Musings on Social Media
Yep, got to do it. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blog.
Yep, when you’ve already got a busy job, it’s pretty darn hard to find time to do it right!
I’m finding that my foray into social media has been more guilt producing than actual fun. For example, witness the sporadic postings on this blog. Blogging reminds me a lot of when I owned a weekly newspaper and had to write a column, due every Wednesday at noon, week in and week out. Some weeks, I had more than enough to write about and the words just flowed from my fingertips. Other weeks, it was the Sword of Damocles hanging over my head.
I have this old-school idea that whatever I write must be:
• grammatically and factually correct,
• proofread by another, and
• last but not least, fascinating each and every time
Twitter leaves me a bit cold (what I had for breakfast is not interesting even to me, nor are Tweets and re-Tweets of stories I’ve already read in the Austin American-Statesman or the New York Times), but I love Facebook and have also found many friends from decades past on LinkedIn.
I have a feeling that many of our clients also are struggling with incorporating social media into their communications plans. We are definitely recommending that they put their toes in the water—to the degree that they can keep up with the extra work. We’d love to know how other companies are carving social media management into longstanding job descriptions.
My staff is far better at social media than I am, and I’m proud of the way they use it during company hours. They post on Facebook, they Tweet their press releases, and they keep the ECPR Facebook page fresh—all without crossing the line into posting inane personal goings-on.
So I keep after it. I’m sure I’ll eventually get used to working it into my already-Adult-Onset-Attention-Deficit-Disorder day. I’m also sure that social media is here to stay, and I hereby make a commitment NOT to be a Luddite.
EC
Yep, when you’ve already got a busy job, it’s pretty darn hard to find time to do it right!
I’m finding that my foray into social media has been more guilt producing than actual fun. For example, witness the sporadic postings on this blog. Blogging reminds me a lot of when I owned a weekly newspaper and had to write a column, due every Wednesday at noon, week in and week out. Some weeks, I had more than enough to write about and the words just flowed from my fingertips. Other weeks, it was the Sword of Damocles hanging over my head.
I have this old-school idea that whatever I write must be:
• grammatically and factually correct,
• proofread by another, and
• last but not least, fascinating each and every time
Twitter leaves me a bit cold (what I had for breakfast is not interesting even to me, nor are Tweets and re-Tweets of stories I’ve already read in the Austin American-Statesman or the New York Times), but I love Facebook and have also found many friends from decades past on LinkedIn.
I have a feeling that many of our clients also are struggling with incorporating social media into their communications plans. We are definitely recommending that they put their toes in the water—to the degree that they can keep up with the extra work. We’d love to know how other companies are carving social media management into longstanding job descriptions.
My staff is far better at social media than I am, and I’m proud of the way they use it during company hours. They post on Facebook, they Tweet their press releases, and they keep the ECPR Facebook page fresh—all without crossing the line into posting inane personal goings-on.
So I keep after it. I’m sure I’ll eventually get used to working it into my already-Adult-Onset-Attention-Deficit-Disorder day. I’m also sure that social media is here to stay, and I hereby make a commitment NOT to be a Luddite.
EC
