This past year has been fascinating as social media not only put more voices and visions out into the world, but also catapulted a number of people from relative obscurity to the limelight.
image from www.textually.org
Not everyone is cut out to do the limelight 24-7, so what do you do when you need a little break?
- Should you pre-schedule Tweets during an anticipated absence to make it look like you’re still in the mix?
- Should you simply log off and not bother telling anyone anything?
- Should you send everyone a note that you’ll be offline for a bit?
There’s no right or wrong answer here, but what’s really key is that consider how you’ll deal with an absence.
Earlier this year a well known social media expert “went dark” for a week or two and wrote a very heartfelt post to her blog forewarning her followers of it. She got amazing support from her peeps and in the long run it was a wonderful, healthy example of balance.
I recently got a note from a friend who went offline over most of the past 2 months due to an illness. She put herself and her health first and didn’t make any qualms about it. I loved how she did this and came back with a beautiful re-entry. There was no forewarning, life just happened and she focused her energy on the rebound.
The last few months created huge amounts of stress in my personal life with my husband going into the hospital for 3 weeks and ALL responsibilities of home and business falling on my shoulders. I greatly reduced the amount of time I spent on social media networks because I was wrestling alligators nonstop. My message to myself is the one I apply to just about every aspect of life where I’m feeling pressure: “I’m doing the best I can with what I have.”
I’m very fortunate I have smart systems in place that Tweet my blog posts, so as long as my blog had content lined up, I got at least a daily Tweet in some weeks.But then I wondered… what if I disappeared for a month? Would anyone notice?
A wise person once told me, “The world isn’t nearly as obsessed with you as you are.”
The holidays are upon us. Maybe you’re stressing out how to do turkeys and presents and gift exchanges and Tweets and Facebook and on and on.Maybe you’re dealing with personal issues that make social media pale in importance.
If you’ve followed my tips for a while, you know that there are some really easy tools to use to make life easier like Social Oomph, Twitterfeed, or HootSuite. Try those if gentle automation feels in integrity with you.
Maybe you’d like to send out a “hey I’m outta here for a couple weeks” note to your list and social media network.
Or maybe you’d just like to go AWOL and not bother with what people think.
Ultimately the choice is yours. But looking at this as an option and considering what you’d do if in that situation can bring ease to a worried mind and help you put the really important things in life first.
What are your thoughts?
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