It comes on slowly but then it happens…
When you wake up, do you immediately check Twitter?
Do you check Facebook on your phone…right after you just closed Facebook on your phone?
Do you sleep with your phone under your pillow so you never miss a notification? No seriously, people do that.
How many accounts do you have spread across the web? Do you have a content strategy for each?
When was the last time you updated your blog? How many blogs do you have? Should you have two seperate accounts on Facebook, one for personal one for professional? Have you been ignoring your LinkedIn network? Does your auto-feed system cause duplication? What about your delicious tags, some are singular some are plural, maybe you should clean those up. Speaking of tags, what about your meta-data for YouTube and Slideshare? If you want to be found you’ll need to optimize your meta-data. Is Stumbleupon worth the time? What’s Quora?
It can easily get overwhelming. What started out as a few Tweets and 110 Facebook friends has now become a full blown addiction. The desire to get everything “just right” or “finished” is always calling. Here’s the thing…it’s NEVER complete. There are new sites every day.
Remedy
Social Media has done a number of wonderful things for us as human beings and as business people. I’ve made friends through Twitter and reconnected with old friends through Facebook. I’ve promoted myself via Slideshare. I’ve provided a ton of value for others via the sites that I use. All of these things are good. But when my brain gets too full of Social Media to-do items and processes and questions…I take a break.
Seriously. I know it sounds obvious and probably even a little stupid to devote an entire blog post to this, but if you are heavily involved in Social Media you may hit this point.
One instinct might be to push through it. In my experience, this does not help. It only compounds it. You see Social Media has no definitive time. There’s no 9-5. It never closes. What your brain needs is rest, a rest from worrying about this sort of stuff, and the only solution is to disconnect. All this stuff is important but not THAT important. Take a night off and regain your sanity.
Remember that these Social tools, contrary to popular belief, are not intended to make you anti-social, stuck behind a computer, a slave to your digital life. These tools are supposed to facilitate real world connections. If you find yourself sinking deeper into a virtual abyss devoid of face-to-face conenctions then you need a reality check.
So go out to eat, don’t check in on Foursquare or SCVNGR. Close the computer and spend time with your special someone playing cards. If you have kids, I’m sure they’d enjoy a little more time with mom or dad. Do you have a dog? That dog has been waiting all day for you to come home. Forget Twitter for a moment and scratch your dog’s ears.
The streams will be there when you get back. I promise.
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