“Dumb” Questions About Social Media

When you have a “dumb” question about social media, who do you ask?

Anyone who ever has been a first time parent can probably relate to how totally ignorant you can feel about basic baby care matters. You have what I call the “dumb” questions that you are embarrassed to ask people. So what to do?

The person I turned to with my “dumb” questions about baby care was my sister-in-law Barbara. Though she was six years my junior, she had a baby 7 months prior to me giving birth to my baby. In my eyes, she was an expert on all things related to baby care.

I asked her all those questions where I couldn’t find the answer in the baby book (mind you this was WAY before the Internet was invented). She always had an answer that was helpful.

Today, I turned to my social media mentor and friend Deb Krier with a question about the Facebook app on my iPhone.

Right after I installed an update to the app, I was messaging on Facebook with Deb. I noticed that her profile photo and a white box floating around on my phone screen when the Facebook app was open.

I responded to her message and figured the photo and box would disappear. Wrong.

I tried going out of the app and returning to it. There was Deb’s photo again.

I even tried powering off the phone and turning it back on again. There she was again!

Having those same feelings I had when I was a new mom, I messaged Deb and asked her what to do about her photo and the white box hanging about on my phone’s screen.

She messaged back that she had figured out that if she dragged the photo of the last person she messaged down to the bottom of the screen, the photo was gone.

I tried doing the same thing – and success! Her smiling face finally disappeared off my screen.

Why am I telling you all this?

The reason I am sharing this incident because I think each of us has those moments on social media where we feel like a total dolt. It’s OK to feel that way.

What is not OK, in my opinion, is to run away from that social media throwing up your hands and saying – “I’ll never figure this out!”

Let’s face it – social media is here to stay.

We don’t need to master all kinds of social media sites. However, there are probably at least one or two sites where it would be a good move on your part to have a decent grasp of how to use them.

Throw in our mobile devices, and that is yet another aspect of social media usage that it would be a good idea to master.

Here’s my question of the day – when you have that “dumb” question on social media – who do you call? Who is the person you can rely on when you feel too embarrassed to ask anyone else?

Today, I am grateful for Deb Krier, as she is someone I felt comfortable asking my “dumb” question.

Joyce Feustel, Founder of Boomers’ Social Media Tutor, helps people relatively new to social media to become more effective and comfortable in their use of this medium.  Find her at www.boomerssocialmediatutor.com