To Flickr or Not to Flickr...

[Matt Lawhun]

As much as I fought it, I am now on the social media networks. I'm on facebook, linkedin and Twitter, but these are ONLY for business connections. It's not that I have a problem with any one of these social networking sites... it's the thought of having my daily life online "voluntarily" and sharing every thought I have, the details of every meal I eat or every event I attend. I tried a personal Facebook page for awhile and I quickly get fed up with the voluminous posts about meaningless details of my "friends" life. Seriously...Is my life so exciting that anyone/everyone really cares what I am doing at every moment?

I have two teenage boys that spend their life on these sites and it is difficult to even have a true conversation with them that involves eye-contact. It's as if they have sold their soul to the social media sites and I swore that I would never be like that! I value my time with family too much to keep my eyes focused on a tiny iPhone screen every time a notification comes through. It's tough enough to stay away from incoming text messages that (in my case) are most likely business related. 

 I've heard about Flickr and I've heard about Tumblr which happen to be the two new social media sites I am researching to possibly add to my business network. So, my question is this... what benefit, if any, could these new sites possibly provide for me to help grow my business? Isn't Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn enough? I use Dropbox to share any photos of my wholesale deals. Do I really need Flickr? I use the mentioned social media sites, along with Freedomsoft and Mailchip to send out info on my deals to buyers. Is Tumblr really beneficial, or better yet, necessary? If I need to share a video of my projects, won't Youtube suffice?

What benefits do you see in these sites?If you have had success with these, I would love to learn how they have been a benefit to you so I too might be able to emulate your success.

Thanks for viewing... 

Matt Lawhun