I actually enjoy social media. I know, I know. It’s not trendy to admit that. But really. I do. It’s a tool that I love to utilize. I seriously don’t know what I’d do without it. If you don’t have the same feelings I’m guessing it’s because you haven’t discovered how to use it as a tool. I’m also guessing maybe all you’ve really been doing with it is scrolling. If so, I think you’ll appreciate learning why I unfriended 200 Facebook contacts.
My Facebook Experience Overall
I have definitely had some reaaaaaaalllly bad experiences on Facebook, but over all the benefits skyrocket above the bad experiences. I definitely would never have had my photography business which provided needed income for our family for years. It’s not likely I would be homeschooling because I never would have found the home school curriculum that saved our homeschool (thank you Jesus). I wouldn’t have found Christian blog’s or found the women’s conference and met the counselor-all of which helped encourage and lift me through some of my most difficult times.
There are long seasons/years that I would have been entirely alone if it were not for Facebook messaging since phone conversations don’t mix well with babies, a bunch of kids, and homeschooling. Don’t get me wrong, I love my extended family and friends, but I’m not going to pull my oldest kids off their studies so they can babysit while I lock myself in a closet (so I can hear what the person is saying) and chit chat on the phone (while my kids run around and shred the house)!
I would never have met one of my best friends (who’s friendship came along when I needed it the most) if it weren’t for social media. There are countless other friends I wouldn’t have been able to have any substance of a relationship with had it not been for social media.
Point is, so many people, things, idea’s, projects that have made our lives richer-I never would have found if it weren’t for social media.
2 Way’s Social Media Is Invaluable
Groups
Groups are amazing. They can be a major resource used to research, ask questions, and learn from others. I can get specific answers to everything from curriculum’s to marketing and even put something up for sale all in a matter of in seconds thanks to groups. When you have six kids it’s not uncommon for seconds to be all you have!
Finding the best places to do business
Many consumers including myself are even look up business’s on Facebook to find where places are located, phone numbers and to keep up with the business’s current events and sales-and to remember the business so that when when we are ready to purchase we know where to go.
Thousands of people look up business pages on Facebook to read the reviews and decide yay or nay on places to do business. One time Facebook helped me avoid what would have been an awful experience with our middle child. For months he had been saying he wanted to go mini golfing for his next birthday. A couple weeks before his birthday, I went to look up the hours of operation for the mini golf course on Facebook and was greeted on their page with so many horrible reviews!
Apparently the place had switched hands recently and didn’t allow children any longer, and according to the reviews and news report (I know-wow) was horribly rude about it! Our little boy would have been devastated to get there and find out they weren’t going to let him play! But thanks to social media I was able to derail that disappointment and help him find something else to do.
Business building
If you are a business owner and you are not utilizing Facebook, you are missing out! Remember-people look up their favorite business’s and business’s that are interesting to them so they can follow them. They may not purchase right away, but when they are ready to purchase they are going to buy from the first place that comes to mind which is usually the last place they saw (which will be your business if you are posting regularly).
Not convinced? Here are more reasons your business should be on Facebook;
11 Mind-Blowing Reasons Your Company Needs Facebook
Why Facebook Is Important for Your Small Business
Does “Everyone” Despise Social Media?
I have to suspect most the people who complain about social media actually enjoy being there too despite their griping-otherwise why would over half the US population be on Facebook 169.5 million to be exact, 55.2 million be on Twitter, 104.7 million be on Instagram…and that’s just to name three platforms.
Yet everyone “hates social media”. Reeeeallly.
I propose that most the people who complain about social media simply don’t know how to utilize it. They get on it, but they don’t have a real reason to be on there-and they are using it incorrectly.
A Positive Social Media Experience
I’ve talked before about the dangers of scrolling. There are articles written on how getting on and scrolling can even trigger depression. Some time ago I created this video on how to have a healthy Facebook relationship. If you cannot view this video below you can see it on YouTube HERE.
Since I made this video things seemed to have changed slightly again. Also, I discovered some more ways to have a better social media experience. First-the backstory.
The Observation
Recently I noticed that for the last year my personal posts on Facebook were not gaining as much interaction as usual. Facebook had become boring for me. I had realized for quite some time that I was only seeing around 5 friends posts in my feed, the rest of what I was seeing was from inspirational and informational/educational pages I’ve liked and chose to “see first” in my news feed for personal development.
Because of this, every couple months or so I would visit as many of my friends pages as I could and “Like” their recent photographs or posts to try to get them back into my feed. Unfortunately it didn’t seem to be making a difference.
In frustration, I decided to take a close look at my friends list one day. Suddenly everything started making sense. Over half of my list had either never interacted with me on FB or else seldom did. Many of them were contacts from jobs I had years ago. In a nutshell, they were’t actual friends and weren’t reciprocating. So I made a decision.
Taking Action, Why I Unfriended 200 Facebook Contacts
That’s when and why I unfriended half my Facebook contacts. I went through and unfriended every contact that either had never interacted with me or else had not interacted with me in ages. In the end my Facebook page was over 200 people lighter!
The Results
Once I unfriended half my Facebook contacts the unexpected happened. Starting almost immediately after that, my news feed was suddenly filled with posts from friends again. Lot’s of friends.
I was a little worried that I may have unfriended some that actually did value a FB friendship with me, so I updated my picture and wrote the comment (above) in case anyone looked me up to hopefully assure no hurt feelings! So far, only ONE person friended me back so I guess I didn’t do to bad sifting through.
The Point of Social Media
Here’s the thing. The whole point of being on social media is to be social, to INTERACT with others, keep in touch with friends. For some people the point for them is to keep from being forgotten as in the case of business owners, non profit organizations, charity’s, and ministry’s.
According to the article, 5 Reasons Why You Should Start Deleting Facebook Friends, having thousands of FB friends doesn’t do us any good at all. If your goal is reaching people either because you are business owner or have a ministry to encourage others it could even be hurting your cause.
Ever since I unfriended half my Facebook contacts I’ve been finding FB far more enjoyable. I will say that ever since I started this journey of becoming a professional blogger I’ve not had as much time to scroll my feed. When I do I cannot help but smile to see all the lovely real friends posts again though! And that’s how social experiences should leave us! With a smile! If they are not then it’s time for something to change.
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