Social Media Success Habit #1

I wouldn’t exactly call myself a social media guru. I’ve got a small presence on twitter, a facebook account that I can’t quite seem to sort out, and a very young forums.  I’m trying to focus on creating worthwhile content and figuring out effective ways to get that content seen.  However, I’ve noticed that I spend a lot of time “checking” things, looking for mentions and retweets on twitter, posts on the forums, new subscribes to my mailing lists, etc.  Writing useful content is effortful, while “checking” provides a quick jolt of reward.  Even more of an issue, that reward doesn’t come consistently, rather only some of the time. Learning theory tells us that a variable reward schedule produces robust behavior and hard to stop behavior.

So, in order to spend less time ‘checking’ and more time creating, I’m going to start a new habit:

Use the ‘check’ (twitter mentions, retweets, facebook comments, subscribes, posts, etc.) as a reward for spending at least 15 minutes on content.  Check one thing at that time and go back to creating.

Do you think this habit would help you?  How would you tweak it to make it right for you?  Please share in the comments below.

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