I’ve been a blogger for over ten years now, starting with a site on Angelfire where I posted really bad poetry, going through stages of FrontPage, two or three domain names, and am now fairly comfortable with the two blogs I run. Blogging is something I am comfortable with. I have gone through the inevitable ups and downs of publishing personal thoughts and opinions on the internet, been reviled for them, lost friends, made friends, etc. etc.
I’m also learning to like Facebook, mostly for its social benefits, as I have been able to keep a running message thread going with two mom friends who live in Vancouver. That friendship is still as strong as the day I moved to the Island because we have shared so much of our lives on this 3,000-post message thread.
Recently, however, I’ve been starting to pay more attention to the concept of social media as a marketing tool. Local advocates of the trend include Darren Barefoot and Shane Gibson, both of whom I respect highly. So I’m starting to check out this whole idea of having a Twitter identity as well as a Facebook page (LOVING the Facebook ads, by the way – well worth checking out for your business or non-profit), on top of my blog here.
Shane Gibson asked recently why we (the Tweet-o-sphere) felt that Executives were resisting the social media trend. I responded initially that it’s because I felt my target market wasn’t participating, so why should I bother either? His response to that was smart: by being an early adopter I can become a leader when the rest of the folks get on the bandwagon. Okay. I’ll bite.
My other beef with this concept of social media marketing is this: It’s hellishly distracting, and it requires me to keep on top of a whole other stream of consciousness, when my head is already quite full thank you very much. I’ve got my existing clients, my family, my hobbies, and god forbid I should wish to take some time for myself to read a book or just contemplate my bellybutton. Now I have a nagging voice at the back of my head suggesting that to be successful at social media, I have to use it all the time. I don’t have a mobile device that handles texting (because I loathe people who text in company) so I have to do this all when I’m sitting at a computer – which is when I have plenty of other tasks to take care of!
And then there’s the other layer of it – applications which I download on my computer to help me “manage” my Twitter life better. The last thing my poor beleaguered computer needs is another background process. TweetDeck is sitting there collecting feeds while I force ol’ Veruca here (my computer) to crunch numbers or draw flowcharts in Visio. I feel sometimes like it’s just too much.
So, my question for anyone reading this blog (is there anybody out there? nod if you can hear me!) is this… what social media tools do you use, and how do you keep it from detracting from the activities you actually do to make money or have a life?
Tags: technology
Susan,
Good blog entry. Stephen Jagger http://stephenjagger.com spends less time than I do on social media activities yet is highly successful. He doesn’t use twitter apps on his phone etc. He spends a specific amount of time on these activities daily. Book it like another part of your to do list and as it begins to replace your old methods of marketing allot more time to it.
Cheers,
Shane