I am sitting at my desk reading emails, checking my Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, writing this blog post and working on my June newsletter. It is a beautiful day but my social media responsibilities have pre-empted my time to get out to socialize and enjoy the day. Sure, I could choose to forget about this and go out and play, but how much fun will I have knowing that while I am listening to the birds tweeting, my Twitter account is going dormant? Some of you are thinking about Hootsuite, Twitterfeed, Nutshell, and other services I could use to automate my posts. Those are great solutions when a person has time to stop doing business and choose worthwhile posts to schedule. I enjoy reading pertinent and timely posts from others and I want to respond in kind. Who wants to read about cutting edge research when it is no longer newsworthy, or a summer vacation coaching tip in November? I want to be “up to the minute” with valuable information and therein lies my dilemma. Social media planning or real live socializing?
As a coach, I know there is a balance and would coach my clients to find a way to do both, or at the very least, a bit of socializing mixed in with the social media planning. When I talk about building up a solid coaching practice in training classes, my recommendation is to use social media and web presence AND to get out and network with people. I have to ask myself, do I practice what I teach?
My question for YOU is this – how do you balance your social media efforts with your socialization time? And, how do YOU coach that?
I look forward to reading your feedback.