Should you be on a digital diet?
Follow a digital diet for a healthy mind!
The internet and social media are wonderful tools for connecting people all over the globe, but do you ever think wistfully of the days when your business life didn’t seem dominated by the need to have an online presence on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Tumblr and all the rest?
All of this posting, tweeting, updating, commenting. It’s exhausting, and I find that I go through regular phases of running out of ideas. Twitter is my favourite and because I’m a great browser I can usually find interesting stuff to point my followers to, and of course there are always my own blog archives to plunder.
But Facebook is another matter and occasionally I’ll just go quiet for lack of inspiration. So I was intrigued to hear that Rosie Slosek takes ‘social media breaks throughout the year. In August I upgrade myself to a social media sabbatical to concentrate on my Big Summer Project and only do minimal interaction with scheduled posts to keep my feed active.
‘It gives me space to concentrate on work needing a large amount of focused time, such as writing my website last year and updating it this year.’
Melanie Mackie of Scarletta Media helps businesses with their social media, so you may be surprised to hear she highly recommends switching off completely from time to time:
‘I believe it is essential for our health and well being to switch off from social media and take a digital detox, in fact you see more people saying they are going to do this and there are even courses to help you switch off.
‘Whilst social media is brilliant for making connections, keeping up with real-time news and marketing our businesses, we can become totally consumed and easily distracted.’
And my partner A, a blogging and social media coach, also recommends taking time away to find inspiration elsewhere.
‘It’s good to get into a social media groove,’ he says, ‘when you are posting good quality stuff and interacting with likeminded people. But a groove can become a rut and develop into a creative block.’
Melanie decided on a total digital detox when she went on holiday, despite knowing all the tricks for scheduling posts in advance, which would have maintained her social media presence while she was away.
She believes ‘it is essential to have a proper break and come back refreshed and this includes dropping out of the social radar for a while. Radio silence is good for the mind!’
She lost a few followers and likers, but only one person seemed to notice she had been quiet for a while. So her business easily survived being unplugged from her social community, and yours will too!
I haven’t yet embarked on my own digital diet, and this is my Vizify Twitter video, which sums up my latest tweeting. Do you deliberately follow a digital diet, or just drift away for a while when the muse deserts you?
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I don’t business tweet etc at weekends & in the evenings unless it’s something really fun or interesting. Those are ‘me’ times where I interact online with my friends who live too far away to see often (if at all).
Does that count?
I think so, Sharon! Just like ‘no carbs after 5 pm’!
For my business it’s about focus. I spend the time building up ‘reserves’ of social media to go out later in the year when I am very busy and need to spend most of my time with clients.
I will do no social media sometimes, and other times my social media angel helps me. This year it’s been harder as so far the volume of interaction hasn’t gone down yet, and most summers it’s tumbleweed by June.
Surprising that the level of social media didn’t go down in the heatwave. Maybe people can’t focus on the ‘big’ things when it’s hot, and potter about on Twitter etc instead.
I am seeing so many people decide they need to take some time out of social media, which is a good thing when you know it is becoming a bad habit. And even though my business is all about being social, I’ll be doing the same again soon when I take some time off. Only problem is Mr Scarletta likes having WiFi as he doesn’t get to hang out online during the rest of the year like I do. So it’s tricky at times especially if the weather is poor……. But definitely recommend it.
Stay strong, Mel, and I hope the weather is with you!
Very interesting article! I usually schedule tweets to go out during the week and go on sporadically to reply, re-tweet etc, but when I went on hols in July, I didn’t bother scheduling anything and I don’t think anyone really noticed! Well, I did have one chap I speak to occasionally say he wondered where I’d disappeared to, but otherwise, nothing!! I have to say, I did find it was quite a relief not to have to keep up with Twitter so much for those two weeks!
I think you’re right, Cath. We all have such a stream of information flowing towards us every day that it takes quite a while to notice that something is missing. Lately Tweetdeck has been knocking people out of my Twitter stream for some unknown reason and I haven’t noticed until I’ve been in touch with them for another reason and then thought, ‘Funny, I haven’t seen any tweets from them recently.’
(I haven’t been able to get them back either, despite repeated unfollows and refollows. I might actually try out Hootsuite instead, especialy as you can’t thank someone who’s RTed you by clicking on Reply. Very irritating).