Blogger: 4 stars. Google and Microsoft have settled some of their differences and now, as you have seen, I can post pictures, something I couldn't do after Nov. 2014.
Spotify: 4 stars. Some of the functions are hard to figure out from the instructions but once you figure them out, they work.
Google+: 0 stars. Our models of what we want social media to do are exactly opposite. If you're following me on Google+, you'd be better off following me on Twitter or, since it appears to be merger bait, on Facebook or Blogger.
Pinterest: 0 stars. Another "exactly opposite". Clue for Pinterest users: when I google something, I filter out or ignore every link from Pinterest. It won't let you look at anything unless you have a Pinterest account. There are enough websites that have non-Pinterest alternatives and offer info I want, that Pinterest has NO interest for me.
Facebook: 2 1/2 stars. I'd be happier with Facebook if their help topic contents had kept up with how pages actually work. Everything I've used the Help function with, the instructions tell me to look for things that don't exist. For example, when it tells you to right-click, fuhgeddaboudit. You get the normal IE right-click menu.
I'm also disturbed by the stupid stuff that FB expects its customers to suck up. From bad security to an email dirty trick, and now being suckered into posting death messages for users who aren't dead, FB is behaving immaturely.
On FB I'm only posting links to Blogger, not full-up Blogger posts, because I can't find the Facebook instructions on how to control comments and I have no intention of feeding trolls and trash.
The FB model of protecting copyright seems to force you to identify groups first. I'm getting readership from all over the world, and I want it that way, so identifying groups is nonsense.
Twitter: 4 stars FWIW. This helped me increase pageviews by putting out "ads" in a separate forum. The text limitation hasn't hurt me; if I really want to let loose, usually on a news article, I go to the article. They usually allow comments. Twitter's biggest problem right now is fangirl bullies and trolls who need to be blocked until they grow out of it. If ever.
Now that Blogger's photo links have been fixed, Blogger wins hands down. I don't allow comments from anonymous readers, and I can turn moderation on and off at the flick of a button if the others get out of hand. Then I have the function for deleting trash comments, which is legal for non-government bloggers to do.
Lesson for using social media: know what you're after. Social media can ruin your brand lickety split unless you know what you have to do to protect yourself and invest the time.
Case in point. What was formerly the best news outlet with the widest interest and reach in the D.C. region, has slowly been turning into a victim of its own IT department. The IT department loaded the articles with flashy trashy video nonsense that had nothing to do with the article. The videos chewed up so much bandwidth that it was difficult to read the articles let alone comment. Comments dropped off except for the dedicated crazy people who, having no lives, were the only ones with the time to waste.
So the moderators were working overtime and there were still abusive, threatening posts, trolls and spam. And the bean counters decided to put a stop to that. They have switched completely over to Facebook with no moderation. Instead of the moderators not being able to keep up with the crazy people, there will be nothing but crazy people.
Another news outlet gets crazy people but there's a link to their help department. In recent attempts of crazy people to eliminate comments they didn't like, it was possible to tell the help department what to watch for and the craziness was halted. After that the discussion continued undisturbed.
And finally there are still people, years after social media was invented, who don't realize that
a) they never know who their readers are distributing their info to and
b) just because they delete something so they can't see it, doesn't mean it automatically disappears everywhere.
I have had to teach somebody I know that anything posted on FB can make its way to where it can ruin a career. It never happens immediately; Murphy's Law says it will always wait until it does the most damage.
I'm just saying...
© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights Reserved
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