I can barely remember the time when Social Media didn’t exist. In reality, it’s really not that long ago in the grand scheme of things, but this is very hard to believe considering that these days, so much of our daily lives are taken up by scrolling through our favourite feeds, commenting and liking as we go.
Twitter and Me
I for one can’t go a day without checking my Twitter feed. Facebook and Instagram I can quite easily live without. It’s Twitter that draws me in and keeps me there for longer than is really necessary. It’s my guilty pleasure and I firmly believe it’s because I’m extremely nosy and I just love a random conversation.
Of course, I use my Twitter timeline as a means to promote my blog posts, but I have to be honest, and this may not be a popular comment to make, but I do find timelines and feeds full of links, very off-putting. Twitter for me is about so much more than link dropping. I love the funny conversations – particularly the ones full of GIFs (who doesn’t love a good GIF?!). I love the way you can drop in with your opinion at any given opportunity. I love the way you can discuss a TV programme with someone, even if you’re watching it alone.
As I said before, I do share my blog posts, but nowhere near as much as I probably ‘should do’ as a blogger, but I share them enough for me. And when I do, I share them ad-hoc and naturally, I don’t generally schedule them. I have done in the past but I just feel it’s all so samey. I’ve come to realise that it’s just not for me. And that’s okay.
I wanted to find out which social media platforms were the most popular and why. As bloggers, we are encouraged to be present on all of them, but we all have our favourites and all have different reasons for them being our so. I took to asking some fellow bloggers what they thought and this is what I found out.
Instagram. Because I love to express my creativity and record our lives in a visual diary that we can treasure forever. – Danielle from someonesmum.co.uk
I love Instagram the most at the moment. I love being able to see people’s faces and their beautiful photography. I just feel more creative over there. – Sarah from justbuttonsblog.co.uk
My favourite is Instagram, I love that it can be as deep and meaningful or as frivolous and fun as you want. I don’t have many friends or family around me in real life but on Instagram, I have found a community of like-minded people going through everything I am going through I find so much support in it. I love that it takes seconds to catch up with what everyone has been up to. – Kate from everafterwithkids.com
Another one for Instagram. I have honestly found my tribe, become more educated, diversified my real life and all whilst increasing my own brand. I will hear none of this ‘it’s a bad place’ your feed is what you make it. – Sinead from sineadlatham.com
I love Instagram the most. I love the interaction on there and the creativity it has encouraged me to pursue. I understand people’s frustrations with it but there is such an amazing community on there and so many great accounts to follow. – Kirsty from winnettes.com
I love Instagram. It’s a great place to microblog. I love the interaction with others ‘grammers’ and it seems more friendly somehow than other platforms. It’s a great place to show good times and bad. With the stories being more true life and the squares being a place to show off a little. – Nina from spencersarc.com
My favourite for blogging is Instagram. I love the people I’ve got to know by looking at each other’s photos and have met up with some over a love of crafting. I also have got to know people who aren’t bloggers and I like that mix of work and personal. – Candace from bucketsoftea.co.uk
I love Instagram as it’s like a photo diary for me. It’s so easy to look back at old photos. – Lottie from the-haymans.blogspot.co.uk
Mine is definitely Instagram. I can enjoy my love of photography on my Instagram feed but also still share the everyday moments on my stories. It’s like the best of both worlds! – Laura from fivelittledoves.com
Instagram for me, I love looking at peoples pictures – I find it really inspiring! – Natalie from memeandharri.com
I prefer Instagram these days! I just today put a post up on my Instagram feed what Insta means to me! – Markus from thesillydaddychronicles.co.uk
I love Instagram, more for myself than any actual interaction. I love being able to look back at the photos I’ve taken and remember the good days as well as the tough ones. – Ayse from arepops.com
I love Instagram. I love the story a photo can hold and what’s the story behind it. A great way to share your thoughts ideas and views as well as the good/bad times. – Shel from the-willowtree.com
I love Twitter because I really engage with people. I can chat with lots of people and share my opinions so easily! – Katy from katykicker.com
Twitter for me. I’m better with words than I am with photos, and I really enjoy the variety of people on there. It’s so supportive and I feel like I’ve found “my people” on there. – Jennifer from mightymamabear.com
I really like Twitter for the opportunities it gives small business and bloggers to network with journalists and influencers. Things like #prrequest and #journorequest make such a huge difference and make the network totally unique. – Jodie from maidenheadmum.co.uk
I was always Team FB until I started Twitter last Autumn… Now it’s Twitter all the way. I love the pace, engagement, and mainly the GIFs. I do love a good GIF. – Kate from themumconundrum.com
