A Time Suck or a Time Investment?

Social media. It’s all around us and it seems like every year, a new platform is popping up for us to try.

I was recently invited to Clubhouse, which is an audio-chat social networking app. The concept is pretty simple. People can start a room talking about a topic and users can simply pop in and listen or be part of the conversation by virtually raising their hand.

This is not just for business, as the topics are all over the board, but for many the networking opportunities are vast.  

In a discussion with my team, we talked about Clubhouse and social media in general and I wanted to share this newsletter on the time suck versus the time investment conundrum. 

Let me give you a great example. For me, LinkedIn is my best social media platform. It’s where I connect with people and share on the most regular basis, it’s brought real clients and speaking opportunities my way and been a wonderful place to find resources, meet podcast guests and lately, host a live show with high-level leaders to foster engagement with my community. 

It’s a time investment when I am on LinkedIn and I regularly schedule time for myself each week to check in, comment, like and share.

Look at the time you’re spending on social media and determine if it’s a time suck more than a time investment.

It’s easy to endlessly scroll and lose a lot of time when we don’t set limits to our screen time.

Online connections are fabulous, but taking those offline is when the magic happens. If you meet a great resource on Clubhouse or LinkedIn, take the next step and ask them to have a virtual coffee or hop on the phone. 

Use the platforms to help you network, especially now when virtual networking is all we have, and then take consistent follow-up action if the relationship is something you want to build.

Anytime I speak, I encourage people to find me on LinkedIn, or any of my social channels, to continue the conversation. These are tools, but like any tool, they aren’t always the right fit.

We all have limited time in a day. If you find yourself spending too much time on social media, delegate your posts to someone on your team or schedule your posts in advance so you don’t need to be on the site every day. Check notifications at certain times, instead of every single time one comes in. You can have a team member monitor anything you might need to respond to quickly. Think about the time you invest in scrolling. Put a timer on your phone for a specific amount of time to invest and when it dings, stick to the commitment.  

Find the platforms that work for you and invest your time wisely. When you feel the time suck happening, step away and refocus.