How to set boundaries—for yourself and others—once business hours are over.
by Jessica Levco on Healthcare Communications News
The traditional 9-to-5 has given way to 24/7.
See whether a few of these situations ring true:
- Your Facebook status is continually updated throughout your 17-minute family dinner.
- You dream in tweets.
- Your doctor is treating you for arthritis-in your thumbs.
So your job requires that you communicate through social media all day long. Is there any way to escape it when you go home?
Steve Cody, co-founder and managing director of Peppercom, says it’s difficult for social communicators to take a break.
“Most people use Facebook or MySpace for recreational purposes, but when you work in social media, it’s your job,” Cody says. “You have to use the medium and master it. When you master it, you have to be intensely focused.”
For health care communicators who are in charge of a hospital’s social media strategy, Cody warns that time has to be carefully managed. If you’re constantly using social media after hours, you could suffer from creative fatigue, Cody says.
“If you get wrapped up in every nanosecond, you definitely limit your strategic or big-thinking picture-seeing,” Cody says. “You need to push back and find ways to decompress.”
Is this really possible? How do you go about doing it? Some suggestions:
Get the right tools
Patrick Evans is behind STA Travel’s Twitter account and the company blog, both requiring frequent monitoring. Though he can’t “turn off” social media, he’s found ways to make it easier for him to keep up with it. He says proper tools enable him to stay current without alienating family and friends.
“Seesmic Desktop remains open at home and at work when I don’t have access to my computer,” says Evans, STA’s marketing communications coordinator. “TwitterBerry on my BlackBerry allows me to check the account every so often without being a complete disruption. The same applies to the company blog. With the proper notifications setup, I can keep an eye on the blog no matter where I am.”
Maria Colacurcio uses RescueTime, an automated time-tracking and management service.
“I love it,” says Colacurcio, co-founder of Smartsheet.com. “I set limits and goals for myself, such as how much time I spend on social networking sites after hours or on the weekend. The reality is that you’ll be doing this off hours, but with a tool, you can limit yourself and make the time much more productive.”
Gwen Dille, of HeadFirst Communications, says she’s stopped listening to voicemail in favor of a service called PhoneTag, which automatically transcribes and e-mails her landline and cell phone messages to her.
“This ensures that I never miss a voicemail message, even if I happen to be on the road or on a multi-hour conference call,” Dille says. “My transcribed voicemail message pops up in my e-mail with all the information I need. There have been multiple instances where I’ve been on a conference call and have been able to respond to an urgent voicemail message via e-mail within minutes.”
