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We discuss one of the more challenging aspects of immersive participation in social media marketing on this week’s Overflow Podcast, we call it social media fatigue.
Due to vacation time, work deadlines and simple fatigue we identified that it has caused Cameron to participate a little bit less throughout his social networks. It brings up a very real question, especially for those whose work involves not only contributing but fully immersing in social media on behalf of clients and as an agency in general. How can you prevent the fatigue that comes with trying to be plugged in 24/7?
For the most successful users, contributing on social media platforms becomes a habit and a way of life even, not so much a task or a chore that needs to be part of a daily checklist. Social media practitioners should consider their contributions on networks as being in sync with their regular duties and responsibilities, not something that is ancillary. It should have equal weight in priority level.
We try not to focus the conversation only on Twitter, but we address the fact that with the increase in spam, celebrities, and mass media it has taken a bit of the shine off of the service for us … so we identify rule number one to help prevent social media fatigue. Participate in niche groups of people on Twitter that interest you, and avoid the old fashioned “party line” approach where there is a bunch of noise and it’s hard to pick out any single relevant voice.
Businesses who have adopted social networks as ways to handle customer service issues and business related matters specifically, will certainly have less of a chance of getting fatigued because it will absolutely be integrated into everyday tactics and priorities.
Using automated tools for distributing content has been addressed in previous episodes of Overflow. Although we don’t necessarily recommend it as the most prominent way of participating in social networks, it does have value in flattening out the peaks and valleys of getting your avatar into the stream.
Since a good majority of the media headlines focus on Facebook and Twitter, we can sometimes overlook the myriad of other social networks that should capture our attention, and have extraordinary benefits from a business perspective. If there comes a time that you don’t feel like getting involved in a real time chat with a group of people, some solo time reading and commenting on blogs, posting and tagging photos in Flickr, and contributing reviews on sites like Yelp or Kudzu for example can help overcome fatigue by simply being a different neighborhood to stroll through.
It probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that cases of fatigue can pop up from time to time. Prior to having social networks to participate in, many would simply isolate in seclusion to recharge the batteries. It was just much less noticeable…. and as we have heard from Google CEO Eric Schmidt, it’s ok to unplug every once in a while.
Here’s our List of Ways to Prevent Social Media Fatigue:
1) Limit your following/friending to a targeted, smaller niche group of people who have close interests to you. You will be more inclined to stay connected by avoiding all of the noise.
2) Consider creating good relevant content that can be pre-scheduled for distribution using tools such as Twitterfeed. This will make sure that your brand is still represented, even if you have less time or energy to devote. It will bridge the up and down cycles of having things to say.
3) Diversify the social networks that you participate in. You may discover an enthusiasm that may have been waning when you were just focusing solely on one or two networks.
4) Step away from the keyboard and unplug every once in awhile. It may feel strange, you might miss a breaking meme or two, but if it’s really important it will find you!
Have you ever experience Social Media Fatigue? How have you overcome it and how do you prevent it? Please share with us in the comments your thoughts on the matter.
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