Listen, Share, Engage: Have You Got the Balance Right?

Twitter has made multitaskers of us all. From the moment we sign-in to the moment we sign-out, we all become immersed in the following three activities: listening, sharing and engaging – and all at the same time. The only difference is, the time we spend on each.

As you’d expect, the way we tweet is very much a reflection of our personality. In a recent post entitled Which social media type are you?, Chris Street – like other social media types before him – likens the Twitter-sphere to a party: there are those who prefer to stand in the background and observe (‘The Listener’, Fig. 1), those who are confident speakers and enjoy taking centre-stage (‘The Sharer’, Fig. 2) and those who like to network and mingle (‘The Engager’ = Fig. 3).

More Isn’t Always Merrier

We all use the phrase ‘the more the merrier’ in different contexts as part of our everyday speak, but what of the saying’s use in the context of social media? Is it fair to say that all businesses should jump onto the social media bandwagon and take advantage of as many SM tools as possible? Can we truly say that the more blogs, the more social networking sites, the more podcasts or widgets we use the more we (and our businesses) benefit?

The straight-forward answer, is no.

Like anything, using SM tools in business successfully is all about balance; it’s about understanding where the line separating ‘too much’ and ‘too little’ is drawn, and recognizing how we can avoid overstepping our boundaries. As many businesses have proved, however, knowing where to draw that line isn’t always as straight forward as it may seem.