First of all, for every guest on my blog who is not familiar with my background yet: I am, amongst other, an independent language coach who works only with adults.
My point of view is therefore from the business side. I am not a classic school teacher, in fact I started my career from a legal background specialized in European law as well as the history of law and legal systems. But I always had a big interest in languages so after my studies I took this road.
I just wanted to let you know as many of you will be refered by Twitter and I think most of you will be classic school teachers. Nevertheless, I hope you will find some interesting points in my post 
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How to prevent Social Media Burnout though? First of all, what is Social Media? If we break it down, it is a way to connect and to communicate. Or, as Gary Vaynerchuk is saying: Social Media is Scotch Tape.
And I think this is very important to know. Social Media is a tool, or better are tools, because Social Media involves many different tools like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Delicious etc.
Like in a classic tool box, every single tool has a different purpose. You won’t (shouldn’t) use a screwdriver to hammer a nail in the wall, or a jackhammer. You need the right tool for the job.
And here is the source of Social Media Burnout. Many people use the different tools for the wrong job. If you do this, you won’t get the satisfaction of using the tool the right way. So you will get depressed or overwhelmed and then eventually end up in a burnout.
So, lets have a look on some Social Media Tools and how to use them right. Maybe you’ll get the “aha” effect . I got one a couple of weeks ago with the following tool:
Facebook
With about 250 million users worldwide and still growing it is the biggest tool in the box. What is important to know for you is: it just looks big but infact it is more a scalpel. If you want to use Facebook the right way you need to make sure that your “friends” are really your friends. Period. Friend only people you personally know. The frustration you get on Facebook is paid to the fact that if you friend anyone who comes along the important messages of your family and friends will get lost in the noise of all the others. You cannot really sort or scan the messages on your Facebook page. Simply because it is build for the 30 to 40 people you really know in your life. If you want to stay in contact with other people, use the fan page. I know, it sounds odd to say “become my fan” but trust me, it will make Facebook a whole new and better experience.
Twitter
What most people don’t realize: Twitter is about listening, not talking. It is like a giant cocktail party. You walk around, listen to the conversations that are going on and if you find an interesting one you add your part. How to find conversations? Use http://search.twitter.com and search for topics you are interested in. For example search for K-12 or EFL. You will then get all conversations that are going on in the Twitterverse. You have the option to reply and so you can start a conversation with people you never met before.
Burnout factor here: you are a talker first. Starting to follow hundreds of people and then only talking about you and your product won’t get you nowhere. The Twitter community is very allergic to this. It’s the same as if you are going on a cocktail party and start giving everyone your business card talking about your great product. Does not work.
Blogging and leaving comments
Blogging is a very difficult thing for the most of us. You need to make it a part of your daily routine, get trained to write a post on a regular basis, maybe one every day. The Social Media Burnout here lies in the expectations of your readers. What every blogger wants to see are comments of course. It is nice to check the Google Analytics and see where the visitors came from but this way you don’t know if they liked it or not. We Bloggers basically write for comments, the discussion after the blog post or the virtual tap on the shoulder is the important part.
Problem: it takes a while, sometimes a long while, until people start to comment or even discuss with each other on your blog. If you don’t get this feedback, you will soon feel a burnout coming. You maybe don’t blog that often anymore. And there comes the other important factor for your readers in: consistency. If you don’t “deliver” they will leave without a comment.
To prevent this kind of Social Media Burnout connect with people who have the same problem you have. Other bloggers. There are so many of them out there that you will easily find blogs related to your topic of interest. You can start at http://edublogs.org as they are all teachers like you. Build up connections by starting to comment on their blogs. But beware! Don’t try to drive readers to your blog by posting something like: “Did you read my latest post? It is awesome.” Well, you know what I mean. Don’t do “hardselling”. Like on Twitter, become a part of the discussion, add value and people will eventually check out the nice guy who makes all those brilliant comments.
Ok, this is just a very brief post about this topic but I hope you will find it useful. If so, I would love to read your comments below 
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Happy #teachertuesday and #edchat!
Kirsten
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