November 18, 2024Monday, November 18, 2024

Just a thought… Early to bed, Early to Rise, Work Like Hell and Advertise. [Ted Turner]

Well, my friend, it’s been a long two weeks. If, like me, you’re trying to focus on anything other than the chaos happening beyond our border, you might have asked yourself, as I did, “What can I control?”

To that end, I have some things to pass along to you today of a social media matter. Now I know you might say, “No thanks – that’s not my scene…” and I both respect and, in some ways, admire that. But my life has meant staying connected in all ways possible: I’m not on the radio anymore and, with two podcasts on which I rely for a bit of income, I (and Lisa) have to promote them as easily and as widely as possible to get word out.

First of all, if you were on Twitter/X with me, that account is now deactivated. So is Lisa’s. It hurt, but the sooner I could help pull the plug on Elon’s disastrous social media implosion the better. Even author Stephen King has left his multi-million X followers behind, calling it “too dark.” I mean when Stephen King calls something “dark,” well…you get it.

So let me tell you about two other, much brighter options.

Threads has been around for a while and is run by Meta (Facebook). I’m there with the name @erindawndavis and welcome you. You can find me here. Many came over when I posted on my Facebook page last week about the shift and I thank you.

The second, Bluesky, is newer but has exploded since the US election and people wanted to distance themselves from you-know-who.

It’s (for now) a very civilized place called Bluesky (pronounced, not blew-ski, but blue sky LOL) and I’m there now, too. It may well be the fastest-growing social media app out there. X has fallen off, as people like me, who worked for 15 years to build 31,000+ followers in my community, say good-bye to the toxicity.

You can find Bluesky here and, once you sign up and sign in, I’m at @erindavis.bsky.social. Our Gracefully and Frankly podcast is there now, too: @GandFpodcast.bsky.social. 

Lisa and I welcome your interaction there. Lisa’s there as well with the handle @lisabrandt.bsky.social

I know, I know, it’s a LOT. I mean, try it from OUR end lol! We’re setting things up and navigating through a whole ton of headaches, but we know it’ll be worth it in the long run. If I could, this kind of sums up what each site is:

X/Twitter: toxic masculinity, despicably mean comments at times, and few guardrails to prevent misinformation and lies. Think of it as similar to Truth Social (with which it will likely merge, in my opinion, now that Elon got what he wanted with a -rump win) but with slightly less orange makeup. Accounts like mine are closing by the millions, but some of those bad actors have moved to other platforms like….

Threads: more feminine energy. More kind, with a community that moves faster to block the trolls and miscreants, and a place for sharing and honesty. It’s friendlier and fairly user-friendly. Enjoy it before Zuckerberg adds ads in the new year. Ugh. And BLOCK every troll who shows up. We’re all doing our part.

Bluesky: newer and with a few bugs to be ironed out – including no edit button, which is Threads’ biggest asset for those of us who won’t pay on X – but worth the effort to sign up. It’s gentler and much more inclusive and, again, kinder, so it’s there for you if you choose to sign in. It was started by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey five years ago, but he’s now off the board and the site has grown exponentially in the last two weeks. In fact, on Thursday of last week, it went down briefly under the weight of everyone trying to sign up! LISA, I BLAME YOU! It’s the #1 social media site in North America, far surpassing all others.

Look, again I’ll say, if you’re fed up with this and actually have a life, I say “yay for you!” and understand. Please understand that in all of my freelance life, getting the message out there for G&F and Drift, as well as positive and hopefully humorous comments, is the most important thing right now. That’s why I’m jumping through the hoops, and off the sinking ships, to try to spread the word of things like our new GF Boutique (T-shirts, pendants, and more planned in future) for our podcast, and so on.

Someone wrote and said she doesn’t want to miss out. Will I post the same stuff as on Facebook? To be honest, I post more frequently on Threads and Bluesky, as they’re places for more conversation, and I don’t want to clog your Facebook feed.

I’ll continue blogging here weekly on my own website, of course, and I thank you for being here today and always.