Social Media'ing

For quite a while, my husband and other friends have been after me to write a blog, especially for my practice. I’ve been very very resistant to this. Even though I am (also) a writer and I enjoy writing, I’ve had a strong sense that a blog would be a lot of work if I was going to do it well (and why do it any other way?) and would be a lot more time-consuming than these well-meaning friends and husbands realize (none of whom, I’d like to point out, is running a business or writing a blog themselves!).

I’ve written travel blogs for years and they are well-received by friends and family. So I have a very good idea of what it takes to do the writing. It is, just trust me, a lot more time- and energy-consuming than it appears to the reader. I enjoy it but writing a travel blog is related to a single event that I know will end. Writing for my business will not end or at least not any time soon.

This blog has confirmed my expectations somewhat. It is work and I do have to think about it all the time but it’s not as time- and energy-consuming as I feared.

Now those same people are telling me I need to be “doing” social media. Everyone is doing it! It’s critical to business success! You have to do it! They, of course, are still not running businesses themselves or doing social media for these non-existent businesses either but that doesn’t stop them from providing their useful opinions.

The session on social media on Thursday validated my expectations and observations. The presenter was very clear that one of the things everyone has to think about first is how much time you’re willing and able to devote to this sorta thing. He was very cognizant of the fact that we don’t make money doing social media. We make money when we rub people.

It’s nice to see someone admit that, that social media is time-consuming and it’s OK to not want to do it or not want to do it all the time. There are a lot of messages -- even beyond well-meaning friends and relatives -- that as small business owners we’ve just got to be all over whatever the latest thing is.

I am rarely an early adopter for new technologies. I’m not technophobic -- I was a technical writer in my previous profession -- but I am techno-cautious. I’m also very time-aware and I know how quickly my time evaporates, especially when I get on-line. I don’t want to get to the end of my life and mostly just remember a glowing screen!

So when I get back to Australia, I will re-visit my notes from the Social Media session, make some decisions that fit into my time and reality, and use it but I’ll use it to my benefit and in a way that fits my life.

Now I think I’m going to actually get off this screen and go for a walk in the real world…..