toward mobile users (I don't do mobile). But my venerable blog at Blogger (over a dozen years) is still number one for me.

 

[Mythopoet]

I think every writer should have a website that gives information about their work for anyone who might happen to be searching for them. Wordpress is a good platform for making such a website cheaply and easily. As far as social media goes, I don't think I could ever use the twitter. It just doesn't work for me. It confuses me. I'd be terrible at it. (And you should only use social media if you're comfortable with it and enjoy it.) I like the idea of pinterest and even have a pinterest account, but I can't really get into it. It doesn't feel organic to the way I work.

 

[LRFrancis]

Is it bad to say that I don't use any of them?

I'm not really the social networking type, I'm still editing HTML pages!

 

[pmmg]

I use facebook but I hate it. I am not sure what is really there for me.

 

[Addison]

What's confusing is that, in my opinion anyway, the main and highly recommended platforms are virtually the same. Twitter and Facebook, you basically just text on a global scale. Both sites allow the sharing of photos, videos and information. From what I understand when you "Tweet" they're supposed to be short. Like Super-Super-Super Flash Fiction. Facebook can just be Super-Flash Fiction. They're just different names and logos.

Am I wrong? I have no idea, that's just based on what I've heard from people who use it. Not as an author platform, just a social media site.

Another thing is what could someone put on a blog that couldn't be put on Facebook? Or what could they put on Facebook that wouldn't be better-or more thoroughly explained- in a blog?

I think understanding the pro's and con's of each platform could help authors determine which platform(s) would best suit their time and style and preference.