How Does Chocolate Compare to Social Media?

Jessica Smith guest posts today for Mom it Forward! She is Chief Mom Advisor and the woman behind the idea for MomForce.com, Chief Mom Officer for Wishpot.com, and works with big brands including Walmart and Ford. Jessica offers a personal glimpse into her life as a mom and virtual executive at JessicaKnows.com. Jessica enjoys the best of both worlds, motherhood and career, at home in the DC Metro area with her husband and young son.

With Valentine's Day just over a week away, many are thinking of gifts and many of those are going for the class stand-bys: flowers, jewelry, and chocolate.

While I love receiving any of the three, it's the latter that I get excited about the most. Chocolate has been one of my best friends for quite some time now and I'll take it any way I can get it: milk, dark, swirled with caramel, in my coffee, chipped, truffled, and mint. (My favorite? Dark, the darker the chocolate the better.)

So it's no wonder that social media does the same for me that chocolate does.

You know those boxes of chocolates with all different shapes and sizes? It's the type of box with a "map" of the contents, a guide to the delectable fillings and nuts inside? Sometimes I study the different flavors and deliberately choose which confections I'll try that day. However, other days I'm feeling adventurous and I pay no attention to the inside top of the box. Sometimes diving in, eyes practically closed, and risking a flavor you're unfamiliar with is the way to go. In fact, you might discover that if you had looked at the box and saw "Cayenne Pepper Jelly" you would have thrown that chocolate out with disdain. But because you took the risk, took a blind bite, it's now the one chocolate that you seek out.

The same idea applies to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Sure, if you're a cake baker you'll naturally seek out other cake bakers and people that like to eat cake. However, you might find that the snake charmer that just started following you on Twitter the day before is the one that makes you laugh more. This could result in you stressing less, sleeping more, and ultimately being able to make more cakes!

Like chocolate, social media can brighten your day, give you a boost, comfort, and inspire. The jury is still out though if too much can give you heartburn.

photo credit wikipedia