I love a crockpot.

This may have something to do with the fact that I’m not particularly gifted in the kitchen. Give me a recipe that says put all of these things in one pot, turn it on, and come back several hours later, and I’m feeling pretty confident about my chances.

Preparing a meal for people the traditional way is another story. There may be something simmering on the stove, something else in the oven, vegetables to chop, a table to set, and inevitably one ingredient somebody forgot to buy. Timing matters. Attention matters. And apparently you’re supposed to make all of these things arrive at the finish line at approximately the same time.

Fortunately, I married someone who actually enjoys this.

I’ll take the crockpot.

But there’s one place where the crockpot philosophy has never worked particularly well: social media.

Years ago, I started calling it Crockpot Social Media — the idea that you could load everything up, turn it on, walk away, and expect something wonderful to be waiting for you later. Social media has changed enormously since then. So has the way I think about using it.

But I still believe there’s no crockpot for social media.

Just not for quite the same reasons.

THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH THE SCHEDULER.

Let’s get this out of the way first: I schedule social media content. I batch things. I plan ahead. I use tools that make communication more efficient, and I repurpose good ideas rather than creating something new every time I need to show up.

I believe deeply in building systems that make visibility more sustainable, so this isn’t an argument against scheduling, automation, or planning ahead. Those things can be incredibly useful — particularly for a small business owner who doesn’t have a marketing department sitting down the hall.

The problem isn’t the set it part.

It’s the forget it part.

Crockpot Social Media is what happens when we load up the scheduler, publish automatically, and never come back into the room. We don’t respond. We don’t notice what’s happening around us. We don’t adjust when circumstances change. There’s no conversation and, eventually, very little evidence of human presence.

Technically, the business is active on social media.

But is anyone actually there?

SOCIAL MEDIA IS A ROOM, NOT A BILLBOARD.

This is where the dinner-party comparison still works for me.

You can send the invitations ahead of time, prepare some of the food in advance, and set the table before anyone arrives. You can make the entire experience easier on yourself by planning well.

But at some point, you still have to show up to your own dinner party.

Imagine inviting a roomful of people over, setting food on the table, and then disappearing upstairs for the evening. They might eat. They might even have a lovely time. But it would be a little strange to call it hosting.

Social media works much the same way. Publishing something is not necessarily the end of the communication. Someone may respond or ask a question. Someone may send you a message. A conversation may develop around something you shared. Or something may happen in the world that makes the clever post you scheduled a week ago feel completely inappropriate today.

Being present means noticing what’s happening on the other side of the content — and remembering that communication was never supposed to be a one-way transaction.

BUT DO YOU EVEN WANT TO HOST THE PARTY?

This is a question I didn’t ask often enough when I first wrote about Crockpot Social Media.

Back then, the prevailing advice for businesses was pretty straightforward: You needed to be on social media, grow your followers, increase engagement, and post consistently. Preferably everywhere.

I’m not convinced of that anymore.

I’m not convinced every business needs to be on every platform. I’m not even convinced social media needs to play a significant role in every business’s visibility strategy. Personally, I’ve stepped considerably further away from social media than I once expected I would.

There are plenty of good reasons to reconsider the role these platforms play in our businesses. Algorithms change. Platforms change. Audiences move. Organic reach shifts. The amount of time and energy required can stop making sense. And sometimes we simply decide we don’t want to build so much of our business on rented ground.

Your website and your email list give you something different: a more direct connection with the people who have chosen to hear from you. Social media can still help people discover those spaces. It can help ideas travel, create conversations, and spark connections that might never happen otherwise.

But it is a channel.

It is not an obligation.

And that means there is another perfectly reasonable response to Crockpot Social Media:

Turn the crockpot off.

PRESENCE ISN’T FREQUENCY.

If you do choose to use social media, being present doesn’t mean spending your life there. It doesn’t mean responding to every comment within three minutes, posting every day because someone told you the algorithm demands it, or turning every passing thought into content.

You can post less. You can choose one platform instead of four. You can let social media primarily serve as a discovery or distribution channel, while your website, newsletter, or other owned spaces handle more of the relationship-building.

You can also decide that ten intentional minutes in the room matters more than hours spent passively scrolling through it.

Because presence and frequency are not the same thing.

Presence isn’t frequency. It’s evidence that there’s still a person in the room.

That person doesn’t need to be there constantly. They just need to exist.