Spending more time with Social Media than you do preparing your show.

Social Media is addictive. There is actually a fair amount of research to back up that claim. Addiction is loosely defined as an activity that interferes with normal life. Addiction also comes with fun acronyms like FOMA which is the Fear Of Missing Out. I’ve seen people sitting at stoplights, heads down in the phone, even when the stoplight is a go light. I’ve seen people driving down the freeway at 90 miles per hour doing social media (which loosely includes texting). I see people posting at 1, 2, 3 in the morning on consecutive nights. In fact, I’ve had people come late to work and/or miss work all together because of a Social Media addiction. In that regard, it is very much like the stories associated with alcoholism and drug addiction. The life becomes unmanageable and normal activities begin to suffer, relationships, health, and work.

My point here is that Social Media is very much recreational. Many (if not millions) get social rewards out of the sometimes voyeuristic and sometimes socialistic activity attached to social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. It is a fantastic place for you to promote, to seek trending attitudes, and to socialize. However, be aware of the addictive power of the cunning SM (social media) and create healthy discipline. I suggest scheduling a time in your day for “professional SM” and another time for “Personal SM” and stick to it. At the other times, pay attention to your life and the moments you experience. For sure, the experience you have in your moments will ALWAYS be more relatable that the Storefront Life most people present on SM. For heaven’s sake, spend more time prepping your show that surfing the giant SM

Letting the Social Media be the shiny thing in the window—squirrel!

If you are doing a live-cast (radio, on-demand, video), Social Media can be the death of your ability to engage and activate your listener or viewer. It is only human nature to seek out positive and immediate affirmation. That said, it takes a special attack to handle feedback in a live setting. Still, time-after-time the action is to redirect the path of the show for the sake of immediate SM feedback.

Resist the temptation to put down the show plan to respond and fuel your SM. If you have a specific idea for using SM in a live environment, then make that a part of the plan and set goals and boundaries on the application. Activating SM in a live environment is high-risk activity for “the rest” of the people who are interested in your driving of the ship and not the whim of your SM.

Creating too high of a percentage/frequency of Social Media pimping

SM is important, there is no doubt. It is a way to connect with your listener or viewer. That connection is a way to further that person’s partisanship with you and your show. However, your show is not specifically about SM (unless that is your topic). Your show is about that thing you decided that stirred enough passion in you that you would commit to creating rich media for all who would come. If you are spending a high percentage of time pimping your SM sites and reasons to go there, you are cheating the fan of the reason given for coming to your party (show).

I’m reminded of the saying from the movie Field of Dreams; “Build it and they will come.” If your content is strong enough and you market properly, your audience numbers will build over time. If you are truly effective at your presentation (whatever your strategy) and your chosen topic actually has enough interest to create a following, then your SM will follow. Constant repetition (begging really) for people to like you on FB, etc. is only fatiguing and annoying your target.

Reporting on Social Media happenings instead of making Social Media happen

One of my favorite pet peeves. The difference between reporting on someone else’s brilliance instead of creating your own brilliance. Sure, there are fascinating things that happen on SM and some of them are worth talking about as a shared experience. That is to say, you want to share your experience about the SM and not just the location of the SM event.

That said, if you are enamored (or addicted), then your life, and therefore show, will start with SM first. If you find yourself always thinking you should post parts of your life on FB and if your first thought is to take a picture instead of enjoying the moment you are probably in this category of addiction. While you are a heavy poster (5 to 7 times or more per day) your conversation is also centered around what you’ve seen on SM. That is a form of reporting and it will bleed into your show.

Creating FB moments is much harder but much more effective at creating momentum and activating your target. This is about a discipline of only putting out on SM the things that help paint a picture of which your target will be energized. This balance is dictated by the quality of what you create which, in turn dictates your frequency of posts. You want to have a regular frequency but you don’t want to put out poor quality content.

Not curating your timeline to match the appeal you want your target listener to experience

Here is the thing about having followers. They follow you because they are interested in what you represent in content and maybe even the way you conduct life. Take a look at your timeline and curate it for those who follow you. If you’re bored with the things on your timeline, then your target will be too. If your timeline if peppered with a bunch of stuff that is irrelevant to the reason people are following your show…delete, delete, delete. Look, if you believe that timelines on SM are actually an honest presentation of life as it happens and that deleting or curating is somehow sacrilegious then you’ve probably gone too far down the rabbit hole or you took the blue pill instead of the red.