One thing you might not know about me is that I have the voice of an angel.  I can carry a tune with the likes of Michael Buble, Sinatra, and Josh “The Voice” Groban.  My timbre can bring crying babies to smiles and hardened criminals to tears of overwhelming joy.  My voice was once described as “Peach Schnapps for the ears.”

Every bit of that is true, but only when I’m singing in the shower.

Sometimes I think we find ourselves singing too much in the social media shower.

Suave From My Head & Shoulders To My Toes

Why do we sound so much better when we sing in the shower than, say, in public at a Karaoke bar?  It all has to do with acoustics.

Whether it’s tile, porcelain, glass or some form of smooth plastic, most showers provide a place that adds an acoustic and reverb to your voice that not only enhances the sound, but works to hide mistakes.

I think a lot of times we find ourselves in the same situation in social media.  We send out words and verses that are simply reverberated back to us by a community singing the same things.  I’m not preaching, I fall into the same habit and am speaking to myself as well.  One danger of staying in the shower too long is that you get all old and pruned before your time.  You also use up all the hot water.

Sometimes it does a body good to step out of the shower and see what the real world thinks of your voice.

So Fresh And So Clean, Clean

You also can’t stay away from the shower forever.  I’m not advocating a hippie society or anything.

The shower is where you stay fresh and get revitalized.  You sound so good in the shower.  It’s always welcoming.

Most of us spend a little time in the shower at least every day and that’s completely normal.  Some others of us spend more time in there because you might be a shower installer or repairman.  Since showers are your business, it’s completely normal to spend most of your day within their ceramic confines.

But even people in the business of showers need to step outside every once and a while.  Get dirty, see the world.

Towels Are Under The Sink

So how do you go about stepping out of the social media shower?

Here’s what I’ve been doing recently:

  • Twitter Search – It might surprise many of you, but I have many interests outside of social media and marketing; movies, books and video games to name a few.  Go into Twitter Search (search.twitter.com) and search for groups and and people interested in the same things.  Follow those people to their blogs or forums and get involved.  I also like to create columns in Hootsuite that follow some of my more popular searches and their results.  If you want some good tips, Chris Brogan recently wrote a post about how he uses Twitter, read it and take notes.
  • Facebook/LinkedIn Group Search – Use the tips from above to search out groups on both Facebook and LinkedIn in which you can become involved.  Here’s the kicker though, you actually have to become involved.
  • New Google Reader Folders – Start two new folders in your Google Reader and fill them with blogs completely outside of your shower in social media.  Add some news feeds or some comic pages (I highly recommend The Oatmeal for a good laugh).  Mark W. Schaefer of Business {grow} had a great post where he basically did a blog pot-luck, asking for suggestions from his readers.  Why not try that with your community and see what pops up?
  • Get Out There – Most of the previous solutions have used social media to get out of your social media shower, which is ironic, but one thing you can do is actually get up from your computer and search your local area for interest groups.  Check out your local Chamber and see what groups are available.  Go by some of your favorite book stores or coffee shops and ask what kind of groups meet there and find ways to join or get involved.

One thing that can happen when you widen your perspective is that you can inadvertently bring in new business and bring new songs to sing when you go back in the shower.  You might even become a better singer “out there” and just imagine what that will do to your voice within the soapy sides of your Sauve songbox.

What things have you found that help you get outside of your social media bubble?  Why do you think it’s so hard for some people to step outside of that space?

Okay, now it’s time to towel off and start making some beautiful music together.