Social Media: When to use it and when to put it on hold
February 7th, 2011
Social media, it’s boiling hot these days. After MySpace it’s Facebook that took over the crown and other social media like Twitter and Google Buzz are getting more and more users. On the business side we’ve got LinkedIn and Xing (among others) to use. This results in a major source of information which can be put to use when needed.
It’s easy to contact fellow designers or look for inspiration for a new logo, which is one of the things I did today. It’s also a nice tool for discussion about all sorts of topics. Social media is here to stay and there will be only more and more of them in the near future. A downside to social media, however is the large amount of time it consumes when overusing it.
When it’s wise to use it
Okay, I’ll admit it, there have been busier times at work. I don’t say I’ve got nothing to do, on the contrary! But I had some spare minutes a few times last days when I needed to wait for feedback for example. That time is perfectly usable to dig around in your social media! In my case I’m using it to find inspiration on Twitter, look into tutorials (Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects) or read interesting articles about Photography, SEO or design.
When using it like this, you’re still feeding yourself with knowledge and new skills which you can put into practise in new projects. I used it for example for a new logo design that (hopefully) makes it to the final product.
When to put a hold on it
There are times however social media should be used to a minimum. It’s pretty logical, but there are some people I know that don’t take this for granted. Rule #1, don’t use social media when there’s enough work or you’re near a deadline. I see a lot of people still chatting and tweeting about getting coffee when they’ve to yield a project. I find that pretty strange. I’ll use social stuff to look into some tutorials or work related things, but I sure won’t use it in that particular way.
I mean it’s nice to know when someone is drinking coffee or having a break sometimes, but most of the time I couldn’t care less 
. Therefore you should’nt use social media on a personal level during work! After work you can do what you want of course. When looking at myself, I only use social tools on a personal level during evenings I’d like to think, most of the time it’s still work related though.
Company’s and Social Media
These day’s a lot of company’s are implementing social media protocols for their employees. I think that’s a good development! It’s not okay for employees to overuse social tools on a level that it’s affecting work results. I’m watching out for this every day, when I think it’s affecting my result I stop using it. You should do the same!
There are company’s that are cutting social media down to a minimum. Some even block all websites. In my opinion that’s one of the most dumb things a company can do. See it this way, you’re cutting down a major source of knowledge!! Of course there’s still Google Search, but social media get’s you to the right spot a bit faster and time is often money!
Well, now you know my view on this particular matter. How do you use social media during work and personal time? I’d love to see how you guys are taking care of it.
Today I again made some small changes to the blogs appearance. I decided to get rid of all the images where I could. Gradients replaced the footer images and the sidebar had to undergo some colour changes. It went from light baby blue to a simple grey tint. In my opinion it gives a neater results and the website looks even cleaner and more minimalistic.
Tomorrow, January 28th 2011 is