Social Media Burnout - How much is too much?

I manage about 15 social media profiles (I really think it's more, but I have lost count...but 2 other blogs will add to this number), some professional and some personal. And it will keep growing, no doubt about that. How many do you manage?

And those are the ones that everyone else seems to use - YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Flickr. When I went to a social media conference last year, and realised how many sites other people were using, it was almost like a shock to my system. Ning, Yammer, Posterous, Tumblr...blah blah blah...more and more and more.

I have however not jumped on to every social media train at the station for three reasons:

1. Relevance: I need to be where my audience is and quite frankly, I don't think Ning for example is that widely used (if at all) in Trinidad and Tobago...yet.

2. Repetition: Some sites offer the same features of another. Though I do have YouTube, I can also upload videos directly to Facebook. Photos too. I can post events on my Fan Page, and build a discussion and community around it, and don't necessarily have to create an event on Meetup. Some social media sites are basically a one-stop shop...for my needs anyway.

3. Sanity: I have not cloned myself yet and the interactions should not just be about how wide one's presence but also how rich one's presence is, and I think it's good to focus on the ones I do manage and build on the relationships I have there, before boldly and blindly leaping into the unknown. I see it almost as diluting the concentrate to let more and more people have the opportunity to drink, but in the end, noone likes the drink.

Working all week with social media (in addition to doing other things) can be tedious and social media burnout is real. It can become annoying if you let it. Sometimes it's good to take a load off. I don't do any "heavy lifting" on weekends to give myself a break from all this social media hoopla. I either log on just to engage in things I enjoy doing online, like vacation planning, brushing up on my foreign languages with online tutors, or catching up with friends. If I am online at all.

One has to spend a lot of time with it if it is to be effective. It's a commitment akin to a marriage. lol. But do we want "noise" or do we want "value" when we spend our waking moments with social media? A lot of people talk about the tools which make managing various profiles easier, and yes, this is great. However, how much is too much?

Some people like to rush the numbers. Build the follower base. Grow the number of fans. Bosses like to see numbers - lots and lots of numbers. Yes, that's all well and good but how many of these people are genuinely interested in the long run, in what you have to say? How many are really giving "tit for tat" when it comes to generating content that is beneficial to your business? I have followers on Twitter, who could not give two hoots about my tweets. It's for this reason that I don't just add any random follower. The noise is loud enough, without adding meaningless chatter/haggling to it.

Do we ever consider whether our audience is getting burnt out as well? Is it just too much, in too many places? And is it being managed in such a way that the human resources available can keep these sites fresh and exciting for the audience?

Not only that, but the attention span of contemporary audiences are getting shorter and shorter. I remember when Hi5 was THE THING. Then came MySpace and that was THE THING. Now Facebook and Twitter, among others, are running the scene, but for how long? And while the myriad of options means you can further segment your audience, as well as create opportunities for increased communication delivery, one has to be mindful that the myriad of choices does not begin to become stale and that interest/attention from your audience does not start to wane.

How do you manage your social media profiles, and avoid social media fatigue, both on your end and the audience's?