This is a guest post by the very fine Chris Garret, @chrisgarrett.

There are some very good examples of less being more, in design, productivity, and so on. When it comes to social media though, this is not necessarily the case.

I keep hearing the following advice

• Schedule your tweets to go out automatically so you do not spend too much time in social media
• Only follow a few people so you do not get information overload
• Limit your interactions to only “key players”
• Hook up your blog to your social accounts so you do not have to manually post links
• Have a maximum of five minutes a day set aside for social media

… and so on.

With due balance and context, some of this is good advice. Some is sourced from good advice but taken to illogical extremes (eg. only five minutes a day?).

The problem with blanket advice is there is no connection to you, your goals, or your overall strategy.

First you have to answer WHY you are getting involved in social media.

Then you have to work out a strategy that works toward that goal.

Limiting yourself and your social media interactions to an arbitrary time figure is like saying you will only use the telephone for five minutes a day just in case you get into wasteful conversations. “Sorry Mr Customer, I have to hang up now as I have gone past my five minutes for the day”. You wouldn’t do that, so why are people happily doing it with social media?

Track progress towards what you want to achieve, do more of what works and less of what doesn’t. Most of all … Do what works for YOU.

About the author: Chris Garrett is a new media commentator and internet marketing coach living in the UK. You can find him regularly guest posting at blogs such as this one, or writing for clients such as Cogniview and his own blog at chrisg.com.