Ah, the age-old social media vs. blogging debate! (Does a decade counts as “age-old?”)
I’ve been active in both mediums since their respective early days, and find myself thinking a lot about each platform recently, given the changes happening with my current app of choice (Instagram). I’ve always recognized the benefit to keeping my own blog with my own virtual space on the big ol’ internet — that’s why I’m still here, if occasionally. But I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that social media is easier to maintain. I’m not very active on Facebook or Twitter anymore, but I can post a photo on Instagram with a short caption in no more than a minute or two.
I’d like to get back to blogging more often — and not just about quilting, but about other things too like the girls’ experience with swim team, and our summer trips to Colorado and Seattle. (I know this doesn’t fit with best practices for running a small business…but I’m not sure I care, and it’s just easier to use this site as a mish-mash of all things Sarah.)
But writing a blog post — and adding photos to that post — takes considerably more time than social media. I have dozens of draft posts that I’ve never gotten around to finishing. So I’ve been thinking about the hang-ups and reasons I procrastinate on writing blog posts these days.
And ironically enough…I think it’s the photos. Getting them from my phone to my computer. Reducing the resolution/file size to something reasonable. Renaming the file to something that makes more sense and is more searchable in the future. This process is a hassle, and that’s before I even consider any cropping/editing of the photos I might want to do before posting them here.
I recognize that blogging directly from my phone is possible, and would eliminate the “get photos to my computer” step. But I dislike this option because 1) typing lots of text on my phone sucks, and 2) the file size and file name issues I mention above are still there.
(Hmm. Does the WordPress app do any of this? Lightly edit and reduce the size of my photos before adding them to my blog post? It’s been a while since I checked so it’s possible I’m complaining about something that is no longer a problem. Will google.)
So: those are my random thoughts for today! I’d love to hear your take as well. How do you feel about social media vs blogging? Do you love or hate mish-mash blogs like mine? Any specific tips or workflows that have made the “blog post photos” process quicker and less painful for you? I’m all ears.
Hi Sarah I’m just starting a blog and I’m pretty new to Instagram too. Even in the short time I’ve been on Insta, it’s changed, and not in a good way. I hope you will keep blogging. You blog is inspirational. I agree that there is an advantage of blogging because you have a lot more control over your space. Keep up the mish-mash! Nobody quilts all the time.
I definitely don’t intend to quit blogging! It’s too much of a habit to leave it behind entirely. 🙂
I kept a blog for years and it was mostly a journal of my life in Utah which is so different than the Chicago suburbs. I found that I was picking a positive and then I adding to it. I did that for years without really realizing what I was doing but in the end it was kind of a gratitude journal. A very good thing.
Photos were always time consuming but I thought maybe it was a Blogspot/Apple issue. I stepped away for a year or so and when I decided to start again the photo issue was even worse. I hope you find a blogging application that is easy with photos. I will follow you there!
I love a mish-mash, myself. And anyway, it’s yours! Instagram is frustrating since it appears to show you what it wants to show you, instead of what you want to see. I understand this has to do with $ and algorithms but I don’t really care about that! I heart your blog. (:
Thanks Cheryl!
I love reading your blog and also follow you on Instagram. I’m “old school” and still enjoy reading blogs in the evening b
I still enjoy blogs too. I’m glad you like mine!
I like reading blogs, and like the mish-mash of quilting and everyday life. Instagram has photos, but no details! I hope you can find a way to make the blog less work.
FWIW, you can have insta cross post to facebook, which is mostly what I do with photos these days to stay up with both of those two networks (friends mostly on insta, family mostly on facebook). After my blog was accidentally deleted in 2011, I didn’t have the heart to start again. but blogging I think is a better form of a journal of your life. Social is … well.. instant. Its to share what you are doing “right now” with little regard to the past.
What I find fascinating is the next generation… they aren’t on any of these platforms except occasionally. Seems they are on Discord and such. And who has time to figure that out at all.
I, for one, would welcome more non-quilt blogging or other platform posts, though some of your quilts are AMAZING!
I purposefully don’t cross-post from IG to FB except for the occasional post to my quilting FB page, mainly because I’m just kind of done with FB. I’d have left it by now if not for a couple specific groups that I find valuable. I don’t bother posting much. Might post a few vacation photos though. 😉
I’ve been on Discord a few times for certain groups and I find it noisy and hard to follow. Which I assume is simply more evidence that I’m a middle-aged parent now. Heh.
I edit/crop/reduce size of my images on my phone (I use Lensa and Pixlr), then upload them to my blog via the WP app, so they’re ready to go when I sit down at the computer to write my blog post. Least hassle for me.
I still love blogging and am happy to see that others feel the same. It’s a different dynamic, and IT’S ALL MINE. IG is my to-go-app too but it’s become increasingly frustrating what with all the video content, reels, suggested posts, ads. It’s hard to weed through things and actually see the content from other people that I follow. I am also not into “video making”, so I have seen a huge drop in engagement on my photos. Oh well.
I’ll check out those apps! Getting photos to WP directly from my phone would simplify my process a lot. Your blog is one of my regular reads, although I don’t comment — I’m reading!
I love reading your mishmash blog. And I also see your Instagram posts. I don’t need pictures on your blog as well that way.
I upload to Flickr from my phone or computer and they make it easy to choose which size you want to blog from and copy the link into the post and go from there. I prep a bunch of posts with photos and then can sit down and write them as I have time to write them out. This has been my primary method for photos for nearly the entire time I’ve been blogging on my own non-blogger type site. Flickr is basically my online photo archive at this point.
Are the photos stored on Flickr then? I used that method years ago and don’t really remember why I stopped. It may have been when Flickr went through some changes and was bought by Yahoo? Or maybe later when they started free vs paid tiers. I can’t remember.
I just tried to log in to Flickr and apparently I don’t know my log in and can’t figure out what email address it’s associated with. Argh.
Yes the photos are just stored there. Which yeah, means I’m beholden to Flickr never going out and me paying to store them, but it’s still cheaper than paying for cloud storage or adding a ton of storage to my website at godaddy.
Your account may have been deleted within the last few years as Smug Mug bought Flickr and they were trying to clean up dead accounts to make server space manageable. The pricing has definitely increased but they do have a free option for certain amount of photos, maybe trial it again to see how it works.
I can still see my photostream so I believe it’s there. I submitted info for account recovery, and hope that’ll work!
I’ve been blogging for 10 years and plan to keep doing and hope you do too! I agree 100% about the time consuming part. My solution is to do things in batches and schedule posts for the future. For example, I’ll write the text for 2-3 posts and then at a later time, get the photos ready to go for several posts. It all seems to go faster that way. My blog is on google, I use BeFunky to reduce size and add a watermark to the photo. The photos on my phone get automatically backed up to Apple cloud so I just download them from there on my computer – again, a batch of posts worth.
I’ve been blogging for 22 years — insanity. This blog predates my quilting by a decade!
I think batching would definitely help me. My process is scattershot right now, with me writing a bit, then hunting for photos, then writing more, etc.
I like a blog, and for it to reflect the whole person. Advantage: if one area of life is on hold, you’re less likely to have people asking “why aren’t you blogging about X?”
I understand the photo leading ease. The only reason I’ve posted a couple pictures on IG is because I can do it from my phone. I used to download (upload?) all my pictures from my phone to my computer for my own private storage (and sorting!) but haven’t for a couple years since Apple switched to a format incompatible with a PC. Guess I should look into that again.
I agree with your thoughts on a blog and reflecting the whole person! Mine was that for many years, but focusing on quilting (and life getting busy with growing kids) has sapped some of my motivation. I’m hoping to find it again.