Four Easy Steps to Get Out of Social Media Overwhelm

by Lena West

I wanted to take this time to answer a question I received from someone who would like to remain anonymous, but I think we can all identify with her, yes? 🙂

Question: I am an event promoter, but I am so overwhelmed with my social networks — it’s taking over my life. I spend more time on the computer than I do meeting clients to promote my variety of business ventures. Today I’m associated with 10 different social networking sites. What gives? I just can’t keep up this pace for much longer!

This is actually an excellent question and one that my students and my private clients ask all the time. The answer is as simple as four steps:

STEP 1:

You need flexible structure. As a smart business person, you probably wouldn’t allow any other part of your business to “take over your life,” so why should you allow social media to do that? You wouldn’t allow bookkeeping to take over your life. You wouldn’t allow email to take over your life. Don’t let social media do it either. The first step is making the decision to put social media in it’s place. That might sound silly but you understand what I mean.

STEP 2:

Start by giving yourself a schedule. Pick two or three days out of the week which you will designate as your “social media” days. I am NOT saying that you should ONLY do social media activities on those days, but rather, those are the days that you have predesignated to be full-on active with social media. This will allow you to stay visible while keeping your sanity.

STEP 3:

The next thing is figure out where your market is and be there. For example, if your potential clients aren’t on Facebook, why bother? It doesn’t mean that you should ignore Facebook altogether, it just means you don’t want to put a lot of your energy there. And, if people invite you to social networks that you’re not familiar with or that don’t resonate with you — and your market isn’t there — hit the delete key. Remember, you’re in charge here.

STEP 4:

Also, if you’re still stumped about what you should do, you might want to download our Insider’s Report, 76 Ways to Expand Your Influence, Explode Your Income and Rock the World, it will give you 76 different ideas and distinct actions to take with your social media marketing to get out of overwhelm and start getting results. The report is available free from our website at: http://www.InfluenceExpansion.com.

Once you start to develop your own set of rules for managing your social media initiatives and stop allowing social media to manage you, you’ll be golden.

 2011 PA Conference for Women speaker Lena L. West is an award-winning social media consultant, blogger, speaker, journalist, technologist and the founder of InfluenceExpansion.com, the only social media training program created exclusively for women business owners and leaders.