Everyday I meet people who ask me about social media. Each of these people have unique thoughts and experiences with online networking. Some of them are whole-heartedly involved, some don’t even want to consider it as viable marketing. But I’ve noticed a sort of pattern emerging. Much like grief, there seem to be five major stages of social media, they pass quickly or last years, but everyone seems to experience them.

1. Avoidance – People at this stage pretend social media doesn’t exist. If you ask them about it they’ll respond, “Oh, yeah, my daughter uses that site.” This stage usually involves lots of sticking fingers in your ears and yelling “lalalalala” at the top of your lungs.
2. Fear -Or “the excuses” phase. During this phase, you know social media is out there and that you should probably get involved, but you’re just too scared to try it. Some of the excuses I hear most often: “I’ll jump in when I know what I’m doing” or “It just confuses me” or “I don’t see how this service can help my business”. Hint: Just like crocodile wrestling, you can watch it on tv, study it, even take classes, but its never going to be the same as jumping on the back of a real crocodile and just doing it!
3. Paranoia – Okay, so you finally decided to take the plunge. You create an account. Now what? As with all new things, a little bit of fear continues to nag in the back of your mind. “Am I doing this right?” “What if I piss off all my personal friends by talking business (or vice versa)?” “I don’t know any of the terminology!” This fear of screwing up can be paralyzing. This is why some people never get past the -checking this out for the first time!- post.
4. Obsession – If you can get past the Paranoia stage social media suddenly becomes fun. Once people start connecting with you and commenting on your posts, the rush can be come addictive. This stage can be positive, the surge of activity can really put you on the map. You also may need to find a help hotline for your Social Morphine habit.
5. Comfort -Once the adrenaline rush fades, a regular pattern emerges of when and how you use social media. Perfect balance is next to impossible, but comfort comes very close. This doesn’t mean that you won’t slip back into one of the previous stages. In other words, once the social media cycle claims you, THERE IS NO ESCAPE.

I will add, however, that there is a stage outside of the five that some social media users fall into. The unfortunate post-stage:

6. Apathy – Apathy can creep into any relationship. You loose the spark and have to work to regain the love. It happens for lots of reasons: not enough time, not fun anymore, negative experiences… Unfortunately this reminds us that not every social media experience is positive, and it does take work. However, like any marketing strategy it should bee taken seriously. Besides, the reward tastes better after you wrestled a crocodile to get it.

What stage are you at?