Your blog is not your job (unless it is). Twitter is not your job (unless someone’s paying you to tweet). Facebook isn’t your job.
These are just communications tools. We use them. We use them to make media. We use them to weave marketing, sometimes. We use them to tell stories about your organizations or our wants or whatever it is we’re talking about. Spending hours updating status, spending hours chatting, doing things that take us away from our objectives can sometimes feel easy.
Some ways to stay vigilant:
- Use an egg timer. If you’re going to venture out onto Twitter, time it.
- Keep a sticky note of your objectives in sight of your monitor.
- Ask yourself for every blog post what your goal with that post should be.
- Ensure that you’re doing this all with some goal in mind, and can you measure that goal?
- Tend to your main objectives first, and use the secondary time for social media.
Your mileage will vary. You’ll see results in some of what you do. But if you’re doing it because it’s what you think you’re supposed to do, keep your eye on things. Stay vigilant.
Yesterday, my blog was not my job, so I didn’t write one. Today? I have two speeches over the next few days. That was my job first, and then this post.
We do want to keep our social presence up, and we can’t let our blogging fall too far behind, but to remember your job from time to time is to remind yourself what will yield the most value in your day.
