If you know me, you will know I am addicted to work, I am pretty much online most of the time. Often the voice inside my head, typically my wife,
is “you’re not on the clock now you know”. But you know what, I love what I do.
Its great to explore new networks, searching out questions where I can offer an opinion. More importantly have conversations with people I
dont know, about topics we have an interest in. I feel engaged.

Its a sad fact but I often hum to various tunes about it, but being tone deaf and lyrically barren, I never manage a full verse. One of my hums is to the tune of “500 miles” by The Proclaimers

When I wake up yeah I know I’m gonna be
I’m gonna be the man who tweets alot to you
When I go out yeah I know I’m gonna be
I’m gonna be the man who checks in using Foursquare

That’s as far as I get, I cant work in additional lyrics such as –  I check my RT’s, mentions, blog comments and the buzz I get from “Great post,
thanks for sharing” or the followers that find something of value from my twitter antics. I am as I said addicted and need the fix, that social
networks can provide. But you get the drift.

I shouldn’t have been surprised when I Googled social addiction, that the images it provided depicted the worst meaning of addiction mixed with the brand names of social networks, but I was. All very negative connotations. However I did find  this infographic.

As usual there is no shortage of articles:

21 Tips to Balance Social Media Addiction
A Disorder on the Rise
As Addictive As Cigarettes
The Social Addiction – It’s More Serious Than We Think

So I can even understand why people are hesitance to get into social media. It can, if you let it, get quite involved. But and this is a big but, what I get from helping people I dont even know personally and being recommended as a resource to others is a fantastic feeling.

My personal recommendations are figure out what you want to achieve first. If its personal branding then think LinkedIn, Blogs and Twitter,. If is marketing a brand then Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or Blogs. If its sales then you need to think both, why, because people buy from people. You are now being a marketeer as well as a sales person. Believe me once you have done the set up work, it gets easier!

If I am allowed one more song to hum to it would be “Jeans On” by David Dundas

When I wake up, In the morning light
I turn on my phone and I feel alright

Like I said lyrically barren!!