Put your hand up if you have started a social media campaign, run it enthusiastically for a month or two, and then found that you never have enough time to deal with anymore.

“Not enough time” is another way of saying “I don’t want to do this”. But why do we run out of enthusiasm and stop enjoying social media? Why does it start to feel like a waste of time?

Here’s what I think: social media is the ‘newspaper boy’ of the 21st century.

Social media is a means of distributing content; and, if you do not set a content strategy and stick to it, you simply have nothing to share.

So, before you devise a social media strategy, work on your content strategy.

What will you write about, who do you want to read it and what are your objectives? Where will you source guest bloggers, and how will you stay on top of the news in your industry?

Once you have made those decisions and started to produce timely, relevant and trusted content for your readers on a regular basis, you will find your interest in social media reignited. You’ll want to share what you have created, and be thrilled when it is retweeted or you receive a comment. As you research your stories, you’ll find links to other sites and stories that you can share, further cementing your cred as the expert in your field.

Does that mean you have more time in the day? Unfortunately not. And despite my own wise words, it can be hard to keep up both the content and the social media. But without the content, social media is a waste of time, and not much fun, either.