How To Be Social On Social Media When You’re An Introvert

4 min readFeb 6, 2020

How To Be Social On Social Media When You’re An Introvert

As an introvert myself, I completely understand that putting yourself out there can be frankly terrifying. It can make you feel vulnerable, dizzy, and just plain run for the hills!

But hold up! Don’t lace up your running shoes just yet. I’ve got a few ideas on how to be social on social media, even if you’re an introvert.

Social Media Strategy For Introverts

The key to all of this is: strategy.

Introverts, generally, are quite good with strategies, systems, and plans. We like to see things laid out, know where we are headed, and what to do if something goes wrong. It’s like a safety blanket. The raft we can hold onto when the ship starts to sink.

All that we need to do is create that same kind of safe space around social media. How do we do that?

Scheduling

Being spontaneously social can be rough on us introverts. It doesn’t come as naturally to us, and we take more time to recover from previous social engagements. Combat this down-time by scheduling in your content in advance.

It’s a sad truth that content marketing waits for no one. There’s no time for weekends, holiday escapes, your kid’s birthday, or a bout of the flu. But if you schedule your content, you’ll never have to worry about missing those events or taking time to recover.

A good schedule with the right content will help you to remain visible and show up in your online space. You’ll be consistently visible on your platforms, even when you’re not feeling up to actually being there.

Consider a Back Up

All the best plans can’t account for personal or family emergencies. At times of high stress, introverts are likely to pull back from the social limelight. At times like this, I suggest you make plans to request back up.

There are many ways you can have a backup plan for your social content, such as:

Hire a VA to manage your accounts
Recruit a trusted friend/family member
Repurpose old content

By recruiting someone else, or simply revamping your old content, you’ll be able to reduce the strain on yourself during times of high stress. It’s important to maintain a consistent online presence, whether it’s coming directly from you or being scheduled by your team.

Network with Friends

Join some online networking groups with friends or business associates. I know it can feel a lot less intimidating to post in a forum alongside people I know and trust, than to a group full of strangers.

Get together a business group that is supportive and connected; bonus points if you catch up offline, too!

Finding the right group of people to be your cheerleaders can be immensely helpful. They can help challenge you, support you and check-in with you from time to time.

Boundaries

Now I want to talk about when not to be social.

Just because we can reach people on the other side of the world in an instant, doesn’t mean you need to be available 24/7. Trying to answer every message and comment immediately will quickly deplete your energy.

Set yourself and your business some boundaries for when you will, and won’t, be available online. This could look like:

Setting specific hours of availability
Dedicating certain days or times of day to each platform
Allowing yourself to have a social media free weekend

Whatever you decide on, create your boundaries and stick to it. Just because you hear the DING! and see that little green light on your phone doesn’t mean you’re obligated to answer the message. If it’s out of hours, allow yourself the time to put it off until tomorrow.

Remember. . . boundaries.