Miley Cyrus left Twitter
because she felt like a social media slave and I certainly felt like
one last week as my to do list kept bugging me that I haven't blogged
in a while.
No one ever said it was easy to do this social
media thing, but I think it's especially challenging for businesses. I
try to blog once a week. If I have ideas during the week, I just pop
them into a folder and then when "blogging time" comes, I pick one.
This is great when life is normal, however, any business owner can tell
you that life is full of one emergency after another and it can be
tough to get back into a routine when the dust settles.
So when
my dust recently settled, and it came time to write a new blog post, I
had nothing to say. A few days pass and then a few more and still
nothing to say. How can I be out there encouraging other businesses to
take up a social media strategy and not be doing it myself? Some would
say, just write anything, but I'd rather be silent than inauthentic.
There's
a sense of obligation that develops when you start blogging or
tweeting. That you are on this ride and you can't get off. I had a few
days with these feelings, but then the lightbulb came back on.
Social media is supposed to be social! It's about listening!
I
had lost sight of what this was all for. It's not about what I have to
say, but it's about what I'm hearing. It's a conversation, and you
can't have a conversation without listening. It's such a simple point,
but it makes all the difference.
For any slaves out there that
feel stuck, remind yourself that social media is a two way street. The
only pressure you should feel, is the pressure to listen to your
customers (which you should be doing anyway). Once you refocus on that,
the rest should fall into place.