Have you ever had this happen to you?
You sit down at your desk, turn on the computer with your to-do list in hand – all set to knock out a few blog posts and then maybe work on an ongoing project or two. You start your post, and then decide to do some quick research to validate a point you want to make.
One minute you’re finding interesting information that you’ve definitely got to integrate into your post but then you notice a few mentions on Twitter you’d like to respond to…
That was exciting, someone’s talking about you and your blog and you definitely want to take a moment to thank them.
It’s always nice to be able to thank them with more than a simple “thank you” reply, so you decide to check out their Twitter profile and you notice some really interesting tweets there – so you click on them…
Wow! That was an awesome post! Now you’ve just got to leave a comment, oh yeah, and you definitely need to retweet it, and then stumble it…and share it on facebook… why not Digg it while you’re at it…maybe even bookmark it on Delicious!
While you’re stumbling the post, you notice you’ve got some new subscribers – better check them out right? Oh, they’ve got some intriguing links. You read one after another… retweet… stumble…Like…Digg…Delicious… oh yeah… vote on BlogEngage!
Once you’re on BlogEngage, you hit the motherload and you totally overindulge in post after post after post.
Retweet…Stumble…Like…Digg…Vote…
Next thing you know, it’s 1:30 in the morning and your bladder is threatening to cause your body serious damage if you don’t empty it soon. You’ve been at it for hours and you’re so sleepy you can barely keep your eyes open.
Too tired to work on that post now…so you save your three sentences and go to bed. It probably won’t hurt your blog if you miss another post…
You resolve to start fresh in the morning.
Early the next morning, you turn on the computer with to-do list in hand, all set. You open up that blog post and gaze at it with fresh eyes. Yes, all you needed was a break yesterday.
Now the ideas are flowing. You add another paragraph quick and easy, no problem!
Then you get an email notification…Oh, it nothing much, just a blog update from your favorite blog. Oh, it looks like a juicy post today – better check it out…
It’s amazing how the very thing that can help your blog the most can also be the very thing that harms it the most. Over-dosing on social media can keep you from completing the most important task, which is producing quality content. Without a regular posting, your blog can not grow. A sporadic posting schedule with the majority of your time spent on social networking sites can do more harm than good if you’re not careful.
I know… it sounds crazy… like overdosing on vitamins, but just like too much iron can poison your body – too much social media can shrivel your blog – so balance is key.
Sometimes, I have to completely shut everything down except my plain text editor so that I can get things written. Logging into social networks can be like stepping into a time warp sometimes, so be careful – or before you know it, you’ll wake up in 2029 and will have accomplished absolutely nothing.
What do you do to ensure you’re not overdosing on social media?
Kiesha Easley is a technical writer, blogger, and consultant. Read more of her work on We Blog Better, where she aims to teach others how to blog and build stronger online communities. Connect with her on Twitter or subscribe to her newsletter.
