Hercules had it pretty easy. At least when he was fighting the nine-headed Hydra, he only had to contend with two new heads every time he cut one off.
When it comes to getting to grips with the challenge of social media in the modern age, however, things are a lot more complicated. Every time you feel you’ve got the measure of the latest hot new social media trend, website, network or gadget it seems like at least half a dozen more spring up demanding your attention.
No surprise then that so many people become completely overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information that’s constantly being thrown at them and the seemingly impossible task of keeping on top of everything.
So what’s the solution?
First of all don’t listen to anyone who tries to give the impression that they’re on top of every single new development in social media. Chances are that they’re either a) Kidding you b) Kidding themselves or c) Living a very, very sad life.
Back in the real world, most of us have three basic choices when it comes to dealing with the challenge of social media overload:
1) Valiantly battle to stay on top of anything and everything new that comes along – an approach that will almost certainly end, sooner or later, in defeat.
2) Decide that it’s all far too difficult and go into denial mode, reassuring ourselves that this whole social media thing is ‘only a passing fad anyway’.
3) Take the approach that I strongly recommend, which is to fully embrace social media but to do so in a way that puts it in its proper context and ensures that you are mastering it rather than vice versa.
I don’t pretend to have all the answers – no one has. But as a starting point my suggestion is that it will pay huge dividends to adopt some basic coping strategies - just as Hercules did when he finally realized that frenetically chopping off heads was actually making the situation worse not better.
Here are a few common sense principles that I recommend that you to follow and which are essential to keeping your social media sanity while so many around you are losing theirs.
Quality not quantity. Spend your time on small number of sites which are most relevant to your particular objectives rather than frantically trying to spread yourself thinly across lots of sites and doing nothing properly.
Little and often. Precisely the opposite approach works best when it comes to managing your time most effectively. You should try to spread your social media time evenly throughout the day rather than in large chunks.
Don’t believe all the hype. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the grass is greener elsewhere and that, whatever you’re doing and whichever site you’re on, there are people having more fun somewhere else.
Remember the tortoise and the hare. When it comes to learning new stuff and looking at interesting new sites you’ll find it far more rewarding in the long run to spend time researching things in depth rather than flitting between lots of different sites and not really taking any of it in.
Keep your perspective. Remember that social media is ultimately just another tool to help you run your life more effectively. If it becomes the most important thing in your life, chances are it's time to rethink your priorities.
Taken together, the above principles will help you tame the social media Hydra. They will also ensure you get the maximum return from social media for any given amount of effort you put in.
