How to Survive Social Media Fatigue

Social media has been a must-have business communications tool for more than five years. Many companies jumped into social media with high hopes, but some have grown tired of maintaining consistent content and keeping up with the onslaught of niche social media sites – like Pinterest or Zeen. Others are quick to discredit social media because its benefits are difficult to measure. But let’s not forget that social media is a free way for companies to reach their audiences using controlled messages.

Many companies believe that they need to have a presence on every social media tool, but your company may not need to do this to reach your goals. For example, Pinterest, a rapidly growing social bookmarking site, is an ideal place to reach women – 70% of its users are women age 25-44 years. However, if your target audience is men, your messages would flounder on Pinterest.

Social media fatigue has plagued all types of social media. Only 47% of Twitter accounts are active, and half of all registered Twitter users follow two or fewer people. Approximately 11% of Facebook accounts are inactive. Studies have shown that up to 95% of blogs are abandoned.

Don’t let your social media accounts become part of these statistics.

Validate your decision to join a social media site. It’s important to have a valid reason behind your decision to participate in a new social medium. Before biting off more than you can chew, evaluate the social media tool, decide how it could benefit your company, and – if you join – make a commitment to stay active and engaged. If you decide the social network isn’t beneficial, delete your account. Having inactive social media accounts can harm your online reputation.

Set realistic goals for the amount of content you will create. Your company won’t gain any points for having the most active social media account, and you will actually lose points for sacrificing quality for quantity. Don’t try to post content every day, because we all know that’s not going to happen. Instead commit to something more reasonable, like two or three posts per week.

Plan your social media content in advance. Try planning content for all of your social media sites a month at a time. This will help you vary your content, coordinate it with other social media channels, and remember to post it consistently.

Fight the urge to link your social media accounts. While linking your social media accounts is certainly an easy way to reach out to your audiences on numerous sites, it’s not the most strategic or effective way. Because each social media site has its own niche, it’s important to interact with people on each site in the way that they choose to receive information.

Take a team approach. Make sure that a team of people manages your company’s account so that if one person is out of the office, someone else can update the account. Not only will this allow people to take vacations, but it will also allow for fresh perspectives.

Jennifer Hellman is the chief operating officer of Goff Public, a public relations and public affairs firm with a team of highly experienced professionals in strategic planning, media relations, social media, crisis communications, community relations, writing, and lobbying. You can follow her on Twitter @JenHellman.