Social Media Burnout, I Has It

source: ihasahotdog.com

Hi everyone… my name is Jean and I’m… *deep breath* sick of Twitter.

Now, I’ve been a big proponent of Twitter and some of the newer social media outlets that have appeared in the last couple of years. Some clients here at Boot Camp this week still know me as the “Twitter Girl” from the presentation I did with Mike Joziatis last year. A few years back, I even lobbied to get my college added to Facebook (back when you actually had to be in school to use it, and not every school was included. Old Skool, if you will). In fact, I still do believe in the power of tweets, so you can put down the torches and pitchforks.

“But Jean, if that’s the case, why would you say such a horrible thing about Twitter?”

I’m glad you asked.

I’ve managed to connect with a lot of old friends via Facebook and Twitter, and I’ve also been able to gain some insights into the minds of search marketers like Barry Schwartz, Danny Sullivan & Liana Evans (Go Eagles!!). They’re sharing what they read and see day to day in their work, and I can look for parallels with my work at Solid Cactus. Our SEO team also does a first rate job of leveraging these outlets when and where applicable for our clients.

So with all this good, again, why am I complaining? To be honest, I’m tired. Tired of trying to keep up with the couple of hundred people I follow and the trends and keywords I want to track. As much good is coming from it, I find myself distracted more often than I’m informed. I haven’t posted since April 3rd, and while I’ve check in once or twice, I find myself much more focused and relaxed - not wondering if I should be taking pictures of the hockey game I’m at for Twitpic, or if anyone really cares if I forget to tweet about my supper.

The lesson I’ve learned (and that I hope you can use) is that not every form of social media is right for you, but you don’t know until you try.  Maybe Plurk isn’t your thing, but you’re having some success driving traffic to your site through Myspace. That’s great! Focus your energies on what’s working for you and where your customers are talking about you. If you’re not an agency that specializes in SMO, it can be really hard to put yourself on every social platform. So don’t. You’ll avoid the burnout and have better success with the tactics you do try. And you should try something. I don’t want to hear anyone call me a ‘hater’ because that’s not what this is about. We’ve seen clients have success in social media, but if you’re going at it on your own, take some time to research and pick just a few areas to test.

As for me? I’m going to keep on blogging, keep on Facebook-ing (is that a word?), maybe still follow a few people on Twitter, but other than that I’m going to stick to PPC and leave the social media to the experts. There’s a lot of value out there - I just need to figure out how to filter it in a way that makes sense for me.