Another Reason to Rant: Annoying Facebook Posts

A good friend of mine posted this on my facebook page this past weekend. If you read it first, the following few paragraphs will make a lot more sense.  Now, there are so many aspects to facebook postings that are ripe for complaining about (see below). However, I think I’ve been lucky enough to surround myself with friends that don’t post many of these annoying, thinly-disguised bragging posts and/or selfies, so I’m not necessarily going to rant about this. In fact, many of my friends who are also writers don’t promote themselves or their work enough, and I would welcome more articles and status updates about their successes.

What’s interesting about the mentioned article is the fact that the fake author in question is actually a publicist’s dream-a writer promoting his work, making connections with other writers and attempting to create his own buzz. As long as he doesn’t instruct his publicist  to pick all the blueberries out of his muffins on book tours, he’d probably be a great author to work with. What this article is truly complaining about is the annoying tone of people’s posts, and really, this could apply to anyone, writer or not. We’ve all done it, including me.  For example:

“What did I do to deserve such an amazing husband? Flowers, jewellery and a nice meal: what more could a girl ask for? Happy anniversary baby!”

No one cares what your husband got you. No one. Your friends don’t even really care that much, they just pretend to when they see you in person, but that’s only because they’re your friend. Your ‘pseudo’ friends and acquaintances on facebook really don’t give a shit. Oh, and stop posting ridiculous selfies while you’re at it: congratulations, you’ve perfected a way to smile at the camera that makes you look more attractive than usual. We all know you don’t normally look like that, so stop trying*.

But I’m digressing here-my ranting here is supposed to be a reflection on how to best utilize your facebook and social media outlets to better promote your own work. Personally, I’ve found that using my Linkedin page is a great way to get the word out, because people there are connected to you solely to see your career-related accomplishments. I also created a facebook page specifically for this blog to help promote it and drive more traffic. One last piece of fairly obvious advice-if you’re an author, for the love of Christ set up your own website so people are convinced you’re aware of the internet.

That’s about the extent of my ideas-limited and uncreative, I know. Many of my readers will have great insights into this topic, so please comment below if you’ve got some suggestions for me. Or if you’d like to defend your facebook posting ways…

* I realize I’ve spiraled into a very harsh and hurtful place with this last sentence, but quite honestly it needs to be said, and truth bombs have their own special place in this world.