For the past three summers I’ve made a personal decision to disconnect from social media when I go away with my family on vacation. Complete disconnection. No Facebook. No Twitter. No LinkedIn. Nothing. I’ve been laughed at by friends, who thought it would be an impossible feat, but I actually find it becoming easier each year and something I look forward to. I even blogged about it last year as many others found value in taking time away. This year, my challenge has been coming back from my hiatus — what I’m calling “re-entry into the grid.”

Struggling to Re-Enter the Social Media Grid

I’ve been trying to find a reason why my “re-entry” has been a struggle this time around. I think some standard reasons are culprits: coming back to reality after vacation (especially one involving beach time and no Internet), not having too much of value to share about business after being out of the standard routine of life, and playing catch up. But one other major factor is creating a barrier for me: Google+.

Social Network Burnout

Google+ launched just before my vacation, allowing me to ignore it as I buckled down to get everything in order before my trip. However, now I find myself faced with the reality of adding yet another social media platform to an already busy landscape. Apparently, I’m not alone in feeling overwhelmed at the thought of adding another device to my toolbox, no matter how exciting or challenging to Facebook. The reality is that social media is time consuming and can lead to serious burnout, especially to those of us in the marketing and communications industry where we use it for both business and personal reasons. An excellent quote I came across stated it this way: “Not too long ago, many marketers shouted about the wonders of social media because it is FREE. Pretty soon everyone realized that social media is not really free. Often the accounts and tools are free, but the time required to make it work is not.”

I’m sure at the end of the day, I’ll end up with a Google+ account; after all, I’m a marketer. I need to know what’s out there, be familiar with it, so I can work with clients and help advise them on what’s right for them. But what about everyone else? Does the average person need a Google+ account and Facebook and Twitter? Does every business owner need a Google+ account? Business owners should approach Google+ as they have every other social media platform by asking themselves a series of questions, which were highlighted in a recent blog post by Pat Heffernan. As for personal use, only each individual can find the answer within themselves. It all comes down to personal preference and time. Some people love Twitter, other Facebook. How Google+ will fit into that landscape is yet to be determined — for you and for me.

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