Last night I ‘turned off’ my Instagram account.
I manage social media accounts to pay the bills, I spend a lot of time online each day, part of that was managing my own social media. After some thought, there’s not really much point maintaining my own social media… I’m a 47 year old bloke that actively encourages his kids to stay well away from social media, lead by example, right?
The answer I’ve always given myself when I ask myself the question “Do you need to actively partake in your own social media to be an effective social media manager?” Is ‘Yes, absolutely’ but with social media management tools the way they are now, the ability to search content and be present without being present as myself has come a long way - I can effectively be online as my clients and not myself.
Well, that answer made sense in my head, so let’s see if it sticks.
I’m doing this to drag back some time for myself/my kids. My time is allocated in various sized chunks to my clients, that has never been a hard and fast line - it’s always been fluid and almost invariably much more than i’m contracted for… The management of content, looking for that content, looking for audience (with most social platforms putting the organic screws on so tight so they can sell advertising for mostly fake reach), looking for chatter and guiding that chatter… It all takes time. My time and my expertise at guiding those conversations is where my value is, but i’ve found it very hard to find the ‘off switch’ while doing that.
I guess working from home, well, not working from home as such, it’s not like I have anywhere else to work - my office is in my house, it’s a dedicated room. Working from home maybe means I’m not restricted by office-bound norms, e.g. it’s 10:32am and I’ve had one Zoom for a client’s bi-weekly round-up call, I’ve popped down and made myself breakfast just now, and I think I’ll grab a shower and perhaps try slot in a haircut… Those types of things aren’t conducive to a 9-5 environment, but that also means that if I need to, I just push my day out into the evening. I’m not really a sit and watch tv kind of guy, so I don’t mind shelving work during the day and getting it done at night - as long as it gets done. I’m rambling.
Long story short, I’m pulling back from the added distraction that is my personal social media, using that time elsewhere, focusing on client work when online and daydreaming about the small farm I want to buy…
Glad we had this chat, if you don’t see me online, that’s ok, I’ll be here and via email and likely Twitter…
Also, here’s a chopping board I’m working on, more on it later, but I’ll say this, some of the timber in this piece is from an interesting place - more soon.