It was about a year after Facebook launched that I joined. I used it for a couple of years and then stopped. I’ve just signed back up. That means that the majority of Facebook’s 10 years of existence has not seen me as a member.

That’s obviously not important for Facebook. But it gives a little perspective into my adjustment in getting used to the social media. I’m normally what one would consider an “early adopter” but for various reasons I resisted social media. I’m also what one would consider to be an introvert (or at least a generally private person). Since the last time I used Facebook, things have of course changed a great deal. The software needs to remain relevant, so that dictates evolution of the product. For me, it means relearning how to use it. Ok, that’s fine.

I just started using Twitter a few months ago too. Like Facebook, there’s a learning curve in figuring out how to use it. Again, fine.

The impetus for my joining both of these platforms is the impending launch of a project, and as we all know social media is an extremely powerful machine for getting the word out. But when I started using each of these platforms, I was using them the same way. And I quickly discovered that using Facebook the same way that you use Twitter is pretty much completely ineffective (read: just dumb).

Twitter came to me more easily than Facebook. It’s a place where you can quickly find a lot of like-minded people and you can effectively tailor your “niche” (I’m a tech head by the way). It’s important to create a niche for yourself, find a community and make yourself a part of it because there’s an enormous amount of chatter on there. But Twitter is most effective when it’s only relatively personal. For someone like me, that’s great.

Facebook on the other hand, is entirely personal. As I said, I’m a reserved person. I see people posting all sorts of pictures of themselves, or their kids, or their dogs, or their moms, or whatever and I think that’s fantastic. It’s a great way for someone to keep in touch and share their lives with those not in their immediate area, and I do in fact enjoy being able to follow the lives of friends and family so closely (yet from so far away). But I don’t have the urge to do so myself, at least not without a certain amount of directed effort. So in an effort to avoid the personal interactions when I joined Facebook, I approached it the same way I did Twitter. I wanted to find a niche and become a part of that. Facebook, however, is an amalgamation of everything about everyone. There are thousands of things to “like.” You have all your “friends” from every era of your life. It revolves around the personal touch. It’s customized “for you.” And you’re expected to share things about yourself. After all, why would you join a social network if you don’t want to be social? At the same time, if you want to use it as a vehicle for a message, you need to approach it with a business sensibility. That means posting regularly, gaining more and more “friends” or “followers,” and being genuinely engaged in the community. So the dichotomy of a naturally reserved person needing to post the type of life events that Facebook thrives on has thrown me for a significant loop, as they say.

I think that I’ll slowly get accustomed to posting the type of content that Facebook thrives on, but it will be a process. I liken it to getting to know a new person, but in this case it’s a whole lot of people all at once. It just takes some getting used to.

On that note, feel free to follow me on Facebook: facebook.com/christopher.moscardi.3 or on Twitter: twitter.com/TheOneMos