TMI vs Untended

Balance.

The two most common social media blunders are like most things in life, at opposite ends of a best practices continuum.  If you blog, FB, Tweet or G+ to get your vital message out, consider a self-audit exercise.  It won’t take but a few minutes.

Quickly review your past month of posts.  Note the media type, frequency and maybe rank your content as fluff / personal / on-target / vital.

Now consider your communication goals via social media. You have goals, yes?  Think about this for a while.  Jot some first thoughts down and save this for future pondering-planning.

The most common social media blunders are To Much Information (TMI) and an Untended Social Presence.  Based on your industry, your target audience and key messages, you pretty much know where you want to be in the space between these extremes of blunder.

What is the solution?  Preplan and be intentional.  Just because you can and have a thought doesn’t mean you should share with everyone impulsively.  Consider pre-writing in draft your week’s (or day’s) content in social media that represents your key messaging to your target audience in the best media.  This may differ from FB to Twitter to LinkedIn.  Come back to it later, review what you’ve written and schedule the release rate.  Sure there’s room for timely response to what you read, commenting etc.  Just be sure you are making room for that in the strategy and not simply firing off posts willy-nilly without a plan.

Balance requires discipline, time and a budget.  Your company, non-profit and you deserve that deliberate investment.

Photo: Carla Swope from InnerVisionYoga.ca.  Justin Brown Photography