by Guest Blogger, Lena West, Chief Social Media Strategist at xynoMedia Technology

If I read one more alarmist piece of "journalism" about social media from mainstream media, I think I'll yack.

I tend toward conspiracy theory anyway, but I do believe that MSM (mainstream media) has an ulterior motive when they print stories like the one linked to above. I think it goes a little something like: They haven't figured out how to make money off social media yet, they're not active in the blogosphere, social media is cutting into a huge chunk of their content consumption and well, why not just paint the whole lot of this social media stuff as pure evil?  Makes sense, eh?

However, I am also a realist and because my firm works in the social media space, we see social media burn out all too often.

Burn out is so pointless because it's so easily avoided. You don't have to reach the burn-out point just because you want to write a blog or two - shoot, I write three or four blogs, run a successful company, travel, hang with friends, etc. And, no I don't have superpowers...well, at least none that I can tell you about anyway.

So, when MSM outlets write about blog overload, yes, they are reporting on a very real condition, but much of it is over-hyped drivel. You'd think Chicken Little was writing these stories.

The $64,000 question is: if blogging burn-out is a real challenge (which it is), how the hell do you avoid it?

If you read anything I write, you know I'm a HUGE proponent of strategy and planning - in fact, I built a whole company around these activities. Forget measure twice, cut once...most folks don't measure the first time, they just start 'ta cuttin'. </soapbox>

Ok, the first thing...

1. Get that plan out of your head and onto a screen or paper (preferably on screen...let's save the environment, eh?) Why are you blogging? What do you hope to gain? What do you want to happen as a result of writing and posting regular blog posts? This might sound so much like Planning 101, but here's what happens: people omit this step, they hit a rough patch in the blogging highway and then they have nothing to guide them back on track. If I've seen it once, I've seen it a million times.

2. Figure out your schedule. Don't let blogging - or any other activity - dictate your schedule. When will you blog? How often will you blog? On which days of the week?  Which days will be spent writing consumable blog content versus blog maintenance? Map this out and then create recurring meetings with yourself in your calendar for the same days and times. The trick here is to pick one day for content creation and another day for maintenance and be done with it. The beauty about blogging software, in case you didn't know, is that it allows you to create posts ahead of time and schedule them for posting live later. *gasp*

3. Write out your blogging editorial calendar. Once you start blogging, one of two things happens to you:

a) You quickly realize that everything becomes material/fodder/content for your blog. Then it all starts jumbling in your head and you have all these great ideas yet nothing materializes on the screen.

or

b) You go into a tailspin and panic. "Why did you ever think you could do this anyway? Who cares about what you have to say? No one is reading this! What should I write about? I need to blog now, but nothing will come to me. Why is the screen still blank! Ack!" *meldown ensues*

Get a grip. Make a list of everything you'd like to write about. Assign dates to that content. Done. (Note: you don't have to share this list with the world, this list is just for you so you can keep your mind right. Get it?)

Bottomline: If a smart, brave soul has the good sense to take these steps and wants to write about their results here (good, bad or indifferent), I've got something nice for y'all. If not, I'll give 'em away to someone else.

P.S. And, oh by the way, I'm leading the Social Media Hot Seat Lab at Marketing Prof's Business-to-Business Forum in June in Boston. If you're planning to attend, let's connect!