Managing Your Social Life and Your Social-Media Life

Lissywrites/ June 14, 2013/ Uncategorized/ 0 comments

With the summer sun, the call of the ocean waves, and the promise of a vacation, trying to maintain your social life along with your social media presence can be a complicated balance. Thankfully, a majority – if not all – of social media have a phone app of some kind. But even then, you’re not going to want to be on your phone the entire time you’re out and about because that would defeat the purpose of a vacation: to get away for awhile.

I’ve had to deal with this situation recently, so I have compiled a list of “To-Do”’s, which will help you maintain a consistent presence online, while also allowing you to enjoy the “get-away.”

• HOOTSUITE
  I’ve only recently taken advantage of Hootsuite and its convenient tools. This is basically a huge dashboard which can be used to schedule multiple posts, for multiple social media accounts, for multiple time periods. You can have up to 7 accounts on the free version, which is a decent amount for these kind of things, and before you leave for vacation, you can set up your posts for each account and put in the time you’d like to post. Thus, you can completely avoid the phone/laptop and enjoy the fun.
• SCHEDULE BLOG POSTS
  To go along with the Hootsuite point, you only have room for 7 accounts. So, it’s best if you have a blog, which allows you to schedule your posts from the actual blog dashboard. I’m biased in the matter, but I would recommend a blog account on something like WordPress. You can schedule posts for specific dates and times, and it has a publicize feature, which will post links to your posts on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook (including pages), and Tumblr. This will save room on your Hootsuite account. Plus, if you want to share the links to other social media, WordPress provides a permalink for the post even before it goes public. So, you can take the permalink to Hootsuite and schedule the link to post on your other social media for the same day as the blog post itself goes public. Very convenient and easy to set up.
• PUBLICIZE THE HIATUS
  Though it seems like it wouldn’t matter very much, it is best to let everyone know when you’re going to be taking a break. And while Hootsuite can post everything for you, it is best to pick one mode of media to update on frequently. Even if you don’t post but once a day, direct everyone to that mode of contact, while also letting everyone know that you have scheduled posts on your other accounts. This way, they still have a way of reaching you, and you can still remain personally interactive on an account with your friends/followers. (I personally use Twitter. It’s quick and can be updated in little spurts without much effort and focus.)
• ENJOY THE VACATION
  It’s not often that writer’s are able to step away from their phones/computers/notepads/typewriters and just relax. Enjoy the time. Don’t worry about all of your platforms and accounts. Hootsuite was made to ease some of that stress, as are the scheduling features. Take the time and unwind. Get inspired, come back refreshed, and get ready to respond to some missed comments/tweets/pm’s/dm’s. Take a book and read something that isn’t your own work for awhile. Being a writer requires you to write, but we often forget that we started off as readers. Support your fellow writers and escape in a world that you didn’t create.

There’s nothing better than a distraction free vacation, and I hope all of you can enjoy yours with some of these tips. Do you have any tips? What do you do when you go on vacation? Are you going on vacation? Where? Let me know!

Thanks for reading!

-Lissy

P.S.

For my other profiles, click here. It will redirect you to my “Other Profiles” page.