How to Take a Social Media Siesta

As much as I write about social media, you may think I’d never recommend taking a break.

Quite the contrary. Last week, I left town for a 4-day trip to the lake with my family. And even though WiFi was available on the dock, I resisted the temptation and left my laptop behind. No Blackberry, no iPhone, nothing but some (print!) magazines and a book I’ve been trying to finish all summer.

I didn’t announce my trip on Facebook, Twitter or even here. I just left with nothing more pressing on my mind than what SPF to use. And you know what? My Twitter followers and Facebook friends didn’t ditch me. The blog traffic remained steady even with fewer posts than a typical week.

So my advice to everyone who maintains a bustling social media calendar is this: Relax. Take a few days off from time to time. If you’ve built a strong platform, it will still be there when you return creatively recharged.

Since writers tend to be self-employed, you’ll have to enforce your own vacation, even if it’s just a mental break to devote some time to your friends, family and hobbies. Just don’t let blogger burnout get the best of you.

Here are some more tips to help make your social media break a breeze:

• Invite Guest Bloggers You’ll have to plan ahead for this. But putting out a call for guest bloggers is one of the very best ways to keep the blog fires burning while you’re away. The folks who respond will most likely be your frequent readers, so they’ll already be familiar with your blog’s content, themes and tone. With most blogging platforms, including WordPress, you can schedule posts to run later if you feel it’s necessary.

I also think it’s perfectly acceptable to announce you’re going to take a short break, but you’ll be back soon with even more great content.

• Put Twitter on Standby The beauty of Twitter is that it’s so noisy that no one will likely notice if you take a week or two off. I know some avid Tweeps use programs like TweetLater to schedule frequent, round-the-clock tweets. Personally, I find it a bit weird and off-putting when someone has a nonstop Tweetstream. Better to be a real live person with a life outside of social media. And I can tell you from personal experience that you’ll likely have even more followers when you get back, so it’s harmless to put Twitter on the low priority level while you’re checked out.

• Post a Blog Digest I noticed last year around the holidays, lots of bloggers post a digest of past posts organized by topic when they’re going on break. I think this is a wonderful idea in that it gives you a break and at the same time engages your readership with links to some of your best posts to read or re-read.

Any other tips or advice for taking a social media break? Well, let’s hear it. Please share here in the comments.

-Maria Schneider

Tagged as: social networking