Tuesday Tip 005: How to Eliminate Distractions on Social Media

If you're anything like me, social media can be a black hole of procrastination. Buzzfeed articles, is it a dog/is it a muffin memes, photos of friends, Bernie Sanders GIFs, reminders from Facebook of things that happened 10 years ago...the list goes on. 

But I'm a big believer that in order to enjoy social media we have to control our experience on each platform. That's why I swear by three tools that I use to focus my social media experience and get to the good stuff. I highlight the first one in the video below. 

Here's a link to the Newsfeed Eradicator Google Chrome extension.

My two other secret weapons of social media satisfaction and productivity are Nuzzel and Facebook lists.

Nuzzel is a daily digest that I get in my inbox that gives me a rundown of the most shared articles on my Twitter feed. Because I'm pretty serious about who I follow on Twitter, this digest gives me a bird's eye view of the conversation and posts that I will find important. And I get to see them all in one place eliminating the need to go hunting on Twitter for interesting or helpful posts.

Facebook Lists help me categorize the various pages that I follow on Facebook so I can just see posts from the individuals and businesses that really interest me. I have them categorized by different topics. A few separate lists that I have include Social Media, Thought Leaders, Bloggers and Theatre. This is helpful in cutting through the noise of all of the hundreds of pages and people I'm following on Facebook and helps me quickly find the content that I'm looking for. Also, as a social media professional I can compare the social posts of several different companies, individuals or media entities in one continuous stream so I can see what types of posts are trending and who is doing what. It's lovely.

So those are a few of the tools that I use so I don't get sucked into the social media abyss. I'd love to hear YOUR tips for using social media without letting it own your day. Drop in the comments!

If you'd like posts like this in your inbox once a week go ahead and sign up for the email list. I'll even send you the editorial calendar cheat sheet as a thank you. (And of course, no spamming!)