One habit you should really get into on Twitter is tweeting consistently. And it has to be good content that's relevant to your audience. To this end, it's great if you can include lots of your own gems of wisdom as possible, as well as links to your blog posts.

But don't stop there. Keep an eye on good quality blogs written by others so that you can share their latest updates. You'll get known as an expert not just by offering your own quality content, remember. This status will accrue if you consistently point your followers in the direction of excellent articles created by others, too. 

You should also do searches for relevant news items on Google News and similar aggregation sites. There are always tons of interesting developments that are well worth sharing with your followers. Then there are the press releases themselves.

The great thing about these reports is that they are new, interesting, and specific. And they often contain keywords and phrases that you can use as hashtags. If you use a variety of these consistently you'll get found by a greater number of people, and grow a quality following more quickly. 

I've been doing this consistently recently and it clearly helps a lot. When tweeting press releases for my Twitter account for this site, for example, I often include hashtags like #socialmedianews, #facebooknews, etc. So I always look for releases that are appropriate for this. There is certainly  no lack of them. 

If you have a geo-targeted site, tweeting local news items and press releases can be a really good tactic, too. You'll get the eye of people in your target area if you consistently do this. I've been doing that with one of my accounts related to my city, for example. It works well.

There's been a lot of talk recently about how SEO and social media are moving closer together and slowly becoming complementary processes. That's certainly happening and the clearest example of this is Google Plus. This booming network is basically Facebook for the Big G and, among other things, a means for the search engine to mine mountains of relationship based data so it can make it's results even more relevant and useful than they are already.

They do have similarities

That said, these two realms of the internet weren't hugely different in the past. When you boil it all down they've both always just been ways for you to connect with your audience or market. With each method, you've got to ask yourself questions like these: What am I promoting or selling? Who am I pitching this content to? What will they be looking for? How do I get their attention so that I can be found by them? How do I impress them with my knowledge and expertise?

In the case of SEO, you're doing this through a massive computer called Google, so you have to be mindful of how it works and what it values.

Social media is human and immediate

When it comes to social media, you're connecting with people directly where they congregate and mingle online. So you have to work out what the characteristics of your target demographic are and find the social network(s) where they will be most concentrated. Once you've done that, you have to slowly get on their radar and build your authority by sharing quality, relevant content with them.

This is a more direct and immediate process than SEO, and that's one of the main reasons I prefer it. You can really get out there and be proactive about it. With every bit of content you share and every new person you follow and interact with you are increasing your footprint on these social sites. Before too long you will surely reach a point where you have thousands of others in your networks. So, every time you share, say, a blog post with them you will get some clicks. And they'll be good clicks from people in your target demographic.

SEO is more detached and calculating

With search engine optimization on the other hand you're somewhat removed from your audience. You have to be more calculating about it. If you really want that Google traffic then you do have to think long and hard about the keywords you're aiming to rank for. Will they supply enough traffic and can you get on page one for them? If so, what do you need to do in your article to achieve this? How often do you need to sprinkle them throughout the post?

Obviously you want to be writing primarily for humans, but you do have to consider the search engines. That makes it less spontaneous and satisfying in some ways.

Sure, that work may well pay off brilliantly, and for a very long time. But it may just come to nought, too! Worse still, you might be going gangbusters for a while and be over the moon, then all that traffic disappears overnight when Google updates its algorithms yet again. When that happens it's very dispiriting.

Then there's the fact that optimizing your site for search engines is inherently solitary work. And social media is by definition social. It involves human contact. Yes, it's not as satisfying as the real old fashioned kind. But its still better than nothing!

Being an SEO is kind of like being a composer as opposed to a musician. The former spends all that time crafting the melodies. But the latter has the fun of playing them to a live audience!

Both are needed, though

Of course you can do both, and you should. And I think you should spend more time and energy on the latter activity for the reasons cited above.

Then there's the fact that social media engagement complements your SEO anyway. By building those valuable relationships with other bloggers and webmasters in your niche you are sure to end up with more shares of your content on social networks as well as the odd one way voluntary backlink. All those things are factored into Google's estimation of your site and will surely help it crawl up the rankings over the long term.

I keep reading about how so many people are now addicted to social media. I think it's time for me to accept that maybe I am one of those people. I really do look forward to logging onto Twitter, Linkedin, etc, and sharing stuff. Can't say I don't get a little buzz every time I see a notification come in! Looks like I am hooked on getting those little dopamine hits.

Bad for relationships

I've read several articles about how damaging such an addiction can be. I can certainly see how it is corrosive to relationships. It must be infuriating for a man or woman if their partner spends more time tweeting, liking and following others online than they do conversing with them face to face! 

I'm not actually involved with anyone at the moment. So this downside doesn't effect me. But now I'm starting to think that maybe I'm not in a relationship because of my social media addiction? Well, I don't think it's the main reason but it could well be a contributing factor ... 

The problem is that online social networking activity is a replacement for old fashioned human contact. But it's not as good as the real thing.

Real human contact still preferable

When you catch up with a friend at a cafe, for example, you're doing something substantial that reaffirms your affection for this person, and vice versa. Just making the effort to meet someone is an undeniable sign of their value to you. When in their presence, you focus all your attention on them, and they on you. It's this intimate and meaningful process that really feeds your soul. 

But with social media, you get all these little hits of attention from people all around the world. Sure, they're not completely meaningless, but they are generally pretty shallow. They're easily given and taken. 

You can connect online with people locally too. It's funny, there are some people in my city of Perth with whom I've built up quite a rapport on social media. But I haven't actually met them face to face. Not sure if that's healthy ... I think it probably isn't.

A social media habit has some benefits

That said, I don't think a social media addiction is all bad. Apart from anything else it can have financial benefits. You can use it to build an online business, for example. 

The speed at which social media interaction is conducted also hugely increases your information processing capacity. Repeatedly scanning articles for sharing potential trains you to comprehend their central points very quickly and efficiently. So you can learn much faster as a result.

In the last few years I've learned more about a whole bunch of things thanks to social media (Twitter in particular) than I did in decades past. It's just amazing how much it enables you to get through!

Downsides not permanent

There is a downside here, of course. Constantly logging into social networks and engaging like crazy can reduce your capacity for finding nuance and subtlety. Those things tend to come after longer periods of relaxed contemplation, after all. 

That said, I don't think a social media addiction permanently destroys your abilities in this regard. If you quit, or at least greatly reduce your social media use, there's no reason you can't resume the slower and more thoughtful pace you had before.