These days there are so many new social media sites popping up that you could literally spend all of your time combing through newsfeeds, pinning, following, tweeting, retweeting, posting…and the list goes on…and on. At the same time, social networking sites are absolutely indispensable for bloggers and businesses — not to mention anyone interested in maintaining a social life and keeping up with the latest news and trends. The key is filtering and curating everything into a manageable package.
To start, you don’t need to join all of the new social networking sites that come along. Because they’re going to keep coming — and then going. The social media OG’s are still leading the pack and their reach continues to grow. According to Pew Research, “Today, 59% of Instagram users are on the platform daily, including 35% who visit several times a day. This 59% figure reflects a 10-point increase from September 2014…. the proportion of Pinterest users who visit the platform daily rose from 17% in September 2014 to 27% in April 2015, while the proportion of daily users on LinkedIn increased from 13% to 22% over the same time period.”
Read Related: The Frenema: How to Properly Purge Your Social Media Sites
Of all social media sites, Facebook still has the most daily users. Their newsfeed algorithm has always been a bone of contention but last year FB made everyone’s virtual social lives easier by allowing you to curate your newsfeed settings to prioritize posts from certain people and hide posts from others without anyone knowing!
Finally, add Twitter and Google+ to that list for your foundation. Then look for one or two smaller social media sites like Vine or Reddit and one or two niche sites, like Ravelry or Goodreads, that cater to a more specific audience.
Take advantage of the many amazing apps created to enhance your social media experience. The future of social networking sites looks like it’s poised for a video and live-streaming explosion, so get camera-ready! Periscope, which was recently bought by Twitter, makes live-streaming a snap. Hootsuite is a great dashboard for scheduling and monitoring your feeds. Feedly is a great tool for curating news from your favorite blogs and websites. If you find yourself getting overwhelmed just remember trimming the fat and consolidation are key.
