I’m a daily user of Facebook, and Twitter. I’m fairly religious about my checkins on Foursquare. And lately I’ve been initiating connections to every suggested connection I might have through LinkedIn. Google+ gets my attention at very random times. I never post to Instagram, but will occasionally stalk someone’s feed. I signed up for Pinterest a couple of years ago to see what it was, but really only return when I’m notified someone new is following me. With this level of activity, my Klout score is 50, right in line with the fact that I turned 50 this past weekend (honestly).
I’m finding that while all of the social media outlets have certainly made it easier to communicate with a much wider audience than ever before, they have perhaps made the thought process more complex. Which service do I post to? What’s an effective way to post? What activities are worth posting about? Does it all matter? Social Media is not just something I take action with, but a metric I choose to participate in. I’m being measured by which media I participate in, who I interact with, how often I interact, and how much of the content I produce that others choose to interact with. What originally seemed like a nice way to stay in touch with my kids, is now providing me feedback on how social I am.
Turning 50 represents various milestones in my life – receiving my AARP membership card, having my first colonoscopy. But it also represents an opportunity to reflect on my social media status. While a Klout score of 50 is nice, I hope to grow it over the years ahead. Regular meaningful posts and interaction in the digital world seems the best approach. Or perhaps a good cat video is in order. Let’s see how the year plays out.