Building a Social Media Platform

My resolution for the new year was to get with the program, technology-wise, and start acting like a writer of the twenty first century.  Specifically, I resolved to build my social media platform.  That means Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, all that lovely stuff I have already joined but haven't spent a ton of time on, writer-wise.  And frankly, shoring up my wobbly platform is just a bit intimidating.

The fact is, I've neglected my blog, ignored Twitter, and used my Facebook page for strictly personal use.  It's not that I don't have much to say as a writer - sometimes, I've got too MUCH to say.  It's just that in my head, there's this little voice warning me, "Don't say that.  Don't put that down in words.  For God's sake, don't WRITE that where other people can see it!"

You see, every year or so, the teaching staff at my school has to sit through a teeth-grittingly tedious and blood-pressure raisingly irritating staff meeting about the public face of teachers.  Namely, that we are all teachers 24/7, that we are bound to our professional personas with chains of lead, and that anything that we say or do in our personal lives can and will be used against us if we're not careful.  I get it, in a way... teachers who go out partying every weekend and post pictures all over Instagram of themselves getting wasted or teachers who loudly advocate on Facebook for the legalization of recreational marijuana are not really the role models we want teaching our children.  But I get the heeby-jeebies at the thought that people might be watching ME, analyzing anything I post or tweet, just looking for an excuse to complain to my principal or superintendent about my unprofessional behavior.

This leads, of course, to the necessity of cultivating a professional face for the public... and that opens up an entirely new doorway leading down a hall I don't particularly want to walk.  While I don't consider myself half the icon the fictional Atticus Finch was, I've always loved To Kill a Mockingbird and yearned to be, as Miss Maudie says of Atticus, the same person in my house as I am on the public streets.  I don't want to cultivate a public face.  I just want to be myself, and be enough in that self that I don't need to worry about what anyone says or thinks about me.

All of this makes shoring up my social media platform a challenge, to say the least.  I can grit my teeth and post blandly on my Facebook author's page account, looking for inspirational quotes and pictures of kittens to fill that space; I can join Twitter, though I'm not sure I have the time right now to make it a worthwhile effort.  And I can dust off this blog, and try to make an entry a week - or can this blog entirely and start afresh, maybe, since anyone looking at the frequency of my past posts will see that I'm not exactly a regular updater.  But will I be able to be myself, as a writer?  Is that desirable?  Is it wise?

I guess I'll just have to try it and find out.