What’s the first thing you do when you get out of bed each morning?

Let me rephrase that...

What’s the first thing you do when you wake up each morning?

If you're like 80% of smartphone users, you check your Palm Pilot, phone, tablet, etc., within 15 minutes of waking up.

Why is that? How does this habit affect our daily lives?

What Is A Habit?

A habit is a long, loose garment worn by a member of a religious order or congregation a regular tendency that is often hard to give up.

[Tweet ""All our life, so far as it has definite form, is but a mass of habits" - William James"]

The systematic process of habits is described in the habit loop, where a cue kick-starts the habit/routine. The reward we feel after completing the routine is what entices us to go through the process again and again.

We condition ourselves through habits. As we continue to cycle through this repetitive process time and time again, our brain tends to acclimate itself to the overall routine. As time goes on, our brain works less hard because of the formed habit.

Such is the case for our using social networks. We begin thinking less and less and less as we open our social networking sites more and more and more, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Your Morning Social Media Habit

If you're like 28% of us, you check your social networking sites before even getting out of bed.

Is this a decision or a result of a habit? (Hint: 40-45% of the decisions we make aren't decisions, but habits.)

originally posted in Convince & Covert

Like habits in general, using social media is intuitive. "How intuitive?" you might ask...

Well, 22% of Facebook’s users check their account five or more times DAILY. Apparently our habit causes us to see what our amigos are up to every few hours.

Our social media habits have taken us so far as to tweet fr0m the toilet. Charmin noticed how the social media habits of their consumers aligned with their brand -- insert potty humor joke here -- and created #tweetfromtheseat. Not a bad capitalization on consumer habits, eh?

Do Our Social Media Habits Need to Change?

Are these habits bad?

Charmin was able to turn our habits into a brand engagement opportunity. Are there others that could do the same? Perhaps during your morning coffee?

Let us know in the comments below or in the SpeakPipe widget to the right!