Getting Tired of Social Media? Here’s What You Can Do About It

I hear it time and again these days…people are getting social media fatigue. Twitter has become a selling platform. Facebook is full of ads. We are drowning in content. More and more, people are starting to change their habits when it comes to social, and for some pretty good reasons. But it was inevitable. The platforms evolve, peoples’ behaviours change, and in general, humans lose interest in things that are no longer serving them.

In spite of all this, I still firmly believe that social media still has tremendous value. When approached the right way, it can help you build lasting business and personal relationships. It can enlighten and inspire. It can even change the world.

Some say social media needs to change. It needs to go back to how it was before the big brands got involved and turned social into a sales platform. I disagree. The truth is, we can’t go back. We’re too far down the rabbit hole now. But if social media still has value, then can we extract that value in spite of what it’s become?

I say yes, and here’s how.

If it’s broke, fix it. I don’t derive as much value from Twitter these days as I used to. In fact, I pretty much stopped using the platform altogether last year. I’ve slowly come back to it, but primarily as a way to keep up with news, a few friends and some celebrities that I like. It’s certainly not driving business the way it used to. So, rather than whine and complain about it, I just stopped using it for that. Twitter broke for me in terms of a business tool. So I fixed it by moving my business conversations elsewhere, like Facebook Groups and LinkedIn. If a platform is no longer working for you, it’s of no use to try to change the platform. There’s no going back. But you can find what DOES work for you and go there.

Become a creator of things. Want to really flip your social media experience on its head? Start creating more. Contrary to what some might say, blogging is not dead, and podcasting is really coming back strong these days. When you stop simply consuming content online and start producing, things change a lot. Not only is it a great creative outlet, but the conversations you have change as well. Producing content is extremely rewarding. It may take some time to build an audience but I promise you the most rich interactions you’ll have online are the ones that spin out of the content you create. Breathe new life into your social experience by creating more.

Try a new platform. This week I launched a new weekly newsletter, exclusively for people that subscribe to Suzemuse. It’s an opportunity for me to connect with you on a different level, and to bring the conversation into another social platform – email. I hope that by providing value to that community I can serve them better and get to know some new people too. It’s been another significant change to my social media experience, and so far I’m enjoying it a lot. (Want to subscribe? Click here!)

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Social media is a choose your own adventure experience. You get to decide where you’re going to spend your time. If you’re not getting a payoff, move on. Nobody gets hurt.

And you? How has your social media activity changed lately? Let me know in the comments.