From scroll chaos to channel clarity in one week

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Overeating at the Social Media Buffet

At a conference in Cleveland back in 2013, I watched another attendee at a pre-event breakfast try to balance waffles, scrambled eggs, bacon, and a yogurt parfait on one flimsy paper plate.

You know where this is headed, right? We’ve all been there.

Predictably, everything slid off, directly onto his shoes (nice, shiny Nike shoes, I might add). That’s exactly what chasing every social platform looks like.

Lots of shiny choices, zero nutritional value. Before you know it, you’re cleaning syrup off your brand-new sneakers instead of closing deals.

What’s the takeaway here?

Your brand plate is finite, and so is your time and energy.

Pile on only what you can actually eat (and enjoy).

The Choose-Two Method (Because “Pick Two” is already taken)

The internet loves extremes.

“Be everywhere you can,” or “Quit social completely and live off the grid.”

Reality lives in the comfortable middle. Instead of buffet-style overload, aim for a well-paired entrée and side dish. Two social media channels give you just enough surface area to show up consistently and experiment without feeling like you’re speed-dating algorithms.

For bigger brands, going beyond two makes sense. For a one-person show, a smaller business, or a Lean startup, limiting your presence makes more sense.

Take me, for example. I’m on LinkedIn and X (where I run two communities). I run my newsletter (thanks for reading!), and I have a website. Check it out: eicreative.online

Sounds like a lot, right? Imagine if I added more than the two social media channels where I’m most active. It would send me spiraling toward burning, and my impact would be severely limited.

So, I recommend sticking with two. But why two?

Because one channel can pigeonhole your personality, while three or more invite overwhelm.

Think of it like owning a dog and a cat, which creates manageable diversity. Add a parrot, an iguana, and a goat, and suddenly you need an ark. You’re spread too thin. You’re running a zoo.

So, let’s look at how to choose the best two channels to narrow down your effort and maximize your impact. This is the Dinner-Party + Cocktail-Hour approach.

1. The Dinner-Party Channel
   Choose a channel where your best stories live in long-form. Maybe that’s LinkedIn articles, or maybe it’s a weekly YouTube show. The vibe here is more cloth napkins, deep conversation, and everyone leaves full.

2. The Cocktail-Hour Channel
   This channel should be good for short, punchy posts that tease the dinner party and lure newcomers. Think X, Threads, or Instagram Reels. The vibe here is clinking glasses, quick laughs, “Hey, let’s grab coffee, dude.”

Everything else becomes background music. Scroll-stopping only if you have capacity and a measurable business reason. (TikTok can wait until you finish your veggies, or maybe it can wait forever.)

7-Day Channel Calibration Challenge

Most people post, pray, and pivot. Then they wonder why their traction on social media feels like quicksand. Calibration means treating social like a tasting menu.

Sample, refine, repeat.

Try this seven-day challenge to get your social media presence right.

Over seven days, you’ll gather just enough data to see what feeds the business versus what feeds the ego (both are hungry, but only one pays the bills).

Hint: It’s not the ego.

Before you start, promise yourself two things.

1. You’ll measure conversations over vanity metrics,

2. You’ll act on the results instead of stapling them to a vision board.

Here’s how it works.

• Day 1: Write down your dream client’s 3 biggest questions.

• Day 2: Pick your Dinner-Party channel, and answer one question in depth.

• Day 3: Break that answer down into a 30-second Cocktail-Hour teaser.

• Day 4: Post both. Track saves, shares, and DMs…not likes.

• Day 5: Respond to every comment with a follow-up resource.

• Day 6: Survey your audience by asking, “Was this helpful? What’s missing?”

• Day 7: Adjust tone, length, or format based on the feedback. Then repeat.

By next week, you’ll know which platform feeds your business, which one just feeds your ego, and, most importantly, how to keep syrup off your shoes.

Let’s Connect

If you have any questions or you’re ready to start working on your personal brand, email me at [email protected] or visit gaenzlemarketing.com.

Oh…and don’t forget to grab your copy of The Business of Branding You: Invest in Your Personal Brand, Grow Your Career, and Gain Influence.

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