By Kelsey Jones

I found this image by googling "obsessed social media". Creepy.

How many times do you check your Facebook every day? What about Twitter? Even though The Social Robot mainly focuses on social media and writing, it doesn’t mean that we advocate that it should take over anyone’s lives.

Social media in moderation is really key, mainly because moderation usually equals better quality. When immersed in something as draining and time consuming as social media can be, more isn’t always better. I would much rather follow a Twitter account that has 3 hilarious or interesting tweets a day that one that re-tweets 50 tweets by other users, even if they are interesting. RTs can be interesting, but it’s important to make it your own. And to do that, it takes time and attention that doing it 24/7 just can’t provide.

One way to take some of the time away from social media is to schedule it and automate it, if possible. For instance, new posts on The Social Robot’s blog automatically post to Facebook, which then posts to Twitter. (In fact, all of our posts on Facebook automatically post to Twitter.) This helps lessen the burden of remembering to post a link to a new post after we’ve published it. Automation can help, but be careful not to make all social media content automated (although, this is an another post entirely).

If you think that you (and your company or employees) may be too immersed and obsessed with social media, try taking a break. Don’t check Facebook or Twitter for an entire weekend. If that seems too drastic, try going an entire day. For businesses, this may not be possible, especially if a lot of customer service issues are solved via social media. However, this doesn’t mean a company can push their employees to connect with friends and family in person rather than via Facebook. Have an employee initiative to take a break from Facebook and do something fun instead, like a company picnic or retreat.

Social media was created to bring people together, which it has done so, to great success. However, don’t let face-to-face and phone contact fall to the wayside. The world won’t end just because you haven’t checked your News Feed or @ mentions for over an hour!

Questions:
Have you taken a social media break? Did you go through withdrawals? Let us know in the comments!

 

Photo courtesy of http://www.esoftload.info/facial-recognition-facebook-and-everyone-knows-you-warning

Kelsey Jones

Kelsey Jones

Founder/Chief Marketing Consultant at Six Stories
Kelsey Jones helps clients around the world grow their social media, content, and search marketing presence. She enjoys writing and consuming all kinds of content, both in digital and tattered paperback form.
Kelsey Jones
Kelsey Jones