Yes this, should you be reading this blog? I wish more people would read my blog. I wish more people would read my tweets. But that’s just me.
In reality, it’s possible that this or any other blog just might be a complete waste of your time. In fact, it’s possible that the whole “Social Media” thing might be one gigantic waste of time.
It might be, but it doesn’t have to be. Social Media is like everything else in your life, it’s more productive if you have a plan and an objective for using it.
Here’s an idea for you, I’ll tell you right now you’re likely not going to like it, but it will be very informative for you. Keep a time-log for a week or even just a few days. Log how many minutes or heaven forbid, how many hours, you spend each day on various forms of social media. BE HONEST!
You are the only judge as to what is the “right” amount of time. Once you have an honest answer as to how much time you’re spending on Social Media then recall your life before Social Media. What did you do with that time then?
Was it a better use of your time? Did you spend the time in real conversations with people face-to-face? Did you procrastinate less? Did you accomplish more at work? Did you worry less about “having so much to do?”
No one but you can answer those questions. I can however, encourage you to answer those questions honestly for yourself. Keeping a time-log for a few days will help you do that. It’s so easy to burn an hour or two on Facebook or Twitter that a whole morning can get away from you. Your time-log will prove to you how often that happens.
Once you really know how much time your spending on Social Media then and only then can you begin to determine if it’s worth the time you’re committing to it. Once again, be honest with yourself. What do YOU get from it? How does it help YOU?
This is YOUR call, only you can say for sure if it’s worth your time. Only you can measure your Social Media ROI. Your ROI (return in investment) will be determined by your plan and objective for Social Media. If your objective is to just burn several hours a day then you should be able to reach your objective rather easily.
If you use Social Media to learn from other people then you must be able to state what you learn and how you USE it. Somehow I feel the need to mention that honesty thing again here…
If you’re using Social Media to sell then you should be able to measure what you’ve sold that you wouldn’t have sold if you weren’t online. Honestly?
There are many uses for Social Media and I could go an and on but I think you get my drift.
Social Media can add value to your life or dilute the fullness of your life. It depends on how you use it. I’d be a knucklehead to think I have any idea of the “right” way for you to use it, it’s a very individual decision. I can however, tell you there is a right way and that means there must be a wrong way too.
You need to know the difference.
Gah! I shouldn’t have read this when I did — saw your tweet and thought; “one more thing before dinner…”. Glad I read it though — good words. 🙂
Ha, that’s kinda funny. It’s just how it happens too – just “one more thing” 🙂
Oh yes, some days I’m wary of even looking atTwitter, as I know there are always so many interesting links to check, blogs to read, etc. that one can easily lose an hour or two! This Blog post, however, was well worth reading. 🙂
Thanks Annette, I wonder which one would be more challenging, a food diet or a Social Media diet 🙂 There is so much worthwhile info on blogs and Twitter that we can spend lots time there. Too bad there is o much worthless stuff to sort through.
I’m glad you thought this post was on the worthwhile side 🙂
Interresting as it is, there are ways to monitor your behavior on your computer.
My question is:
How much business would you loose if you’d cut the line a couple of hours every week?
Thanks for your comment, you’re absolutely right about monitoring your time on the computer. There are a lot of tools available to help with that.
Great question too – I still find it hard to imagine that we “lose” anything by pulling the plug for a period of time each day or week and yet, I find it hard to do as well.
Definitely right! It’s like spice up your life! waiting for more of your tweets!
Thanks, one thing you can be sure of… there will be more tweets 🙂
Great post – When I teach time management, and I get to the part where I explain the number one question to ask is: “Is this the best use of my time? and if not, what is?”
I hold my breath, waiting for someone to get up and walk out, realizing there is a better use of their time!
(This has not happened….yet.)
Ha, that’s a good one. I teach time management as well and I am always surprised how many people really don’t know how they use their time.
One of the best quotes I ever heard came from my civics teacher , Mr. Rogers C. Harlan, way back many years ago is “time is nothing more than an artificial creation of man to keep track of where he’s been”…… He use to tell everyone in class that…. when they said I just didn’t have the time to get it done.
That’s a great truth. We all have the same amount of time each day, often times the difference between success and failure is how we use that time.
Tracking your time, at least now and then, is a great way to get the big picture of how your’re spending your time, whether on social media or other pursuits. I like Toggle for this purpose. I use it to track both hours to bill to clients and hours spend on volunteer work. Now I think I’ll try using it to track time I spend on social media. Of course, that’s not always “separate” time, I’ll have to see if i can have two instances of Toggl running at once. That could be crazy!
I have heard of Toggle, now you have me thinking I must try it. It is SO easy to lose track of time – and a very expensive mistake!