What is social networking addiction? I am hearing that word “social networking addiction” pop up a few times recently, and wanted to address the matter here.  Does it mean that we are all valiantly committed to making quality relationships with other people that we do business with? Maybe it has side effects, like consistently going onto Mafia Wars? Perhaps, you shoot weird pictures in the dead of night? I wonder if you have a problem with #hashtags #on #Twitter? Whatever the case, I believe that we should as a responsible adults set down rules to prevent a social networking addiction from effecting our business.

Social Networking Addiction Proposed Guidelines

1. Never, ever, ever play Mafia Wars, Farmville, Cityville during the week. Plus, limit your play on the weekend to 1 hour. Preferably, not at all.
2. Focus on building quality relationships. I am sure that I am the first person to have ever thought of it, but the fact is that when you spend the majority of your day talking to friends about business life is a lot easier.
3. Social networking is about building and maintaining relationships. However, taking it to a phone conversation, Skype, or face to face meeting is a great way to take that relationship to the next step. Plus, with all of the new contacts you will make you will have an army of people in your network to keep you top of mind to build your business.
4. Schedule time to use social networking, so social networking does not use you. There is a vortex somewhere in between the space-time continuum, Twitter, and Facebook. This is the place where you sit down at 2 PM to chat with a few friends on Facebook and start wondering what happened around 5 PM on Twitter when you have finished reading all 150 million tweets written that day. It has happened to the best of us, but scheduling time to do social networking is ideal. Use a timer if needed.
5. Automate Social Networking. I know I discussed this earlier in the week, but using automation tools can help you avoid the social networking addiction. The more time you can focus on your business, instead of working in social networking the better.
6. Delegate to others. The fact is that we are not super heroes. However, it would be cool to fly. When you can delegate to other some of the responsibility of using social networking, because it will help you consistently use social networking effectively.

Now that you have an idea of how to fight social networking addiction, please keep these ideas in mind next you go onto Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Also, please feel free to add to this list with your own ways of fighting social networking addiction.