About Face: Turning Away from Facebook

In the beginning of my business social media relationship I favored Twitter. 

I was able to meet exciting new people, connect with like-minded business owners and interact with other fitness pros. I even spoke with a fellow Twitter user on the telephone for nearly two hours, shooting the breeze about writing and using WordPress (yes, you @writer_sheri).

Then…I don’t know what happened. Twitter became my wife and Facebook appeared on the scene as my hip, new mistress. Why I chose Facebook over Twitter I’ll never really understand. Maybe it was the prettier interface. Perhaps it was the longer status updates and lengthier replies. Possibly it was the ability to easily post and view photographs. Whatever it was that Facebook had over Twitter, it won my heart and I almost abandoned the 140 character platform I had so once loved.

Then one day Facebook became bossy and naggy. It wanted to control everything about my life and business, including how I shared information and what my page looked like. It would take away useful features, add unnecessary ones, and continually improve on something that wasn’t broken. It was not the Facebook it had been when we first met, and I began to get frustrated.

As the changes started to mount, and I realized that fewer and fewer page “fans” were seeing my updates, I began to stew. Then I updated less frequently. Finally, I started to update only a couple of times a day, down dramatically from my previous Facebook addiction of visiting for hours on end.

I crawled back to Twitter, my head hanging in shame. I tweeted. I waited. I re-tweeted. I waited. And then Twitter took me back.

I reconnected with my Twitter followers, found new ones and began the slow and steady job of recreating my Twitterverse—a much more challenging task than sticking with it in the first place. As I tell my Spinning students, “Consistency is key.” Well, I hadn’t been very consistent with the platform that truly had opened up a new world for me, now had I? I had strayed to the first flashy platform that came by, turning my back on the simple, yet stable and familiar, environment waiting for me back home—mere mouseclick away.

So now that I am less on my Facebook pages (though I am still popping in if you want to say “hi” and “like me, like me!”), and more on Twitter, will I even attempt Pinterest or Google+? Or have I learned my lesson?

Hmm. Only time will tell. But I won’t abandon Twitter again. Onward, Twitterers!

Love, @aspinchick

(This is part of a small business series. Read the interviews with Brian Tracy and the SmallBizLady, as well as  24 small businesses who share their best business tips. Download your free copy of the complete series in e-book format here.)

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