A Half-Goodbye to Facebook

I've never believed in doing  anything by halves...till now. But when my smartphone died last Friday, I did more than replace and upgrade it. I removed Facebook from my apps.

My issues weren't with Facebook itself. I value my membership and cherish my friends. In fact, I'll post a link to this post there. No, my grievances included:
--The daily deluge of ads
--The junk mail and spam
--The drain om my battery
--The leeching of my time

My time and my attention. I was starting to resemble the FaceJunkies I saw everywhere: my nose all but glued to my phone. On the bus, in the break room, while walking.

No more. I'll check FB only on my laptop, at home. A few minutes in the morning before I head for work, then 15-20 minutes after work on weekdays. Weekends, perhaps a bit longer. But FB's an enjoyable part of my life--not a way of life.

If the change brings a bit of withdrawal, I'll tough it out and ask myself:

I'll tell my new Samsung Galaxy Note 4 'I love you dearly, darlin', but I'm a slave to nothing. I'll check you for messages or emails twice a day and that is all.'

This is my report. 

My Date with a Bad Redhead: Week One Summing Up

No, I haven't been invited to the Playboy Mansion yet. But week one of Rachel Thompson's The BadRedhead Media 30-Day Marketing Challenge helped me accomplish a list of cool things.
Focusing on Twitter:
--I fine-tuned my bio and display name, including a hyperlink to my new book.
--I experimented with 'pinning; a Tweet to my Twitter timeline.
--To help build my Twitter base, I began using ManageFlitter's Pro plan for $12/month. It's not quite as user friendly as my old plan from JustUnfollow. But JU is no more and CrowdFire, its replacement, didn't pass muster with me. My main issues with ManageFlitter so far are these: I'm not receiving notice when I've been followed or unfollowed. And I haven't figured out how to organize nonfollowers by date (and I don' want to unfollow anyone I've only recently followed). I've messaged MF about both scores and will update in my next report
--I've also learned o dump blank profiles and inactives.
--I'm learning how to target readers of my genre.
--Rachel provides other invaluable tips for maximizing Twitter use: the proper use of hashtags
, Hootsuite, Buzzfeed, Pablo by Buffer, etc.

The excitement continues to build in week two, which jumps straight into Facebook. The first chapter inspired me to set up an Author page. But let's save that for Week two's Summing Up.