This is probably one of the most commonly asked questions I receive - “How often should you update social media?” and it often leads to a slightly raised eyebrow and the answer of “it depends on who you are talking to.”

When you are using social media, you are actually speaking to a minimum of three different audiences (or more.) The three fundamental reader categories are unique and individual, and they often don’t relate to each other very much.

• The Active Reader (a.k.a. The Conversationalist) - active readers are those who participate in with the materials you present to them. They may not be active specifically in your conversation, but they are active in the “global conversation” that may be occurring through-out the blogosphere or other online networks. They are also active in how the interact with your information. They are informed and educated on the topics at hand, or are pursuing a more in-depth understanding of the conversation.
• The Passive Reader (a.k.a. The Researcher)- The passive reader is someone who is “browsing” the web and your social media materials. They may or may not have an idea of what you are presenting. They are typically wandering the greater structure of the net be led to new information, rather than actively seeking it. 
  
• The Robots (a.k.a. Google, Yahoo, MSN, Technorati) - the robots. These are unique little technical programs that browse your content day and night. They don’t speak your language. They speak SEO, link-value, rating comparison, traffic analysis, competitive ratios, keyword density, social networking trends, and love the bitter “code” that most writers run away from.
  

These are only the basic three starting types. There is an ever growing and evolving mix of the three that create new sub-categories every day.
When you understand basic types of readers, you then have to correlate them to the demographics of the people and robots you are trying to reach. One of the most important factors in updating social media is understanding how often your audience likes fresh content.

If you are writing for the powerful “Google Monster”, you have to almost think of it like a very dumb dog that you need to feed. After a few short weeks you can train your Google dog to expect food at specific times and intervals. If you want to score high in search results, it is often best to train your Google dog to expect fresh food (new content) on an almost daily basis.

The problem with planning your meals for the Google dog is that you can serve up little pieces of garbage here and there, yet any human sitting at the dinner table will likely find the scraps to be unappealing.

This creates a huge problem. You need to be able to produce quality content suitable for human consumption and appease the bottomless stomach of the Google dog at the same time.

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