Six years on Facebook and three years on Twitter taught me a valuable lesson: social networking sites are about more than being social and can be the impetus for business, income, and relationships.
But.
I need to reduce my online usage and increase my overall productivity to secure a full-time position in policy and communications. For whatever reason, processes that I hoped would already exist have not transpired. Maybe facebooking and tweeting have nothing to do with it, but they might.
Regardless of the chicken and egg, I owe it to myself to take a much-needed break from Facebook and Twitter.
The big two continue to compete with each other, and they aren’t disappearing anytime soon.
My accounts will remain active. You may see me follow new Twitter users from time to time, and you may see me “like” this page or that. But I won’t be posting updates on either site for the foreseeable future. This may last a week, or a month, or longer. Maybe a year. Who knows. There are numerous ways to connect with me.
I need to separate myself from Facebook and Twitter — because I need to challenge myself I can do it.
My friends and followers on those sites, and you, dear reader, are encouraged to continue reading this blog for multiple articles on social media marketing every week. My blogging frequency will not cease; and nor will my time on LinkedIn or email.
With hundreds of thousands of other social networking sites on the internet, I wonder how many are as beneficial as LinkedIn is to me in terms of professional networking.
I’ve neglected and/or grown ignorant of many of these sites because of the addictive nature of Facebook and Twitter. I anticipate learning about these other sites and sharing my insights with you here on this blog.
Please stick with me as I evolve in social media.
I’ve since returned and said hi.
About Ari Herzog
Good luck.
I think we’ll see more people see the addictive nature of these emerging media.
Social media has its places. But it’s not all good.
Nothing beats focusing on your work and going out with friends.
Cheers!
Phil
Cheers back your way, Phil.
I second what Phil said Ari:
“Good luck” – You are going to need it
I agree completely. I have friends on Facebook that I had to block because they fill up my timeline with updates from all of the games they are playing. It looks like some of them are playing farm games for 10+ hours a day.
Good luck with your goals Ari, it’s difficult to pull away from these sites.
That’s too bad – everything in moderation as they say. I suppose I’m lucky, I burned out on the addictiveness of FB and Twitter early on. Now I just use them as tools (and to earn a living!). Good luck to you on whatever venture you move to next.
If you require a tool to make money, and one day that tool is not available or the manufacturer releases a new version that doesn’t work for you as well as the old, I wonder whether you should truly require that tool.
Ari
I appreciate how you share with everyone your ideas and thoughts about your use of social media. Everyone’s use and understanding of these tools has been evolving since they first showed up on the net. Because of that we are all exploring and analyzing what role they play in our lives, but many of us post only our ideas about how to use the tools for specific purposes. Only a few delve into explaining like you do about how their use fits into our regular lives. Based on questions I hear at conferences, I think this is something people are very interested in hearing. You have great insights and the courage to share them, and I look forward to your future posts. And I know you will do well in all of your endeavors.
I appreciate you sharing your thoughts, Pam.
I don’t know what your spiritual beliefs are, Ari, but I hope you find comfort in the notion that when things don’t come easy, or as we expect, it is possibly because something much larger looms on the horizon. Closing doors always opens new ones. But being in the hallway is not so fun! I’m there with you. Keep writing and offering your gift to the world.
I don’t live in the future, Sandy, but the present. I’m as cognizant of the horizon as where I came from, but that was then and this is now.
Hi Ari – it will be interesting to see if your prospective on social media marketing changes while not being active on FB or Twitter. Maybe you’ll see the forest through the trees? Maybe you’ll identify some newer, better strategies? We’ll see – will be interesting to ride along for the experiment. Cheers to your productivity : )
What you call strategies I call tactics, but the essence remains the same. I don’t need to use something to evangelize its benefits. I also need to step away from something to appreciate it more.
You really took that quit-Twitter-for-a-day thing to heart, didn’t you?
I’d quit Twitter and Facebook myself, but I never joined…
Congrats on making the break. Hope it goes well for you.
I sure did, Jason… but keep in mind I’ve taken Twitter breaks before, most recently for 2 1/2 weeks at the beginning of the year. A sabbatical from Facebook is a new concept, though.
Ari, I’m also concerned about limiting my time on social networks, including visiting blogs.
I try to get the maximum benefit for a minimal amount of time with them, especially with Twitter, which does send me some quality traffic and allows me to meet other people in my niches.
But social media can be addictive and a huge time suck.
Good luck with your experiment.
Do you write a blog for people to read it, or for yourself a la a web log?
wow man, good luck. the 2 best networks and your leaving them?
Best according to who? According to what?
I would consider what you are doing as very controversial, but also (in a sense) very brave Ari!
Facebook and Twitter are world wide renowned for their services, and are a big part in many peoples lives.
I completely respect what you are doing, and think that its great to hear that you are going to try alternatives, to see the contrasts – any hidden gems, give me a shout!
Couldn’t help but notice that there were 16 comments on this article, and in just 1 day, that’s quite a lot. Then I realised that’s because you have replied to every comment! Do you feel you need to interact more with your commenters online, to starve off the social networking?
I am by no means saying you don’t usually reply to comments, just not every one, and in a relatively short space of time!
Apples and oranges, Christopher. I almost always reply to comments. When someone writes a feature article here, I let that person do the replying; and when replying to a comment doesn’t add any insight, I cease. But more often than not, if you take time out of your day to write something, I’m going to respond. Hopefully, you would have already checked the box to see replies.
Sometimes I will tick the box Ari, but I visit so often that its hard to miss comment replies!
Does ticking the box just subscribe you to your comment replies, or all comments on that article?
BTW, why no posts for the lats four days? Researching?
That’s a good question, on the thread replies vs all replies. What does your experience dictate?
