Social Media Thoughts from the Pitch
Social media and small business can be tough and sometimes all-consuming. After taking some time out with my partner in crime over the weekend, I noticed something mildly concerning.
As we relaxed in our fabulous hotel suite child-free deciding what to do with our oodles of suddenly spare time, I paused and found us both on our respective smartphones madly checking our various social media feeds, and those of our clients before we ostensibly unplugged for two whole days.
Except we didn’t unplug at all – now admittedly, this is our line of work. All things social and everything that sits on the fringe of that is a fast-moving mistress. Constantly evolving, twisting and changing in all sorts of amazing and exciting ways. And this is why there’s an increasing number of people finding it difficult to unplug (myself included and you all know who you are). So here are some signs that you may need to do a digital health check and more to the point, your social media habit.
- You’re awake and regardless of the time, you reach for your smartphone – not to check the time but to assure yourself that there is nothing earth-shattering on your Facebook newsfeed or Twitter that must be responded to immediately on pain of……
- It’s 6am you’re awake and the typical morning routine consists of downloading and checking your emails and all of your social media networks to see what has happened since you last checked in at 3am, then you check your Google alerts, Mashable, Social Media Examiner and Social Media News Australia at a minimum along with Linkedin today and any groups you are a member of. After all what if you responded in another 2 hours after breakfast?
- It’s your lunch break and you have inhaled your coffee and an apple & cinnamon muffin – let me guess, smartphone at the ready?
- You check in at every opportunity by posting your Instagram story or updating your Facebook status to ensure that everyone knows where you’re at and how important you must be or how exciting your life must be.
And so it goes on and on, they have studies on this stuff and trust me coming from a counselling background this is dangerous, self-feeding anxiety-inducing behaviour, think OCD, it is addictive and it is useful to put some rules in place. So here are my rules to rule the social media world:
- Until you have gotten out of bed, showered got dressed for the day and eaten (yes, eaten!) and started drinking your morning coffee DO NOT PICK UP YOUR PHONE or IPAD. I mean it, seriously what did people do before they were plugged in 24/7? Oh wait, that’s right they looked after themselves.
- Stick to good old time management principles and have set times that you log in each day – no more than 3 times a day – you are not productive if you are on there every 10 minutes.
- Remember what’s important friends, family, fresh air and exercise.
- Check in by all means but then put your phone away and have a conversation with the person sitting next to you.
Remember above all, social media is an adjunct to the real world and shouldn’t replace real-time offline conversations face to face, with family, friends, colleagues or prospective business contacts.
As a good friend of mine in the advertising game once said, it is a great avenue for getting your content out there but you still need to build the relationship once they have found you.
For additional assistance, you can book some social media coaching with us, register for one of our Social Media Advertising training courses, or have a chat with us over coffee to discuss managing your social media advertising with Digital Marketing AOK.
