How Should We Write on Social Media
- R.C.Blyth
- Jan 5, 2020
- 4 min read
Published subject matter is wider than ever. Writing on social media carries risks. Once published, clumsy phrasing is hard to remove from a reader's mind. We've all made the same mistakes. A quick response fired from the hip! In this article, I have called how we should write on social media.
Professional Sites
Professionals have guidelines from their official bodies and regulators, but most freelancers follow what fires their inner thoughts. I'm not sure how many people are sued, but there is little doubt we can run into problems if care is not taken.
When one person is offensive to another, it is easy for another reader to take the narrative out of context and feel justified in writing a repost. Then there are, of course, rules that disbar one from having their post published because one word does not fulfil the requirements of probity. I put the title of one of my books up on social media called 'Selling ... '. The first word—SELLING, caused the problem. I was not selling but informing. The word marketing could have been used to mean the same thing. 'Sell' does not mean to have someone else buy something for money, but it can mean to accept an idea. If you understand this dichotomy, you will know what I mean by being taken out of context.
As the French say. Alors ça Va!
Professionals should know better, and their content should be factual, based on evidence, and accurate without bias. My leading platforms for making more professional connections are LinkedIn, Facebook, X (Twitter), and Instagram. Of course, there are others, and I will doubtless explore more of the marketplace as time passes.
Writing Social Media for Family & Friends
The exposure of emotion and feelings often dominates some posts and messages. The family and friends style, of course, is usually empathic, and images include holiday snaps, fun selfies, children and pictures of food (if you like that type of image). There are dangers, of course, in the F&F model of social media: who is following and what data is being collected. I have many lovely pictures of my family, especially of my grandchildren, but I feel it is essential to protect their identity. Rather than using Facebook and such platforms, WhatsApp has, until now, proved to be a better method for daily/weekly discourse. The latter is owned by the same people who own Meta and Facebook, and although it is considered safe, one must always be careful what is uploaded.
Self-help and Support Groups
Help groups are really valuable, but among those who become members, some prowlers want to stimulate business, promote scam offers, and generally destroy the ethos that the person setting up the group desires. Even if you join, some appoint themselves as experts and enjoy sharp asperitous responses, which sometimes do more harm than good.
Critique
If one asks for support or criticism, then truthful responses are desirable, but sensitivity can
disappear as the balance between quality critique and gross feedback is pursued. There is no better example than the help provided by fellow writers.
Lick your wounds and get back on your steed
When you have a passion and part of you embraces teaching as an innate part of your inner self, then it is easy to stand up and speak out. Having researched how to write a book and, indeed, publish as an author, I have fallen into most of the traps and pitfalls, which I prefer to call potholes. This includes scammy people who entrap the innocent and less wise.
When I read a post from an anonymous person titled 'Please tell me all there is to know about writing,' I became frustrated. First, there was the anonymous bit. Second, there was the blanket request that told me that they wanted someone to write screeds from their own experience to someone who did not have the pride to use a name—even if it was a pseudonym.
Hello, dear anonymous. Let me guide you… My retort received a thousand cuts that bled as I said the post was disingenuous.
Then, there was my request for a beta reader. I foolishly added a concept cover as I thought it was fun, having just been encouraged to use Canva. The cover was AI-generated, and I wanted someone to read my latest book before the next stage. The image was not the request, as I knew we should not use AI as professionals. Why on earth did I run that gauntlet?
Another thousand cuts were received when I was told never to use AI, with—I would never buy a book with a cover designed by AI. Ripper-like comments flew pointedly at my efforts.
Crawling back into my badger sett, I licked my wounds and decided to try a response —by the way, these rarely work. I would seldom use an AI cover, and I tried to explain; mine was just a concept cover (for fun). I mostly use a professional cover designer. Failure is also being silly when one should know better.
Social media can be our friend and our foe, and I have seen comments like, "People are just trying to learn. This is the last time I will sign up for this platform!"
The negative side of social media is the lack of patience and understanding. My first comment met that criticism, but I would help anyone and have assisted many. Plus, that is why I like to write—not because I'm great, successful, or the best writer ever, but because I enjoy helping people. The positive side is that there are good people who offer excellent insights.
The truth is that becoming an author is not possible unless you expose your writing; it is then that a writer starts to become an author. Using social media is still worthwhile, but following the rules of the road makes that journey more comfortable.
Respond only when reading the question carefully.
Do not respond immediately when emotional.
Consider how personal information is used.
Never use hurtful language.
If such a response is likely to be personal, consider Messenger or another form with end-to-end encryption.
Support where you can.
Criticism should never be personal but generalised.
If you write a post or blog, anonymise it rather than cite people unless their names are already public.
R.C.Blyth. 29 December 2024
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