The topic of effective social media engagement is one of those thorny, subjective areas of social media marketing, where it means different things to different people.
For some, solid social media engagement is about genuine connection with a small, committed number of followers and fans on social media platforms, creating long-term, meaningful links with the potential for transactional business in the future.
For some, communicating on social media sites is simply about broadcasting multiple, random messages, links and photos to highlight something they are trying to get across in a general way. Often, it's emotional, not commercial.
There is also another trend developing on certain social media platforms - Facebook is the biggest 'culprit' of it - and I term it 'Inspiration Overload' as it takes up a huge amount of time, energy and attention with very little purpose, meaning or ROI.
So, what exactly is 'Inspiration Overload' anyway - and is your social media engagement suffering from it?
It seems to have developed across Facebook in recent weeks, and is usually categorised by multiple, meaningless, without-context messages, photos and links of a so-called 'inspirational' nature: general, unspecific and random posts telling us all to 'be the best' or to 'start living your dreams right now' or to 'remember you're unique and wonderful' - you've no doubt seen it yourself.
Now, let me make it clear - we all love positive thinking and inspirational messages in our lives, and there are many powerful posts on places such as Facebook daily which inspire, motivate and enrich our lives.
But, the majority of meaningless white noise, dressed up as positivity, amounts - largely - to little more than 'Inspiration Overload' due to the fact it's without context. It's social media engagement without any real engagement. And it's getting worse.
Of course, when someone such as Paolo Coelho posts inspirational messages, we sit up and take notice - mainly because here's an author with a global following who makes a living by writing inspirational novels. Plus, Paolo usually gives us context, too.
With the increasingly random, spewed-out, and poorly-executed 'Inspirational Overload', however, it amounts to unofficial spam.
And on these occasions, less is more definitely more.
Think about it - your audience on social media sites has limited time, so why not give them great little gems, and often?
I posted a piece of inspiration on Facebook here about a year ago, with context - the results were encouraging, with 240 shares, and more than 600 'Likes' making it a useful, well-received, and genuinely inspiring piece of social media content for many.
My top three ways to avoid 'Inspiration Overload' on social media platforms are:
* Give freely, but give appropriately
* Give real insights with real context
* Give your audience less not more
And remember one crucial factor - everything you post on social media platforms says something about where you are with yourself.
Constantly pumping out 'Inspiration Overload' at your audience makes it clear that, actually, you're looking for some inspiration. Doesn't your social media engagement deserve better? Your audience certainly does.