Away From Your Computer

Often it happens in a shopping center parking lot or in the mall. These people will be walking with a glance every other step at a phone they carry so they can easily see the screen at all times. I assume they have their smart phone on Facebook or Twitter or some instant message where they don't want to miss anything on their computer. These individuals have elevated the computer to become a critical part of their every minute.

For many years, one of the best places to disconnect and get away from your computer was at 30,000 feet in an airplane. Yet even in the plane some people are connected to their computer. While I was waiting for a recent flight, a fellow traveler was telling me how he booked is flights on the basis of whether the flight had an online Internet connection so he could continue to be connected throughout the flight.

This coming week, I'm headed to Dallas for another conference and I love that time on the plane to write and read—generally to be disconnected from email and my phone. I understand it is a choice and a matter of focus. In the phone area, I've chosen not to have a smart phone and be connected to my email 24 hours a day. I believe it adds some balance to my life.

When I'm away from my computer as I will be for a couple of days this week, I do take some proactive actions when it comes to social media—Twitter and Facebook. I want to continually feed information about publishing and great products to my followers and friends.

Hootsuite is the free tool I use to schedule these tweets. My twitter account is hooked to my Facebook and LinkedIn. It was a one-time action to set up on Facebook and LinkedIn so my tweets are replicated on these other social mediums—automatically. I don't have to do anything for the tweets to show up on these sites.

Using Hootsuite, I can schedule three or four or more tweets at different times to appear while I'm away from my computer. I will schedule these tweets at some point during the week ahead. I know it works and people read these tweets and take action from them. Earlier this year, an editor was going to call me. He and I follow each other on twitter and he noticed that I had just put out a tweet. His assumption was that I was sitting at my computer and had sent that information to twitter. Yet when he called me I was walking down the concourse in an airport on the other side of the country. I had just gotten off an early morning flight. You never know how people are using these types of tools to continue to touch their followers. I use them and will continue to use them.

Another tool that I will be using when I'm away from my computer is Tweet Adder. This program works around the clock to add targeted followers. If you haven't tried the free download, I recommend you try it and begin to actively use it. The program has a one-time fee and you can get a 15% discount by using the coupon NICHE15 when you check out.

How about you? Do you take action and schedule tweets which appear when you are traveling?