How to Balance Social Media and Creativity (Stop Wasting Your Time and Inspiration!)

Social media: the thing all creative entrepreneurs know they have to spend time on. But…also the thing all creative entrepreneurs find draining, tiring, and soul-sucking. So how do we balance creativity and networking? How do we slay our social game while still keeping our inspiration and energy alive?

It’s true, social media can be overwhelming. But it doesn’t have to be. This is a phrase I’ve heard a lot: “I want to build a platform on social media, but it’s so overwhelming… I can’t stay consistent and it stresses me out!” If this is you, FEAR NOT. I have a solution to your problem. I was stuck in this Hole Of Social Sadness™ for a long time before I learned how to pull myself out. And now I can proudly say that I keep up with my social media consistently and there is nothing soul-sucking about it.

So if you’ve been struggling to find that balance between staying creative and energized but also keeping up your social media presence, THIS POST IS FOR YOU. Settle in and get comfy — your life is about to be transformed, my friend.

SHOULD YOU BE ON EVERY SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM?

Short answer: no.

Long answer: think about it. You can’t give everything your all. “But Abbiee, isn’t that what you preach around here? YOU CAN DO LITERALLY EVERYTHING?” Yes! That is what I preach. Because I believe you’re a multitalented creative trying to squeeze yourself in a box — but when it comes to social media, sometimes doing too much can feel like squeezing yourself in a box.

It’s soul-sucking because your attention is so divided, you don’t feel like you’re fully present in any one place (or on any one platform.) We all know the key to the social media game is consistency. But how can we stay consistent if we have to be EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE? Unless you have a Virtual Assistant helping you out, it’s going to be overwhelming as all heck.

So here’s what I decided to do a while ago that CHANGED MY LIFE: pick two social media platforms that are best for you. And only network on those two. “TWO??” I hear you screaming, panicking, thinking that you’re not going to have a big enough presence online — but dude, you will. Trust me. Because when you zero in on the social media platform that’s right for you, everything becomes less overwhelming. You can slay your networking game and actually ENJOY it!

Don’t know what social media platform is best for you? Take this quiz I made!

If you absolutely MUST, pick three and let the third one be your “passive” platform — meaning, if you fail to be consistent on there, it doesn’t really matter to you. For me that third platform is Instagram. The first two are Pinterest* and Facebook.

*Although Pinterest is technically a search engine, I give it a big chunk of my networking time because it’s a powerhouse for driving traffic to my blog.

CONTROL YOUR TIME

I think the reason why most people are overwhelmed by social media is because they feel like they spend SO MUCH TIME just trying to post something. We all know how it goes: you open up Instagram, edit your photo (three or four times), get distracted scrolling through your feed, leaving some hearts and comments, then— OH! what were you even doing on here? THAT’S RIGHT, POSTING. Shoot, now you have to think of something good to write for a caption…

Let’s just say by the time you finish posting on any given social platform, you feel like half your day just flew out the window.

It’s frustrating! But THERE IS A SOLUTION. And for me, that solution is to decide how much time you’re going to spend on social media — AND STICK TO IT. As many of you know, I’m obsessed with calendar blocking; it makes me a productivity POWERHOUSE and helps me to stay on track with tasks that tend to get out of control (like social media.)

So here’s the question you should ask yourself: how much time do you want to spend on social media every day?

Depending on your platform-growing goals, this answer will vary. For me at this season in my life, the answer to that question is: 30 minutes. Anything more feels like too much, for me. But you should find what amount of time works best for you.

Note: this is NOT how much time it takes you to post! This is HOW MUCH TIME YOU WANT TO SPEND. That’s how you start to regain control, so you can stop this vicious soul-sucking cycle (wow say that five times fast) and get down to business!!

WHAT MY SOCIAL TIME BLOCK LOOKS LIKE

Here’s how I spend my 30 minutes of social media networking time:

First 15 minutes: Pinterest
Next 10 minutes: schedule 2 posts on Facebook
Last 5 minutes: post on instagram

Where is my time to answer comments? GOOD QUESTION. For me, answering comments falls into a different time slot. That way I’m in a better place mentally to sit down, focus, and give all my attention to talking to my lovely peeps. I answer comments on my blog, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram — but I consider that more of “relationship building” than “social networking.” THIS WORKS REALLY WELL. And it helps to break up that overwhelm. Talking to your people is very important, so I would 10/10 recommend making time for that elsewhere in your schedule.

GET AWAY FROM MY CREATIVE TIME

If you’re a creative of any kind and you find that social media messes with your energy and inspiration, GET THOSE TWO THINGS AWAY FROM EACH OTHER!! Seriously, do this: if you’re creative first thing in the morning, schedule your social networking time slot for late in the evening. If you do creative work at night, bang out those posts first thing in the morning!

My social media time slot is always at the end of my day, 5:30 PM. That way, all my creative work is done and it’s like the cherry on top — the last little thing to check off and have a complete, productive day that I can feel proud of.

Don’t fall down the Hole Of Social Sadness™! Take control of your schedule. Notice how you work and respect your creativity. If you feel drained by social networking, maybe you need to take a little hiatus and create a game plan — figure out when and where you should spend your precious time. Take these tips and GO! START SLAYING YOUR SOCIAL GAME.

TALK, BRO

Do you ever feel totally overwhelmed and soul-sucked by social media?? How much time do you spend on it every day? How much time would you LIKE to spend on it every day? Have you taken my quiz to figure out which social platform is best for you? If so: what was your result?! Let’s chat about all this in the comments.