I’ve talked a lot on here about the fact that you need to use your social media accounts or lose them. It would be very hypocritical of me if I were to tell you that and then not do it myself. In 2016, I was on Nils Smith’s podcast and stated that it was time for Twitter to end. While this has not happened, the reason I figured Twitter should end continues. So, I’ve decided to delete my Twitter account.
(This is actually part of my New Year’s resolution to say no to more thanks, the Bob Goff experiment.)
No really, it’s gone.
If you want the account, go for it. Just don’t impersonate me, that’s creepy.
What is that reason for leaving? Twitter is only thinking about themselves. They do not offer value to their users. And it’s too much marketing, not enough good content. Too much spam and bots, not enough community. Too much vulgarity, hate speech, and inappropriate content, and seemingly no regulation.
At one point I was making friends, meeting people in church tech, and networking. It was not and never has been about making a big impact on social network platforms, so doing the hacking of Twitter to get twenty thousand people following was meaningless. Now, it’s noise. Twitter is the last way I want to be reached.
Heck, I give more value to Google+ right now than Twitter. At least having a Google+ account for your church means you will show up in Google Local searches. You send out a link on Twitter to your 9,000 followers and you may get a click or two.
This Is True For ChurchMag Too
No, we aren’t deleting ChurchMag’s account, but we are not focusing on it either. In 2016, before I handed the reins over to our team, I was doing a three-month study. I put four times the effort into Twitter to develop relationships than I did with Facebook. All content posted on Facebook was second-hand content. And yet, our highest social media click-through traffic BY FAR was Facebook.
So our plan for 2018? Focus on the community. That means a bit with Facebook, but that means so, so much more with ChurchMag as a whole. We want to talk with you, meet you, know why you like Apple or Android, and what your favorite game is to play. We want to start a dialogue, we want to show you guys off, and we need to hear more from you.
That is truly what is most important, not some vanity metric. And certainly not being “big” on Twitter. You. You are the most important thing. Because you have the ability to share Jesus with the world. And that’s our calling. So let us help you.
Now to go unlink my Twitter account from all my other online presences.
Roberto says
Love it. Okay, now move on to Facebook! Great job.
Jeremy Smith says
Move on as in delete it too?
Roberto says
Sorry for the late response. 😉
I would say YES to deleting Facebook.
Matt Brier says
As much as I tried to keep up with Twitter in the beginning it just has been too overwhelming. I still have an account, but primarily because:
1. It’s easier to post to Twitter and let it auto-post to Facebook/where ever else from my phone.
2. It’s exposure, albeit minimal, for my podcast on it’s account.
3. Occasionally the emails I get from Twitter will have a relevant summary.
I keep up with Facebook more as it’s where most friends and family still update, but it’s even beginning to wear on me with the algorithms always changing and their insistence that they know what I want better than I do. The last time I put my feed in ‘Most Recent’ mode I felt like it dropped out half of what I really wanted to see.
Jeremy Smith says
To your three points, Facebook actually values third party posts significantly less, so if exposure is something to want, you need to post directly on their site. Further, my experience is that exposure is pretty terrible with regards to Twitter. Almost no click through for the audience size and you have to initiate conversations to break through the terrible amount of noise. To the Twitter summary, I didn’t read those do I don’t know.
Jeff Hendricks says
As much as I hate to say it, micro-blogging as a whole is going downhill. It’s just too easy to spam, manipulate, and abuse. And the amount of work required to filter out the noise defeats the purpose of micro-blogging in the first place.
I still have all those accounts, but I seldom post anywhere now. Mostly facebook, which I still don’t like, but it has the most audience interaction (and some of the most intrusive advertising).
Jeremy Smith says
It’s true about microblogging, though this at least as different moderation controls on certain platforms. Twitter could completely turn it around quickly and easily. Allow only those who they follow to be allowed to comment or those who are verified and the hate speech will instantly die down. But I fear they don’t want it to.
You should check out our Facebook group and of course our Minecraft Slack group. 😉