Productivity, Social Media, Writing
Here’s How Writers and Readers Can Use Social Media Productively.
A six-minute investment to productivity and desired outcomes using social media mindfully and meaningfully.
Welcome to my six-minute proposal.
Improper use of any tool can hurt and even be harmful.
If we don’t use a knife or a stove correctly, we can cause damage. There is no point in blaming the knife or the stove in this case. The problem is the way we use them.
It is up to us how to use the tool for efficiency and productivity.
I won’t characterize social media as good or bad.
Like any other productivity and business tools, we should neutrally view social media as a tool. With an initial neutral view, we can give the meaning we want to add to it.
Social media poses connotations. Much has been said about this contemporary and controversial topic as it has become an embedded part of our lives. Like medicine, it comes with side effects.
Who hasn’t read hundreds of articles discussing the disadvantages of social media, especially for wasting time and increasing anxiety?
Some of those articles propose social media cleansing. And some even suggest refraining from the use of social media.
All those articles have a valid point in the right context.
However, instead of creating arguments for those points, as most of them are contextual, my main point is re-framing social media for productivity and reaching desired outcomes intentionally, mindfully, and meaningfully.
What we need is to develop hygiene in the form of good habits.
The effective use of social media requires discipline.
In this post, my purpose is to re-frame social media use as a serendipity tool to enhance the visibility of writers’ content.
Time is the most precious thing in life.
We need to eliminate all time wasters to enjoy our lives.
Time and effort are paradoxical notions.
Every venture requires an investment of time and effort.
The key point is re-framing social media use as an investment rather than a waste of time. There is a fine line between investment and wasting.
The intention and focus determine the difference between wasting and investing. I’d call the differences as mindless versus mindful activities.
Let me explain my practical approach to investing time for social media.
My initial proposal is a six-minute investment in social media per day. It equates one minute per tool, including contingency. Once you make it a habit you can reduce this time to half; to three minutes.
Before judging and stopping to read, let me explain the approach.
My goal is NOT to give you advice on generic social media use, but a specific use of it to showcase your content to a new audience by creating intentional visibility.
The key focus is sharing links to your content. Not chatting and having fun times! This social use case is beyond the scope of my proposal.
One of the core values of my publications is to create serendipity for writers and readers. In simplest terms, it means making our own luck.
My proposal is sensible, intentional, and mindful use of social media based on experience.
I briefly introduce the importance of six tools and how you can use them effectively and efficiently.
Yes, all you need is six minutes a day to create serendipity.
To achieve this goal, you need to understand these three tips.
Three Practical Tips To Save Time on Social Media
Tip 1 — Keep all your social media links in an easily accessible place.
This simple habit will save you time from searching for them each day.
One practical way is to add them to your favorites in your browser.
Or you may add the links to a text file that can be opened (or in a toolbar) on your PC at all times. Name the text file “my social media links”.
Don’t waste your time searching the links each day.
I use LinkTree as one of the tools to keep all my social media files.
Here is my LinkTree site, including my social media links.
https://linktr.ee/digitalmehmet
You can learn how to create LinkTree from this story.
Here are the links for the platforms our writers can share their posts.
You can save these links in a text file or in Linktree.
Quora
https://www.quora.com/q/illuminationonmedium
https://www.quora.com/q/illuminationcurated
https://www.quora.com/q/sharenewsbreakstories
https://www.quora.com/q/vocalstories
https://www.quora.com/q/technologyhits
https://www.quora.com/q/fictionclubillumination
https://www.quora.com/q/poetryclubillumination
https://www.pinterest.com.au/myildizmel/illumination-curated/
https://www.pinterest.com.au/myildizmel/illumination-on-medium/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/illumination-curated
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13914581/
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13911841/
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13923566/
https://www.facebook.com/MediumIllumination
https://www.facebook.com/illuminationcurated
https://www.facebook.com/Stories-from-Vocal-Media-103203291646130
https://twitter.com/illum_official
https://twitter.com/i/lists/1241994806374481922
https://www.reddit.com/r/ILLUMINATION_Writers/
Tip 2 — Open each link one by one when your post is ready to share.
Step 1 — Click on each link.
Step 2 — Copy and paste your article.
Step 3- Press the submit button.
Once you make this a habit, using these six powerful media tools shouldn’t take more than five minutes of your time a day.
Consider this action as a daily seeding activity. Don’t expect your seeds to grow and blossom immediately. Things take time to grow.
For example, search engines may take three to six weeks to index a link. Be patient.
Tip 3 — Ensure your stories have relevant links to your writing platforms.
Each story you create should have a major link that takes your current and prospective readers to your platforms.
Consider this as a map of your writing practice. This map can include your blogs, your newsletters and locations of your content.
Use each story to represent your writing practice meaningfully.
This map itself in each story can serve the purpose of a backlink for your other links.
Remember, the more backlinks your content has, the higher weighting it can gain from search engines.
You can think of this approach as being like creating compound interest for your investment, accumulating over time.
Importance of Designed Platforms
The social media tools that I listed above have millions of followers and users. Each has unique use cases and target audiences.
You can create your own spaces for these platforms, but I wanted to help our writers to get started with designed platforms.
Once you learn how to be productive in these designed platforms, you can create your own.
To save time and make it easy for our writers, I created a platform for each social media tool. These designed platforms can make your social media sharing easier.
Besides, these designed platforms have an essential follower base. Each platform I created is followed by many writers. You will have instant followers for your sharing. These designed platforms are planned for growth over time.