Confused! What do you mean?
Ari, I found it a lot easier to quit Twitter than to quit Facebook. Twitter has become a big spam carrier and once you reach a certain mass, you hardly ever see any interesting posts from friends anymore.
On Facebook, it’s not so easy because of the friend limits and because Facebook only shows you the people you interact with the most. Facebook definitely ropes me in and ties me up when I get on it. I’ll go to the computer with all good intentions to get some work done, but if I get sidetracked by Facebook, that is all she wrote.
So, good for you. I am sure it will make you more productive! By the way, Tim Ferriss recommends tools that will lock you out and/or time your time spent on social networks in the 4 Hour Work Week.
Yeah, I’ve written about online productivity tools such as RescueTime in the past. I quickly realized I don’t need a tool to tell me what I already know. Desktop tools are also futile when we have mobile computing or multiple computers to do a task.
I’d be interested in having an overall picture of how the break affects you – productivity time, website traffic, increase / decrease in comments and email engagement, etc.
Considering I’ve rarely promoted this blog (or any other blog) via Twitter/Facebook lately, I doubt anything will change on that front.
I think social media can do a lot–but I also think it can take away from productivity too. This should be a good experiment to see how it affects your blog traffic and such.
Interesting move. I’ve been having to boost my input on facebook and twitter, since I tend to avoid the two. Not that I don’t have anything to say, I’m just so busy with work. Still, let us know how that turns out, maybe I can drop them myself for a while
Brilliant insight and analysis. One of my favorite pieces of advice is Ya Gotta Sacrifice from the book The Ya Gotta’s For Success. You figured out one (two actually) of the things you have to sacrifice in order to reach a goal. Society could learn a lot from your self-reflection and self-discipline. Keep plugging away on the career front; you are tenacious and I’m sure you will find a great position soon.
We behave like drug addicts in using these social media networks. I agree: They are big time consumers – but I need more time to do the next step …
hi all am a student and yes i can say that i cant concentrate on my studies my mind lingers over facebook and am so addicted to it that..i dno
but yes, good luck to you
Professionally and personally, I have seen about 5 people quit Facebook and/or Twitter in the last week or so. I wish you luck on your adventures for starters, but it also makes me think of a larger problem. These days, I have seen Twitter and Facebook turn into the water cooler at work or high school lunch room. For business and personal use both, I have seen more silly arguments, more bashing and more gossip than I care to admit. These places that were once supposed to be places to “connect” to friends, family, co-workers, college buddies and work connections, are now frankly places where people think they can act like idiots and get away with it. I have thought about throwing in the towel myself on some days, but then I wonder how will it hurt my business? I have made connections and ended up with clients due to these two sites, so it is hard to walk away. It is something to ponder however.
Thanks, Vee… but to be fair, I’m not quitting anything. I’m merely taking a strategic break.
Good luck to you, Ari. I will be among the ones waiting to hear how your break went. I just started using Facebook in promoting my business recently and I have seen its pros and cons (although I’ve been doing Twitter for a while now and I’ve taken breaks from it myself), so I have positioned myself to use it just as a part of my social marketing tactics. I don’t spend too much time on it. I balance it with all of the other stuff that I am doing.
I am glad that you have decided to take a step back to see what’s what.
Best Regards,
Wes
The great thing about you Ari is that you are always experimenting with new things like a scientist. You are very wise to stay on LinkedIn especially since you’re seeking employment and LinkedIn remains very much a business site (despite the annoying tweets from time to time). Keep networking. Keep talking to people the good old fashioned way, phone and face to face meetings.
I’ll be curious to see how your strategic move away from Twitter and FB turns out.
To be fair, I am using Twitter/Facebook for any accounts or pages I manage that are not branded under my name. For instance, I’m doing some work with a nonprofit organization and am maintaining their accounts — but as it’s not “ari herzog” tweeting/facebooking, I view the two actions differently.
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I admire your conviction Ari, I also like to challenge myself to stop being dependent and addicted to things that I can live well without. It’s time to learn and engage yourself with other things. Facebook, Twitter and other networking sites may sometimes hinder us from being productive so it’s time to say bye-bye to them if we get too much addicted.
I’ll have to say, same as for me. I have to reduce my online usage of facebook and twitter. I didn’t realize how much time I’m spending on those social networks untill just now, my 5 year Old son said…. Mommy mommy you haven’t change your pajamas yet and its time for lunch… I guess this is the point of no return. I’ll have to say bye bye to facebook and twitter… for now! lol!
Social Media causes some people to shut everything and everyone out of their lives. It’s really sad in as much as they don’t seem to believe their is anything else important in life.
Personally I’ve found some tools to help automate my social media tasks. This allows me to still maintain a presence while pursuing other endeavors that are more important in life.
Thx a lot for this inspiring article.
Best Greetings from Vienna, Austria, Robert
Hello there, I admit that at once I am one of those how got addicted with social network. I spend and wasting my time and money for updating my account each day. When I started to work and got so very busy working, I don’t have time anymore to check those accounts for 4 months now. Guess its time for me to take a break for facebook and twitter.
These past few days, one of the major topics discussed is the plan of Zuckerberg to end facebook because it is already overcrowded and he has no time to manage the said social networking site. However, this rumors were contradicted by Zuckerberg after his interview saying that the news about the end of facebook is not true. According to him, facebook is just starting off.
Good luck Ari on what you are planning to do. Almost everybody are being attached more to either Facebook or Twitter. Me, myself as well is a frequent user of those two social sites. Maybe, I should try that as well, to not post anything on those two sites. Or maybe different, I will try to lesser my alloted time on opening those sites. Like before I would try to be online on Facebook for almost 8 hours or more for a day. I will try to lessen that. Thanks for this idea Ari.