Hi, I’m Jeff, and I am rubbish at social media.


There, it’s said. Hopefully there’s a chorus of “Hello, Jeff”s out there in internet land, others who just don’t have the time/energy to enthuse online in an algorithmically appropriate way. Hopefully I’m not the only person who finds social media a little … awkward? scattershot? invasive? As though I’m constantly trying to be a PR person, which is the least good skill I have. (In fact, “skill” might be optimistic.)

We maintain three different social media accounts (on Twitter, which I refuse to call anything else; Instagram; and Bluesky), and I’ve vacillated on trying to be more personal, more businesslike, and somewhere between. I think I’ve managed to seem weird, robotic, and manic, although I’m told most of my posts are perfectly fine (which from a marketing perspective is like saying I have all the excitement of bran flakes, so that’s not exactly a compliment). We can’t not be on socials, though—I mean, we’re an online magazine, we don’t print things (other than the annual anthology, which is print on demand), we don’t send mailers (which feels very 20th century anyway). The only way to do marketing in a free way is through socials.

And I feel guilty when I don’t post. For one thing, the Mighty Algorithm penalizes you for not posting, so we lose visibility. For another (and mainly), I don’t really help our authors and artists as much as I’d like by not posting about their publications. I just … find everything else to be more immediate, more pressing—reading subs, proofing text, laying out the magazine, coding the html. And yes, those all have deadlines, and socials don’t. But it ultimately feels like a neat set of excuses.

So.

What I want to do, and am setting forth in writing here, is try to post something every other day. And that’s not just liking or reposting things (which I’m actually good at), but an actual post, be it weird, robotic, manic, or full of bran. Make it a Thing I Do. And if any of you have helpful tips from out there in Marketing Yourself land, please let me know. I’m not looking for a marketing company, or marketing software, or marketing advertising, or any of that kind of spam. Just any individual advice you might have. Something to make it easier for the socially anxious to navigate this media thing.

Happy August!

Jeff Georgeson,
Managing Editor
Penumbric