For example, we started Quora for ILLUMINATION-Curated with 0 followers a few weeks ago. Now the space has thousands of followers, and it is growing rapidly. This is remarkable growth in such a short time.
Many readers enjoy reading curated stories. Therefore, this platform is the fastest growing among the other six.
Six Social Media Tools for Writers
1 — LinkedIn Groups and Pages
The LinkedIn platform offers over 500 million professional users globally. By sharing links to your articles on LinkedIn groups and pages, you can attract new readers to your profile.
To help our writers, I created two LinkedIn groups, one per publication and a page covering writers of both publications.
Here is a step-by-step guide on how to use our LinkedIn pages.
I also invited all our writers to our publication page. You can use this page for various purposes, as outlined in the attached story.
2 — Quora Spaces
Quora has millions of users. Quora has an innovative extension to questions and answers. The extension is called Quora Spaces. This feature allows users to add links, write articles, and interactively share their experiences.
Here is a step-by-step guide on how to use these Quora Spaces.
3 — Facebook Groups and Pages
Facebook page is a static site where you can share your posts. Facebook group is an interactive site where you can share your posts, but also where you can engage with others by creating conversation topics.
I am not a fan of using Facebook for socializing, but it can be an excellent tool to amplify our content. I observed some of the articles gained thousands of views on Facebook and helped those articles to go viral.
Here is a step-by-step guide to using Facebook pages.
4 — Pinterest Boards
Pinterest may sound like a fancy tool, but it is commonly used as a business tool for content marketing.
I explained my reasons in the attached story.
Here is a step-by-step guide to using Pinterest Boards.
5 — YouTube Channel
The YouTube platform supports millions of users. By introducing yourself and your stories, you can attract new readers. Our YouTube channel can help you gain new followers and improve your relationship with your followers.
Here is a step-by-step guide to using our YouTube channel.
6 — Twitter
I have mixed thoughts and feelings about Twitter. Despite my bias, I still tweet every article I read and recommend our writers to do so.
It is very easy to tweet articles on Medium. All you need to do is to link your Twitter handle to your Medium account.
I provided a step-by-step guide to achieving this goal.
Remember to follow this Twitter list that I created for you.
If you want to be added to this growing list, please leave your Twitter handle in the comments section.
Conclusions and Takeaways
If intentionally and mindfully used, social media platforms can be great tools for writers to share their content.
The primary purpose is to create visibility through serendipity.
We never know our prospective readers; unless we make some initial effort, it is not possible to create future readers.
Sharing your content daily with minimal investment can bring long-term benefits.
In this post, I provided useful tips and links to get you started with the smart use of social media with minimal effort.
You can use this article as a reference to access social media platforms created for your needs.
Let’s stay connected by investing minimal time and effort in our prospective readers. I know the main focus of writers is to write. Everything else is secondary.
I documented my personal perspectives on social media use in a story.
Medium now has a new distribution approach called BOOSTING. If you want to learn more about it, I documented my initial findings, perspectives, and personal experiences in an article, presenting it in a checklist format for new writers.
New Writers: Enhance the Chance of Boosting via This Quality Checklist
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
Social media can be a noise and distraction, as I explained in the attached story.
Six Tips to Filter Noise and Keep Sanity in These Enigmatic Times
6 Steps to Improve Focus and Attention with Intention
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
As a new reader, please check my holistic health and well-being stories reflecting my reviews, observations, and decades of experiments optimizing my hormones and neurotransmitters. I write about health as it matters. I believe health is all about homeostasis.
ALS, Metabolic Syndrome, Type II Diabetes, Fatty Liver Disease, Heart Disease, Strokes, Obesity, Liver Cancer, Autoimmune Disorders, Homocysteine, Lungs Health, Pancreas Health, Kidneys Health, NCDs, Infectious Diseases, Brain Health, Dementia, Depression, Brain Atrophy, Neonatal Disorders, Skin Health, Dental Health, Bone Health, Leaky Gut, Leaky Brain, Brain Fog, Chronic Inflammation, Insulin Resistance, Elevated Cortisol, Leptin Resistance, Anabolic Resistance, Cholesterol, High Triglycerides, Metabolic Disorders, Gastrointestinal Disorders, Thyroid Disorders, Anemia, Dysautonomia, cardiac output, and urinary track disorders.
I also wrote about valuable nutrients. Here are the links for easy access:
Lutein/Zeaxanthin, Phosphatidylserine, Boron, Urolithin, taurine, citrulline malate, biotin, lithium orotate, alpha-lipoic acid, n-acetyl-cysteine, acetyl-l-carnitine, CoQ10, PQQ, NADH, TMG, creatine, choline, digestive enzymes, magnesium, zinc, hydrolyzed collagen, nootropics, pure nicotine, activated charcoal, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B1, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine, and other nutrients.
Disclaimer: My posts do not include professional or health advice. I only document my reviews, observations, experience, and perspectives to provide information and create awareness.
As part of my creative non-fiction writing goals, I’d like to share a few stories that might warm our hearts with a bit of humor into weighty topics.
Sample Humorous Stories
Based on my writing experience and observations, I documented findings and strategies that might help you amplify your voice, engage your audience, and achieve your desired outcomes in your writing journey.
I publish my lifestyle, health, and well-being stories on EUPHORIA. My focus is on cellular, mitochondrial, metabolic, and mental health. Here is my collection of Insightful Life Lessons from Personal Stories.
You might join my six publications on Medium as a writer by sending a request via this link. 24K writers contribute to my publications. You might find more information about my professional background. I also write tech stories from a different profile on Medium. Here is a recent update.
