Which social media are you on?

eleonorang

Hey, everyone! Care to share your thoughts about how useful social media are in our profession?
Do you have social media profiles that you use for purposes other than networking, i.e. for marketing? (For example, I use Twitter mostly for networking with translation colleagues, whereas I focus on LinkedIn for my target clientele.)
What platforms are you on and how did you choose them/decided they would be the right fit for your goals?

Dmitry

eleonorang I'm pretty much on all popular platforms, but I only actively use Twitter and sometimes Instagram. Twitter is great for networking, sharing links to my blog and for following my potential clients (game developers and publishing companies alike) and seeing what they up to.

I loath Facebook because of their bad design but treat it as a necessary evil because it's the largest social network in the world, plus I use Messenger to communicate with friends, so I need that Facebook account. I don't go to Facebook much, though. Find it too toxic, dumb and lacking focus.

I also can't get the hang of LinkedIn. For me it's the Frankenstein monster of social networks that doesn't know what it wants to be. The recent redesign and abundance of features (free and paid) make it a bit confusing and overwhelming. So I treat like Facebook - a necessary evil. Because it's the biggest website where people can look up your professional background.

I also love Instagram (can I get more millennial?) but NOT for business purposes. For me it's a safe place where I can be myself and post pictures of my family and my cat and enjoy beautiful nature shots from the accounts that I follow.

eleonorang

Thank you everyone for sharing your thoughts, it's always useful to look at things from a different perspective!

Dmitry I also can't get the hang of LinkedIn. For me it's the Frankenstein monster of social networks that doesn't know what it wants to be.

I've reached the conclusion that LinkedIn is NOT a social network and should not be treated as such, but rather as a professional network, a business tool. What is 'social' about LinkedIn is the post/comment/like dynamics, period ?

Dmitry I also love Instagram (can I get more millennial?) but NOT for business purposes. For me it's a safe place where I can be myself and post pictures of my family and my cat and enjoy beautiful nature shots from the accounts that I follow.

I do agree! I've actually tried switching to Instagram for Business some time ago, but it felt wrong and weird and one day I felt like sharing something personal and, oh no!, my safe place was gone! So I switched back. Oh well. Maybe I'll set up a different account for business, but only after I've learned if any benefit can come out of it and how to use it.

MaV I am not using any of those for work purposes yet. It's something I tell myself every morning that I should start doing...

I feel you, I'm not using the full potential of social media yet either! But it's perfectly OK if you take the time to study and learn how to use one of these platforms for business instead of rushing to them, opening a profile and then leaving it empty (like I'm doing LOL)

Valerie1974 BUT I also use Facebook because of one specialisation I would like to pick up which is gastronomy. I joined a lovely specific group and I also follow some food related publications. I have already signed up for a specialisation course which will take place in June.

Great way to use it, imo. I'm trying to do the same with tourism & travel. Fingers crossed!

annagiuliam I think the right social media for professional purposes also depends on the field you work on: if you work mainly with companies I think LinkedIn and twitter are the best, but if you also work for private people (like interpreting at weddings) facebook is a great option too.

Totally agree!

MaV

Dmitry just made me feel less bad about myself for not understanding LinkedIn!
I am not using any of those for work purposes yet. It's something I tell myself every morning that I should start doing... but, hey! I had to open facebook because of university (all meetings started being organised there), and did it under a pseudonym at the time. Same with Twitter. I always had funny names and jokes, and things like that. Now it's a problem when I am asked for them by potential clients!

I'll get round to clean all those profiles up and make them more presentable, one of those days.

TaniaMartins

MaV Did you consider creating new social media profiles for professional purposes?

Valerie1974

I use Twitter (as you said before for networking with other translators but also to refresh my language knowledge and be aware of new trends). I also use LinkedIn but less although I am not so scared of it. I use it to keep up to date with trends in translation agencies and follow the ones I would be interested to work for. BUT I also use Facebook because of one specialisation I would like to pick up which is gastronomy. I joined a lovely specific group and I also follow some food related publications. I have already signed up for a specialisation course which will take place in June. So this is how I "segregate" my different interests and keep up with the news. Thanks for raising this question, it's a very good one!

JaneD

I've never much used any platform but Facebook until recently, but I've just discovered that I actually enjoy Twitter (after being very dismissive of it for years!) I've found some really interesting people to follow and the ratio of shock news to sensible discussion – even if of necessity very brief – seems to be much higher.

I do have a LinkedIn profile but don't really see any benefit in it – as you say, Dmitry, it just doesn't seem to be very good at any aspect of social networking.

I'm now contemplating abandoning Facebook (in fact, given recent news stories, I'm actually considering deleting my profile completely!) and switching my attention to cultivating a profile on Twitter and through my own blog instead.

maysaa

Thank you @eleonorang. I enjoyed using Twitter. I find it worthy (especially to contact with other translator communities all over the world), and I'm learning a lot of information about translation and how I will become a successful freelancer translator tips from different accounts. it helps me to refresh my language informations. I read political news and a lot of general articles. I'm using Instagram also for language tips, translation, my cooking hobby and other interesting things. LinkedIn is worthy but I'm not familiar with it pretty much.

annagiuliam

I use Facebook and Instagram for private networking.
For professional purposes I use LinkedIn and, to my surprise, I recently discovered the advantages that twitter has to offer. I didn't use it before because I found it difficult to understand with all those acronyms and hashtags, but somebody suggested me to give it a try and I was amazed. It's really easy to keep up with a variety of subjects and find new interesting business contacts.

I think the right social media for professional purposes also depends on the field you work on: if you work mainly with companies I think LinkedIn and twitter are the best, but if you also work for private people (like interpreting at weddings) facebook is a great option too.

erikasbat

I mostly use Facebook for everything. And Instagram. I have a LinkedIn, Twitter, VK, and accounts on Proz and TranslatorsCafe, and I try to keep them reasonably updated, but I don't really interact with people there. Maybe I should, but... well, it's a good deal of work on the top of the "real" work.
I also have some blogs to which I like to write content when I can, mostly about literature; that's mostly a hobby, but I guess it helps for work too. I mean, potential clients can access them and see I write just fine in my native language.

MaV

I have, but I'm really really really bad at all the promotion side. It's like being on a shop window for the whole world to see. I'll get used to it, though. ?