I am not exhausted but that’s mainly because I don’t have Notifications turned on (on the Phone) and I make it a point to log out of these networks even if I am online. But I can see that staying on top of the social networks is a perfect recipe for exhaustion.

My feeds are filled with posts from over 1000 comedians and humor writers, so my experience is a little more fun than that of most people. And I sincerely enjoy promoting my friends’ work, which often makes them happy. So that’s immediate gratification and does not get old. Keeping up with posting on my blogs is positively exhausting, especially because my blogs are not profitable (though I feel valuable).

I do only check feeds of my lists most of the time on twitter, and then I react to other people who @ or retweet me. I am following 2800 accts so I don’t begin to try to follow that entire stream, though I peek at it a few times a week.

I also trade from week to week concentrating on building leverage in google +, stumbleupon, tumblr and now am adding pinterest. I will not try to keep chatter on all those every week.

And I say, get in there with the two SM mediums and go with them full force and let the others be there to support your focus.

Next I’ll try to find the right SM management tool for me. The free ones I have tried have not worked for me. They slow me down, and that is definitely not a help.

I look forward to seeing other suggestions.

EXHAUSTED!! Every so often I am able to break out of the addiction and it makes me sad to realize how often I have chosen ‘social networking’, a false reality, over ‘real life’. Nothing compares! And it is refreshing to be able to distinguish the two again.

Sometimes I do feel like I’m spending a bit more time than it’s normal on social networks. 

Working as a Social Media Manager, I often get burned out. And that’s when I take a break. I don’t mean for a week or a month, but I will take a day off if I need to. The world won’t fall apart and chances are I won’t lose a major account or new business opportunity.

I’ve found Hootsuite to be very useful when managing my posts for multiple companies throughout Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. But it’s still in the back of my mind…’I wonder what ______ has posted today?!’ Eventually…I break. :-)

Couldn’t agree more with this article – in terms of social network fatigue. The incessant urge to be everywhere, the constant scratching of the head trying to figure it out … it all had to “tip” at some point. As far as how to curb all of this? Pick up the phone instead of texting … write a LETTER instead of sending an email (I do this with thank you notes) … and try having a face-to-face conversation with someone without constantly checking your phone to see what you’ve missed in an hour. Act like a human being. 

Yes I think its crazy when people update their Facebook accounts to let the world know where they are, what they are doing and who with at a particular point in time.. Facebook is now more of a way of life,. if you start a new relationship – it is announced on Facebook, people put up statuses about their feelings and how their train journey is going.. I think you just check into Facebook a few times a week and try to filter your newsfeed if statuses/comments that you aren’t in favour of keep appearing. I think just being disciplined with yourself over the exhaustion of keeping up to scratch with various social networks is key,

This was a great post, Jamie. It’s important to “normalized” our collective experience of overload.

I’m starting to use lists and search as a way to use social media on my terms, when I’m ready.

I like Google Alerts for that reason – I can see what’s trending when I’m ready.

What other platforms similar to Google Alerts do you recommend?

Having a prioritized schedule helps me stay focused.

Thanks!

Vena