Responsible Social Media Usage

Our 8-year-old son can’t wait to grow up and live that social media life. Responsible social media usage is not something that even enters his head as someone who is already demanding designer haircuts and spraying kids' fragrances in the swimming pool changing rooms.

While looking in the mirror. Pouting.

It would be easy for parents to lose hope and succumb to the inevitable reality that we will lose our children to TikTok and YouTube any day now. Whether we allow it or not.?

For us oldies, the same can be said about our use of LinkedIn. The desire to grow an audience because we’ve been told that the platform rewards commitment is overwhelming. Hour after hour trawling the feed in an attempt to build a network that will put us on the map and prevent us ever having to sell again.

But what happens when we get busy??

Making a rod for your own back

Over the years, I’ve seen hundreds of people come to LinkedIn in a blaze of glory. Folk who've decided that anything less than 50k followers in 8.5 minutes is unacceptable and if it means spending 12 hours a day on the platform…

That’s what they are going to do.

The rest of us mere mortals then see said creators in our feed and wonder…

“Why am I not on 50k followers? I’ve been at this for years.”

It’s a valid question and one I’ve asked myself many times with my measly 20k following after 5 long years of graft. But then I realised something that makes up quite a vital part of this conversation.?

I’m busy doing the work that my social media influence has provided me.?

And when I say busy, I mean Steven Bartlett's social media people trying to squeeze Huel into every video busy.

This means I not only have to be very disciplined with my time on LinkedIn and other platforms, but I also have to be very structured in my planning. Or I could just ignore my wife, kids, dog and friends while smashing chocolate hobnobs and dreaming of the day they all leave me so I can join the cool kids club and double my following.

It’s a tough call. I would get more Lego time.

The addiction is real.

Now, let me be clear.?

I am not coming at this from a position of righteousness with a Lego-themed halo on my head having never ignored my family in favour of social media time.

Trust me, I’ve been there and worn every T-shirt so I can place myself well and truly in the ‘Knob’ category for that. However, I did finally reach the point when I realised my efforts were not sustainable. For business, or life.?

Before said lightbulb moment, however, my mornings, evenings and even the odd mealtime would be spent satisfying my addiction to attention. Likes and comments galore were in direct response to the time I was committing to the platform without realising what I was setting myself up for.?

Failure.?

Not only was I working at an unsustainable pace, but I was also mixing in the wrong circles, not attracting the right people in the process. I was basically playing to the same crowd of friends every time I created, which is fine when you aren’t selling anything, but fatal when you are.

In May 2022, it all had to change.

Responsible social media usage

To understand how to get this right, you have to understand how much time you could dedicate if you had a full quota of work. For most small business owners who are already busy, the time spare usually equates to fuck all minutes and even fewer seconds.?

If that’s possible.?

But let’s say for the sake of this story that you are working 8 hours a day, 5 days a week on the business. And let’s also say that we live in a fantasy land where small business owners only work 8 hours a day whilst managing to switch off at 5 pm on the dot to watch Catchphrase.?

Now you know you have no time, you have to ask yourself a question.

“How much of my ‘Free Time’ am I willing to give up on social media before I start work and in the evenings when I’m supposed to be winding down?”

If the answer is zero, you’re fucked.?

Actually, that’s a lie. You come to us and we take the hassle away completely.?

But if you are determined to have a go yourself, you must commit to an amount of time each day that you feel you can sustain long-term. Don’t make the mistake of going balls deep on a 3-hour-a-day regime that after 2 months is so tedious you’ve deleted the app and gone back to cold calling.?

Agree 30, 45 or 60 minutes a day, then stick to it.?

The next job is to identify the target audience and make sure you are getting in front of it with every move you make. This is something we cover in great detail in our group and 1:1 training packages.

Fitting the content in

Ok, so you now know how much time you can give without burning out and going loopy. The next question you might be asking is;

“How the hell do I fit content into the time slot as well?”

If like many people who can’t make it work, you expect to wake up every morning full of the joys of life and write something creative, informative and entertaining in 2 minutes flat while slurping a coffee and nibbling a hobnob…

You won’t fit it in.

The key to a consistent content strategy is to plan well in advance. This means you need a separate chunk of time, off social media to prepare somewhere between 12 and 25 pieces of content based on a very well-executed strategy.?

We can help with that of course.?

Once your content is written, you can then schedule it for release during the window you’ve allowed yourself each day. This means you are only actually on the platform for that period, and not attempting to come up with something useful to say whilst emptying the dishwasher and avoiding the washing up that you didn’t quite fit in the night before.

You know it’s true.

Responsible social media usage is about limiting the time you spend on the platform, whilst being super productive with the time you are. The techniques for finding the right people and getting in front of them form a major part of our training packages so if this is a current hurdle, maybe it’s time to invest in 1:1 support.

If you are not yet in the position to onboard the services of an Expert Ghostwriter and wish to get more support with your LinkedIn strategy, you should join

The Unconventionalls private group for LinkedIn.

Stay Unconventionall.