My favourite is Twitter. I love the dark humour and instant interaction. It’s like a huge group conversation, well, it is the way I use it. I used to like Facebook best but mainly because I wasn’t on Twitter. I love the stories on Instagram but I just don’t get the interaction from it. As a blogger, I get most views from Facebook but personally, it isn’t my fave platform. – Benny from daddypoppins.com
My favourite social media is Twitter. The level of growth and engagement over there has been amazing. By comparison, Facebook has been a huge battle. I think this is because they try to limit the reach of things unless you pay them money. Not an approach I’m a big fan of. – Leigh from dadgeek.co.uk
Twitter – I love the interactivity of it and the rapid pace of things, especially when live events happen and you can take part in the conversation as it happens. I’m not even that arsed about the blogging side of things there as that’s not what it’s really about for me but for sheer connectivity and community I’ve always loved it! – Alex from actualar.co.uk
I love Facebook the most. Its how I got into blogging and I love the sense of community that my Facebook group gives me. – Kayley from friendlyfirstfoods.co.uk
I’m a Facebook fan. I think it gives people far more time to stroll through posts. I find that I get even better engagement if I’m willing to pay to promote a post. – Pete from householdmoneysaving.com
Facebook! It’s what I use in my personal life and I love using it for my blog. I enjoy the ease of interaction and the sense of community. I don’t feel you get to know people as well on other platforms as it’s mainly bloggers whereas Facebook is mainly “normal” people 
I love Facebook for the blogging community and support but next up is Instagram as it’s the equivalent of a picture book and easy to catch up and digest! – Fran from backwithabump.co.uk
It was Twitter but I’m getting more interaction from facebook now – Ruth from www.craftwithcartwright.co.uk
Facebook, although it might be the fact that I’ve used it for 10+ years and I vaguely understand it. Twitter confuses the hell out of me with all the conversations splitting off all over the place but I suspect that’s down to my inadequacies rather than Twitter 
Overall I get the most interaction from non-bloggers on Facebook and that’s what I like. – Erica from theincidentalparent.com
I love Pinterest! I could pin and read all day long. I do a lot of manual pinning and it’s been a huge traffic driver for me. I also find that the images and the mountain of information help to inspire me in my home and family life and in my ‘work from home’ life too. – Michelle from timeandpence.com
Clear Winner
So it’s quite clear from this research that there is a huge amount of love for Instagram. It surprises me but only because I don’t ‘get it’ quite as much as others do. Perhaps it’s because I prefer words instead of pictures. I do find I get a little bored of scrolling through pictures, and I really fell out of love with it when the algorithm changed. I didn’t want to see peoples photos of Christmas Eve on New Years Day – it’s INSTAgram for a reason, surely?
It’s quite sad though that a few people feel that they aren’t ‘perfect’ enough for Instagram. There seems to be this theory that Instagram feeds should be full of impeccable images. This isn’t real life though, is it? I’m certain that in most pictures where you see a spotless living room, behind the lens is a mess as big as the next persons. People will only post what you want them to see and for me, that’s not real. Yes, they are beautiful on the eye and I am guilty of ‘liking’ them as much as everyone else, but if they make people feel inferior, is it right?
The responses for Twitter don’t surprise me at all. These are like-minded people to me and we share a mutual love of the platform for the same reasons. I’ve lost hours chatting with some of the people who have contributed to this post and it’s carefree banter. It’s great for a laugh and I love it. Despite the notifications draining my battery!
It surprises me how Facebook isn’t as popular as it once was. Whilst I’ve made it no secret that I am not a huge fan of Facebook these days, I was always under the impression that others were. I don’t spend much time there these days and when I am there it’s usually in a Facebook Group for something blogging related, but it’s good to know that it’s still enjoyable for a lot of people. I really don’t remember the last time I scrolled through my personal Facebook feed.
I am so pleased that someone mentioned Pinterest. I have only just started to try and ‘grow’ my Pinterest following and at the same time attempt to increase blog traffic. It does work if you put the time and effort in but it comes back down to the age-old problem. Time. I quite simply do not have enough time to be on every single platform and this is one that suffers because of that. I’m not going to lose sleep over that because I would rather spend my time somewhere I naturally enjoy rather than somewhere I feel I should be.
It goes without saying that Social Media is a huge presence in most people’s lives. It certainly is mine! But are we all trying to do too much? Do we need to take a step back and just enjoy the ones we really love or should we keep trying to be present everywhere else because we feel we should?
I’d be interested to hear your thoughts? Do you spend more time on the social media platform you love or do you try and love another as much because everyone else is? Let me know in the comments.
Many thanks to all of the fab bloggers that have contributed to this post. Do go and check out their wonderful blogs if you get chance.
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