How To Manage The Crazy, Non-Stop Social Media Message Notifications?

My Thoughts: Think about circles

We have many social media accounts these days. It is as if Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter enough. Now there is LinkedIn, Tik Tok and I am certain there are more to come. The funny thing about all these platforms is the features. I noticed that they all have one common feature.

No, it is not about the “Post/Publish”. And I am not referring to the recent resurgence of stories. I am referring to Direct Messaging.

This makes sense from a commercial standpoint. It seems to me that every social media platform’s goal is to keep its users happy and to stay on the platform as long as possible.

We post, engage, discuss, and create our stories there. This is about eco-system economics. The longer we stay there, the stronger the business case will be when it comes to wooing advertisers.

This runs in parallel with mobile games. Their model is all about keeping the gamers with them as long as possible too. Mini-games, bonus games, additional lives, team collaboration, free gems, and level-ups during an identified window of time — This is not uncommon.

The issue with social media message notifications is their ability to hijack attention, especially when we allow them to.

When we allow all social media notifications to be shown on screen, we are subjecting ourselves to potential nuisance and quick battery life depletion.

I realized pretty recently that LinkedIn and FaceBook Direct Messages have been populated by “cold call” messages. I respect all “cold call” attempts even on social media platforms. I have been there before so I know it is tough work. I have some empathy for sales and marketing professionals.

That said, it is a different game this year. I suspect that “cold call” robots must be made really affordable because the speed of message typing after my acceptance to connect is astonishing.

I was impressed at the beginning. Then I started doubting. Now, I ignore it totally.

If I accept the invitation to connect at 530 pm and the “Hello, nice to meet you” message pops out at 530 pm on the same day — My sincere apologies. I am not going to read your message. I know that is not even you, to begin with. It is a You-Bot in action.

That said, what can we do to focus on genuine conversations that arose from those platforms? I suggest deploying a “circles” strategy. This is what I do.

First, I will look for all genuine on-going conversations personally and professionally. That means going through FaceBook and Linkedin to peruse the conversations that have to arise due to genuine leads and with real people who have the intent for further conversation.

I have one acid test here. They must know me via my profile. A little personalized introduction will be good, and showcasing that they have gone through my profile will be great.

Once the conversation is qualified, I move them straight into my emails. This ensures that I get to focus on the person via their needs and what they are planning to speak to me about.

In this regard, the Zoom conference works as well. The moment I take them off social media into email and Zoom, my focus on them increases as I ported them into the inner ring of the circle.

For personal connections such as verified long-time, long-term friends with who I have lost their contact, I will grab their personal contact and port them over to What’s App.

It is faster access to my responses and attention because it is another inner circle. After all, we don’t give our What’s App contact to anyone from social media, right?

This is what I do. I port over all my existing valuable personal and professional contacts from social media platforms into the inner circles of communication. Once that is done, I will turn off social media notifications.

That means I check the social media applications when I want to, not when I am assaulted by notifications from Direct Messaging.

Sure, there will be new friends and professional contacts too.

I will continue to fish them out from the outer circle of communication to the inner circle daily at my own time.

That spares me from staring at my phone wondering who just messaged me over LinkedIn or FaceBook.

Find A Way To Stay Sane In This Crazy World, Aldric

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