Am I the only one who doesn't (know how to) use social media?

Hello Chris, I see you're quite passionate about social media technology. I myself am building a new social media platform, it's not not gonna be another ad-based, soul sucking machine. If you can imagine IG as the information equivalent of fast food, I'm coming up with something purely giving out healthy food i.e healthy information. I know Medium does this to some extent,but my platform is going to go beyond consumption and be a lot more participatory. It would really help me if you could give my product hunt account a follow..... please 🙏! I promise to not dissapoint 🙏

@chrismessina Thanks for the thoughtful response, Chris. I'm not 100% convinced. I feel like most, if not all, of the uses you list can be fulfilled in other arenas (website, print, communities, events, handshakes). In your metaphor, this would be like replacing running with... a healthy diet? That said, I really like two of the thoughts you shared: 1. That you don't need to use all of the equipment/networks 2. That you need to know your true audience 1 > It feels like there's a lot of pressure to do it all. To have "a presence" everywhere... but for such a presence to be worth anything, a significant investment of time has to be made. Hearing that it's OK to focus on one network does assuage some of my concerns (more on that in a bit). 2 > I think you need to share this message with more people. So much of the content I see on social media appears to be... "written for social media." It all feels like a game. Except that you're not a player, you're at most a pawn in someone else's game. Nothing is actually said, it's about some mechanics on which you can only have some tangential impact. I *have* noticed that when I'm just more honest - regardless of where I share - that I care less about the mechanics. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, it is at these times that I usually derive the most benefit (in ways that overlap with your list of uses). So, I guess it's a partial agreement on my part. However, I will also concede that: A. I may simply be "doing it wrong" in some cases. I may not know *how* to derive value from a given network. I may *never* know. And that's OK - as long as: i) someone on my team does, if... ii) it's a good fit for our audience/niche B. It's quite possible that I don't fully recognize "social media" anymore. Is this discussion an example of social media? Are my blog posts social media? How about communities like Growthmentor? For a long time I didn't even consider LinkedIn to be social media - just a work tool. But it's possible that these are just the "equipment" that I'm better suited to use. But man, I just don't get Twitter! Like, at all!

@chetan_natesh Thanks, Chetan! Appreciate the perspective. In response: re: 1) This may be (more) true for more consumer-focused products. Then again, maybe it's my customers who are the exception. Maybe it's me... re: 2) I can't get past this. How do I (find time to) curate accounts thoroughly? Unless there is some secret to doing it super-efficiently, it'll never happen. It's too time consuming and I'm already rocking 12-14h days! Seems like a luxury I can't afford. I do, however, fully subscribe to the maxim that we should "be where our customers are"... I'm just not convinced that where they are is always in social media. Hmm, maybe we need better products to do the curating you describe (we're in the right place for that!)? So much of what I find in social media is low-quality noise. Plus ones, bite-sized pieces of shallow wisdom, clearly robot-written content, anger, and garbage... How does one actually get to the good stuff without having time to "learn how to do social media?"

@martin_demkowicz Since YouTube is the platform I consume content from the most, I can give you very simple but effective advice on how to curate your Youtube feed. The algorithm, as you said, will give you low quality noise, in the beginning. It's best if you surf the content a little, just so that it gets a vague picture of your tastes - and then it will start recommending *some* good content. Then what you do is, as you scroll through your feed - you'll see three dots at the right bottom of every video. If you click on it you'll get an option to "save to watch later" this I think is the most under valued feature in YT. Every once in a while the algorithm is going to give recommend really nice content. Save to watch later , within no time you'll have a small list of videos you've handpicked yourself. After you watch just THOSE videos , that's when the magic begins. It just takes some effort in the beginning,maybe a couple of hours every weekend, but I guarantee it's worth it.

@chetan_natesh Thanks - that's a very concrete recommendation for helping to cut through the noise. I will give it a go! That said, it'll likely take me a much longer time to see the results you describe (which, in turn, makes me less motivated... and possibly makes the algorithmic changes less impactful?). Why? I have eight kids. :) "Couple hours every weekend" would mean I'd have to teach YT *instead of* teaching one of them.

@martin_demkowicz 8 kids! that's tough 🤘 If not 2 hours , start with just 30 minutes, will take longer - take my word for it , will still be worth it🙌

@chetan_natesh It is tough but also super awesome. :) I'll try to feed YT when I'm not feeding the little ones. Thanks again for the tip!

@nadenade In other words: don't use it just to use it... use it if it makes sense to use it. Makes sense! :)

@imanmoaz @dan_yes Thanks for the honest, detailed response, Daniyar. It's nice to know that I'm not alone in my observations. Hadn't heard about that TikTok view inflation. Then again, I've barely heard of TikTok. :) That's another channel I just don't get. Maybe it's a generational thing. To me it's the epitome of noise. I will probably need to bite the bullet and delegate some form of engagement to someone. It's hard for me to overcome my own serious misgivings for social media itself, however; I take issue with investing in (and therefore contributing to) something that I find to be mostly harmful. That said, I do believe in the ingenuity and creativity of the human mind. I think we're way overdue for a constructive response/alternative to the content-diarrhea model so prevalent in social media. Someone will fix it - soon, I hope. Perhaps it's somebody here?

@jason_moreau Thanks, Jason. Curious: which channels are you using to find your SMEs?

@martin_demkowicz I’m mostly on LinkedIn and YouTube. I think you can find SMEs on every social channel. But different channels cater to different audiences and formats. Just like on television , a science show on PBS looks different than a science show on Nickelodeon.