You find yourself staring glassy-eyed at your computer monitor, your mind a complete blank. The thought of logging into your social media account makes you break out in hashtag-shaped hives. You’ve got it bad, my friend: social media burnout.
You might think the answer is to simply stop using social media. But what you really need to do is change your behavior and avoid making the mistakes that led to your social status meltdown in the first place.
Avoid These Five Mistakes That Can Lead To Social Media Burnout
Taking on too many social networks at once. If being on Facebook is good, then also being on Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, and Linkedin should be even better, right? True, but you may soon find yourself posting to multiple sites, multiple times a day, every day. What started out as a great idea to promote your writing has become an out-of-control burden. Stop, take a deep breath, and step away from the keyboard.
If you’re going to maintain a presence on multiple social sites, consider streamlining your activity by consolidating all your accounts onto one dashboard to update all your social media accounts at once.
Monitoring your social media accounts 24/7. Your social media activity doesn’t have to be an around-the-clock effort. And don’t feel compelled to reply to every post or tweet. Know when to say no: Give yourself time limits—and when time’s up, log off.
Focusing on the wrong social network. You want to update fans about your latest publishing acceptance…but you’re only on Pinterest, a site geared to visuals and few words. Or you need to send out real-time information about your book reading location change…and you’re using Linkedin, a business profile platform. Using the wrong social platform for your needs will only lead to frustration. Instead, let us help you choose which site works best for you.
Posting infrequently. How can NOT posting on social media sites be linked to burnout? Because it usually signals that you’ve lost your enthusiasm. If your last post is from weeks, or even (yikes!) months ago, people will assume your account is abandoned and stop visiting. And no one is going to reply to a question you posted two months ago; everyone’s moved on. A recent Pew Research study reports that 69% of adults regularly use social media. If you’re not consistently connecting with this audience, you’re missing out on a valuable opportunity.
To keep yourself updating regularly, create a cache of posts that can be scheduled in advance. And spark your own interest by trying new ideas: Are you using hashtags? Adding photos? Hosting contests? If you’re actively participating and having fun, your followers will be too.
Pursuing quantity over quality of followers. If you spend all your time on social media pumping up the amount of followers you have, you’re going to wear yourself out chasing empty numbers. And all those so-called “guaranteed” followers won’t fool literary agents or editors. Instead, use your energy to interact with real fans and followers who have a genuine interest in your writing.
By maintaining a reasonable balance in your social media activity, keeping a sense of excitement, and remembering to occasionally unplug, you’ll avoid making the mistakes that can lead to social media burnout.
Photo by William Brawley
QUESTION: Have you ever experienced social media burnout? How did you cope?
looking forward to learning how to write better. i am starting from scratch. right now write what i feel and see around me. would like to learn how be more aggressive in my writings and the different genre’s i have not tapped into that i may be able to express myself.