How to Green Thumb Your Social Media

by Molly Jo Realy @RealMoJo68

How to green thumb your social media.

It’s Spring. Or at least the calendar says so. Time to do some social media gardening, yes? Are you ready? This shouldn’t get your hands (too) dirty. Take these seeds, plant away, and let’s see what grows.

Your overall social media presence can be a beautiful garden, but only if you tend it properly. Think of each site as an individual plant needing care. This includes feeding, watering, and pruning. When everything is harvested in its time, you’ll have a variety of offerings for your (media) table.

Green Thumb Your Social Media 

• Prep the soil. You know what I’m talking about. Seeds tossed on the dirt instead of in it have very little chance of surviving. You want to make sure you plant where your seeds have the best chance of growing. You wouldn’t post a recipe to an auto mechanic’s blog would you?

• Plot your posts. A successful garden is always well-planned. I’ve yet to see a yard where someone tossed random seeds into the soil and it turned out well. No, the best gardens are the ones plotted before planting. What needs more room? These are your sites which require more attention: Your website and blog. Think of Instagram and Pinterest as your hedge flowers. They’re great to look at and give the bees a reason to swarm. Heck, some are even edible. But they’re not going to sustain you. They’re the garnish, not the meal.

• Use grow lights. In gardening, these are the basement or workshop fluorescents that nudge your tiny seeds to sprout. Patience is required. Even a transplanted tree needs time to adjust to its new root system. Keep the light shining strong and steady, and soon enough you’ll see something pop up.

• The community garden. Most posts can support and encourage your other sites to grow. Know which ones work well together when seeding. Should you cross-link that Facebook post with this Twitter? Do your tea leaves belong on Pinterest, or Google+?

• The automatic system. You’ve established your garden, now how do you manage it? An online scheduler like Hootsuite can post your links even when you’re away from home. It shouldn’t take the place of your personal touch, but it is a useful tool to assist with keeping your sites active.

• Pluck those weeds. You know they’ll sprout up. Whether the trolls drop those dandelion puffs or the soil brought it up, you’re gonna have to do some serious maintenance now and then. The good news is if you keep an eye on it from the beginning, those little buggers should disappear with very little work on your part.

• Prune your plants. As with every growing thing, your sites will need the occasional cutback. As delicious as a seven-course meal sounds, not too many of us could indulge like that every day. So trim the excess and focus on what grows in your garden.

• Save your seeds. Some gardens are perennial, but some aren’t. Save some of your seeds (posts) to replant later. I don’t know about you, but I love my string beans every year, not just once a decade. So keep planting and sowing. You can use the same theme, reshare a post, or rewrite a post for planting in a different location.

• Savor the flavor. Let the fruits and vegetables of your labor show. Share them with your friends and family. Invite people to the harvest, and enjoy!

How do you take care of your social media garden?

With sprouts and seasoning for your table,
~Molly Jo

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Molly Jo Realy

Molly Jo is a writer, editor, social media ninja, and producer of the weekly Firsts in Fiction podcast. She has been featured in children’s magazines, on blogs and devotional websites, and her short stories have earned her awards and scholarships from nationally acclaimed writing programs. She is the founder of New Inklings Press and author of The Unemployment Cookbook: Ideas for Feeding Families One Meal at a Time, and other books available through her website and on Amazon.

Her current work in progress, NOLA, is a location mystery set in New Orleans and is scheduled for publication in late 2017.

You can find her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and her blog, Frankly, My Dear . . .